Page 41 of Drop Dead Gorgeous

“We do.”

She pulls her hair into a loose ponytail and leans against the cooler door.

“Hey, Grim…”

I look at her.

Unable, as always, to look anywhere else.

She bites her lip. “I’m sorry if I misread things the other night. I thought—I mean, I thought we were having a moment. But you don’t have to explain if you don’t want to.”

I can hear my own pulse, or think I can, roaring behind my ears. There is hurt in her face, softened by pride. She is giving me the easy way out, offering me an escape I do not deserve. This woman, who loves life with every stubborn piece of herself, has decided to protect even the clumsy, accidental parts of it.

I could still run. I could let this fade, as all things eventually do, and disappear before either of us had to suffer through the truth. Or I could let something bloom, even knowing I might be the one to wither it in the end.

Instead, I step toward her.

One step.

Then another.

She doesn't retreat. Her blue eyes stay fixed on mine, steady and trusting, and before I can lose what little courage I've managed to gather, I do the one thing I've been replaying in my mind since the meadow.

I kiss her.

At first, it is hardly more than a brush of lips, so gentle I almost convince myself I've imagined it. Then she leans into me, closing the last fragile inch between us, and suddenly she tastes like coffee and sugar and funeral cake, warm and wonderfullyalive. Every careful wall I've spent centuries building simply... disappears.

When we finally pull apart, she lets out a tiny, breathless laugh.

“Was that your best try,” she asks, smiling up at me, “or are you still practicing?”

I can't help smiling back.

“Mixed results.”

She bumps my shoulder with hers hard enough that I nearly upset the vase beside us.

“I think there's potential.”

God help me, I want there to be.

“So,” she asks, her eyes bright with hope, “is this going to be a thing?”

The answer rises to my lips before I can stop it.

Yes.

Yes, if I could rewrite the universe.

Yes, if I could forget everything I know.

Yes, if I could be anyone else.

Instead, my hands begin to tremble.

She notices immediately.

Of course she does.