Page 68 of #Awestruck

“Earlier, there was something I wanted to say—”

He cut me off. “We probably both have a lot of things to say. Just like we don’t have to get all the kissing done tonight, we don’t have to have all the conversations, either.”

“I think this is different.”

“Spend time with me this weekend. Let’s just hang out, have fun, keep it light. See what’s between us. Nothing serious. What do you say?”

“Yes.”

I said it exactly the same way I’d said it earlier, before I’d attacked him. His hungry gaze shifted to my lips, and he took a step toward me.

“Hey, come inside!” Rory stepped onto the back porch and waved us in. “The movie’s starting.”

Every year my mom bought a newly released movie for us to watch in the evening after Thanksgiving dinner. They wouldn’t start it until we joined them.

Evan offered me his hand and helped me back to my feet. Where I happily discovered that my limbs had started functioning again. He put his arm around my shoulders, hugging me to his side as we walked back.

“So, good kiss, right?” he asked.

Good kiss? Great kiss. Spectacular kiss. Life-altering kiss. “I suppose.”

“What you’re saying is I did something right?”

“Law of averages,” I told him. “It had to happen eventually.”

He laughed and kissed the top of my forehead, and I felt a sparkling lightness that I hadn’t felt in a long time.

Right as we reached the sliding glass doors, Evan said, “For those people keeping score at home, I’d like to point out that that was Kiss Number Two.”

I hoped it was the second of many more to come.

My family and I went to the Jacks game on Thursday (the Jacks won, thirty-seven to nine) and got to watch from the luxury box again. Evan and I had dinner together after at my place. Where he left well before either one of us could fall asleep.

We spent the weekend in a kind of bubble away from the real world. I pretended like Brenda and my issues at ISEN didn’t even exist. I let myself talk to him, confide in him, tell him things about myself that I’d never told anyone else. We went out to dinner, watched movies, played some video games (where I maintained my number-one spot on the leaderboard).

There were also a couple of times we shot some hoops, and Evan committed a world record number of personal fouls against me. Mostly of the holding variety.

I didn’t mind.

In general, we hung out the way a dating couple would.

And our physical chemistry? Off the charts would be underselling it.

He invited me over to his house for dinner on Sunday night. He was anxious about it, maybe even a little nervous, and I wondered why. We’d been alone together more than once.

I texted Nia to let her know I would be in the neighborhood, thinking maybe I could stop by before or after my date with Evan.

His house was even more impressive up close than it had been the one time I’d driven past it with the Owenses. Like it had probably had a moat at some point.

I knocked on his door, and it took a bit for him to answer it. “Hey. I’m glad you’re here.”

“Me too. Thanks for inviting me.”

He kissed me quickly and then let me inside.

Even though he made more money than any one person probably should make, his home didn’t have that designer-y feel to it. It wasn’t cold or modern at all. It felt very homey and cozy. Almost like the inside of a giant cabin.

The kitchen, however, was totally state-of-the-art. “So you made me dinner, huh?”