Page 67 of Thorn Kiss
She would taste like key lime pie if I kissed her.
That was all I could think about on our drive back to Whynot.
After stuffing ourselves on tapas and sangrias, we’d watched the sunset while feasting on key lime pie from the bakery I’d sworn Madi into secrecy on. By the time we started our drive back home, the sky danced with stars and a bright sliver of the moon.
“You can see everything out here,” she whispered in awe.
Her gaze had been fixed out the window for the last few minutes. Seeing my world through her eyes was giving me a new appreciation for it.
I was pretty sure I’d spilled most of my life story to her. I’d skipped the ugliest parts. I’d made sure to highlight the good ones. But, I’d told her everything.
She’d told me everything too.
Justin was an asshole. I wished that guy would show his ugly face on our doorstep so I could shove my fist through it. And Veronica? Fuck that bitch. I hoped she choked on her fake diamond.
Needless to say, I was Team Madi.
I was also Team Kiss Her Again.
The Whynot town limits sign came into view, flashing our measly population number. I swallowed hard, realizing our date was coming to an end.
Date.It was a date, right?
All of this was probably a bad idea. But I couldn’t stop myself from asking . . .
“Do you want to hang out for a bit longer? You could come over to my place.”
“Yes,” she said immediately.
The air crackled with tension. There’d been moments here and there while we sat and talked and got to know each other, but right now I felt the full force of it. The full force ofwantingher.
Silence followed again. Were both of us holding our breaths? Was she also slightly panicking, or was that just me?
I’d known I was pansexual for years. It was something I’d learned about myself early in life. My mother had always given me hell for being aweird queer kid, but I’d been lucky enough to have friends who always embraced me. And who turned out to be a little gay themselves, too.
Even knowing that, I’d never been with a woman. Not for lack of trying, but the dating pool in Whynot was the size of a penny, and even though I’d somehow ended up with friends who were all pretty open, mostly everyone else our age here were straight. Aside from a couple sloppy kisses in bars, I’d never had the chance.
I was nervous. In a good way. I wasn’t even sure something would happen between us, but god I wanted it to.
But what about Dallas?
Would he be upset if he knew about this? Did he know about this? Shouldn’t I have texted him and told him I was stealing his girl?
Did this even qualify as me stealing his girl?
“I think I can smell the burn of both of our minds working in overdrive,” Madi said.
“Oh, that’s what that is,” I joked.
“The whole time we talked, we never really discussed sex or relationships. Well, aside from me bitching about Justin.” She sighed as if she were disappointed in herself. “Sorry.”
“No, don’t be. I like having someone I don’t know that I can hate on unreasonably. He was terrible.”
I cleared my throat as I turned onto a quiet street. A couple lefts, a right, and then my house came into view at the end of the road—small and quaint and perfect for me.
All those nerves came rushing back. I thought I’d had them under control, but they were like a bunch of wild horses galloping free. I pulled into my driveway, my heart thumping wildly as we got out.
“Your house is so cute,” she said.
