Maybe I’ve had it all wrong.
“I do see what you mean,” I say quietly.
Logan slugs my shoulder. “You guys clearly dig each other. And I know you don’t want to get on the merry-go-round of love again. I respect that.” He meets my gaze, leveling an intensely honest stare at me, something he’s been doing a lot of today. “But I wonder if maybe you already have one foot on that carousel?”
My mind slips back to last weekend and how it was with her.
To how I felt with her in the elevator of my building. In my doorway. In my bed.
Well, horny for starters.
But was I happy too?
As I ask myself, I catch a glint of sunlight on red hair, lifting softly in the breeze. Strong legs. A bright, confident smile.
The woman I slept with last week walks toward me.
That’s when I fully weigh Logan’s questions, and when they don’t feel heavy any longer.
Was I happy?
Is that even a question?
I was happy every single second I spent with her.
Every moment—the sex and the talking—was a balm to my soul.
It’s making me wonder if it’s time to finally reevaluate if the risk is worth it.
My friends are taking all sorts of risks. They’re diving headfirst into the waters of love.
Because the reward could be worth it.
Perhaps it’s time to let go of my mantra. To let go of my resistance. And to let go of the past.
“Yeah . . . I’m pretty sure I’m already on the carousel and getting dizzy,” I admit at last to Logan as Teagan comes closer.
“Then maybe talk to her,” he says, then walks away.
He doesn’t need to tell me a fifteenth time.
14
Ransom
I smile as she nears me, and I couldn’t stop the grin if I tried. She’s gorgeous, but there’s so much more to her than looks. I’m keenly aware of the fact that I want to spend the night with her again, but I’m just as eager to spend the next several hours together.
I want Teagan by my side as our friends get married. I want to talk to her, dance with her, toast with her.
“Hey, North,” she says when she reaches me.
“Hey, King,” I say, as I survey the beauty in front of me, in her green summery dress that shows off the skin of her shoulders—shoulders I want to kiss.
That reveals legs I want to run my hands down.
And that clings to the body I want beside me.
That’s only the tip of the iceberg.
There’s a helluva lot more to this woman I have a date with in a few days, and I’m going to need to figure out what to do with this growing storm of emotions in my chest. It’s not simply desire any longer.
There’s more at play. The more that drove me to pick up the phone and talk to her the other night. The more that had me asking her to spend some time with me today.
That’s why I say, “You look good, Teagan.”
Teagan.
Not King.
Time to dispense with the bro-dude talk. Enough of the last names. That’s for the guys. I don’t want to be one of the guys with her.
“So do you. . . Ransom,” she says, meeting me on this new terrain, saying my name with a little sweetness, a little suggestiveness.
I step closer and drop a kiss onto her cheek, brushing my lips across her skin.
A gust of breath escapes her lips, then a soft, lingering ohhh.
“Hey,” I say when I step back, woozy from the strawberry scent of her. “It’s good to see you.”
“Likewise.” She sounds the slightest bit shy, then she shucks that off as she says, “I was looking forward to this all day.”
“To the wedding?” Because she can’t mean anything else. Can she?
“Yes, to the wedding. I love weddings. But also,” she says, taking a beat, her eyes flashing with a hint of nerves that she blinks away, “to seeing you.”
My heart hammers at words I didn’t let myself hope for. My skin warms at her admission.
This woman makes me feel so damn good—in my body and right in my heart.
Those words she said should scare me.
They ought to terrify me.
But when I’m with Teagan, I’m everything Logan said I was, everything I haven’t truly been since Edie—I’m happy.
I drag a hand through my hair. It’s decision time.
Do I still want to toe all my lines?
Heed all my mantras?
Or will I kick them to the side?
I swallow past the roughness in my throat and take a step closer to what I want. “Want to go on a date with me? To see our guys get hitched?”
Her smile lights the sky. “You bet I do,” she says, and we walk the rest of the way together.
I return to what she said a few seconds ago as we stroll past a tree with white blossoms. “Tell me why you love weddings.”
