Page 26 of Some Sort of Happy (Happy Crazy Love 1)
His lips tipped up slightly, those warm lips that had felt so good against mine. “Ah. Sure. It’s fine. Don’t feel horrible, really. You just surprised me.” He shifted in his chair.
“I can tell.” I reached for my wine glass but it was empty. Frantically, I looked around for our server. Waiter! This is an emergency!
“Hey.” He put his fingers over my wrist. “It’s OK.”
“Are you sure?”
His sea glass green eyes were clear and his voice gentle. “I’m sure. I don’t want you to feel bad.”
“OK.” Since he’d been pretty forthcoming about everything tonight, I was sort of hoping he’d elaborate on his feelings, but that’s all he said.
For the rest of the night.
I mean he totally shut down.
Not in an angry way or anything, but he just stopped talking. No more jokes, no more smiles, no more stories. Was he anxious? Angry? Confused? Scared? In any case, I was so embarrassed and flustered I talked about anything and everything just to fill the silence.
We finished our meals—I decided against the second glass of wine, especially since he just had the one beer—and he drove me back to my car. I chirped like a bird on crank about random nonsense the entire ride back, and as we pulled into the hardware store lot, I looked over and saw him laughing a little.
“What?” I asked.
“You. Do you ever stop talking?”
I slapped my hands over my face. “No. I mean yes, but no. Not when I’m nervous.” Beneath my palms, my face was hot.
“Why are you nervous?”
“Because! I made an ass of myself by kissing you in the restaurant! And you’re all smart and silent and mysterious and I’m just…” I threw my hands in the air. “Obvious and silly.”
“Is that what you think?” He put the truck in park and shifted on the seat to face me.
“Yes.” I turned toward him. “Because before I did that, everything seemed fine. And then afterward, you kind of just…shut down.”
Nodding slowly, he rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. I guess I did.”
“Why? Are you mad?”
He looked at me strangely. “Why would I be mad?”
“I don’t know! I can usually read people pretty well but your face was like totally impassive. Fucking stonehenge. And you weren’t talking either, so I felt crazy awkward and tried to talk for the both of us.”
He cracked a smile. “You did it well.”
I stared helplessly at him, finally out of words.
“OK, look.” He put an elbow on the back of the seat and propped his head on his fingers. His expression was more relaxed, amused even. “I’m sorry I shut down. I was trying to process some things.”
“Like what?”
“Like why you did it.”
“I did it because I felt like it. How’d you feel about it? Be honest.”
He smiled lazily, and I had the insane desire to trace his lips with my tongue. “Good.”
I gaped at him. “That’s it? Good? You’ve been silent for an entire hour and a half and that’s all I get? Good?”
“Uh huh.” His eyes glittered in the dark, and I hoped he was undressing me with them.
