Page 67 of Kiss Me Like You Mean It

‘If I’m not back by eight, if you could coax her back to the real world long enough to put on her pyjamas and brush her teeth that would be great, but otherwise I can’t think of anything. Just make sure the house doesn’t burn down.’

‘Does she have any allergies?’

‘She’s allergic to penicillin, but as long as you’re not whipping up antibiotic smoothies I think you’ll be fine.’

Lee nods, exhales. ‘Okay, got it.’ I watch as she carefully writes ‘no penicillin’ in her black Moleskine notebook and underlines it twice, followed by ‘8 p.m., get ready for bed. Check oven and all potential fire hazards.’

Her expression is so earnest that I swallow my laughter this time. ‘Thanks,’ I say, ‘I appreciate it.’

She waves a hand. ‘No, no, you’re doing me a favour sorting out the car.’

‘Text me if you need anything,’ I call on my way out, and then I head for my truck and over to Luke’s place faster than I ever have.

When I arrive he’s sitting on the porch with a cold beer in his hand.

‘I take it you need this,’ he says, handing it to me, and pulling another out of the cooler beside him.

I sink into the wooden Adirondack chair beside him. ‘You have no idea.’

We sit for a while in silence, and this is what I like about Luke. He’s a patient guy, he’ll let you work through stuff at your own pace, he’s a good friend.

‘It’s Lee,’ I say finally.

‘No shit,’ Luke smirks into his beer.

What a dickhead.

‘We kissed,’ I blurt. ‘Or… she kissed me.’

‘And that’s… bad?’

I huff out a breath. ‘It’s complicated. We were talking about being fake married. Or real married but with fake feelings, or maybe real feelings but a fake relationship. I have no idea. But she wasn’t really kissing me.’

‘She was kissing the idea of you,’ Luke says wisely.

‘What?’ I ask, startled.

‘I don’t know, man,’ he shrugs. ‘I’m trying to follow what you’re saying but you’re a mess. I took a shot.’

‘Okay, let’s turn down the radio-call-in therapist persona.’

‘You know I can’t resist a good Sleepless in Seattle moment,’ he says easily, ‘so why don’t you tell me what happened in plain English?’

‘It wasn’t like she chose to kiss me, it was practice.’ Even as I say the words I know they sound insane.

Luke lifts his eyebrows, but stays quiet as I tell him what happened.

‘Hmm,’ he says at the end.

‘Hmm? That’s it?’

‘Honestly, I don’t know what you want me to say. Obviously you’re into Lee.’

I freeze with the bottle half way to my lips. ‘I don’t think I said that.’

‘First of all – I’ve seen the two of you together. You look at her like she’s a double chocolate chip cookie. And secondly, you said that you shared an incredibly PG-13 moment and it freaked you out so much that you’re here drinking beer on my porch instead of talking to her about it.’

‘I know,’ I start desperately, ‘but… it’s Lee.’