Page 77 of Anger Bang
She dropped her gaze so she was staring at their feet—his in dress shoes, hers in blinged-out flip-flops that saidbridesmaid—as they danced. “There are a million reasons why this is never going to work out.”
He hooked a finger under her chin and tilted her face so she had to look him in the eye. “And one that outweighs them all.”
“What’s that?” she asked, the butterflies in her stomach doing the conga now.
One side of his mouth curled up in his crooked grin. “We’re in the middle of falling in love with each other.”
She stopped dancing. She stopped breathing. She stoppedeverything.
“That’s presumptuous of you,” she spluttered, her pulse rate skyrocketing because oh my God it had only been a week. And yes she wanted to scream, “Yes, we are!” but she was too overwhelmed.
“Probably.” He lifted a brow and grinned down at her, every bit the cocky guy who’d given her Sprite in a flask that first day. “But am I wrong?”
She started to sway in his arms again, moving with the beat, her cheek resting against his chest as she unwound it all.
All of the emotions she’d always tried to keep folded up and in a pocket.
All of the hopes and dreams that went with taking a leap like falling in love.
All of the ways their future could turn out.
Before this wedding, before Kade, she would have given in to her fear of uncertainty of her feelings and just agreed to keep from having to deal with her emotions. The urge was there still, but it wasn’t an overwhelming wave of anxiety that threatened to drown her. It was just being nervous and scared and hopeful and thrilled and—yes—in love.
That’s when it hit her.
What Dr. Kowecki had been trying to show her with her exercise about trying out different reactions was really to just be mindful about what she was actually feeling and to know that whatever it was, it was okay. Thea had been so focused on how she was reacting that she hadn’t realized she’d really been learning to unfold her emotions and deal with them instead of ignoring them and letting them fester.
Damn. Nola had been onto something when she’d insisted everyone could use some therapy to work through all of the shit life had thrown at them. Life had been rough for everyone over the past few years, and working through that was important.
Filled with a new certainty about herself, about Kade, and about them that settled into her soul, warming her from the inside out, she lifted her head and looked the man she loved straight in the eye.
“No, you’re not wrong, but all of this is a lot, even though I want it really bad.”
“Relationships are a risk,” Kade said, his deep, growly voice cracking with intensity. “They’re chaotic. They’re the absolute fucking nightmare of ripping open your chest, exposing your heart, and saying, ‘Go ahead. I trust you.’”
“What makes you so sure?” she asked, her heart fluttering in her chest.
Kade laughed, a soft chuckle, as if the answer was so damn obvious. “Becauseyou, Thea Pope, are worth the risk. Even if you left tomorrow and I never got to see you again, it would have been worth it. You are worth it.”
Now was when she was supposed to say something amazing, to put into words all of the thoughts in her head to explain how much she felt the same, but her brain was on strike. And all that came out was the very wrong thing.
“Do you want to come to the dinosaur dig with me?” she blurted out. “You don’t have to stay for the two weeks I’ll be there. I’m sure it’ll be boring, and it will definitely be hot and dirty, and I’m sure you have things to do and—”
He cut her off with a solid-nine-point-six-on-a-five-point-scale kiss that may have been brief but still calmed her nerves. She needed to tell her therapist that she’d found a fifthFfor how she could react when nervous—French kiss, specifically French kissing Kade. That, obviously, could have its drawbacks and probably shouldn’t be a go-to unless she wanted to make the people around her and Kade uncomfortable, but still, it was an option that she couldn’t wait to utilize again.
“Thea,” Kade said, pulling her back to the here and now. “I want to be whereveryou are.”
Flummoxed and flustered, Thea did the only thing she could think of: She went for her new favoriteFreaction and kissed Kade with everything she had.
It wasn’t until she came up for air that she realized they were in the middle of the dance floor alone because the DJ had taken a break. Laughing, she grabbed Kade’s hand, and this time it was her turn to lead the way out of the barn and into the garden area behind it.
Turning so her back was against the wall of the barn, she looked up at Kade. “So, if we’re gonna give this long-distance relationship thing a try, you should probably tell me where you live so we can figure out the logistics.”
He closed the distance between them so they were thigh to thigh and not even a sliver of moonlight could get between them.
“In Waterbury, a subway ride across the water from Harbor City,” he said as his hungry gaze dropped to her mouth. “I’m on Galveston Street and Thirtieth.”
Delighted shock making her giddy, Thea grabbed him by the lapels of his tux and pulled him in close to check his face for a fib. He had to be kidding. There was absolutely no way. He shot her a questioning look, but there were no lies detected.
