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I feel my lips part on an unsteady inhale.

“What?”

“What if I said I liked the idea of you missing me?”

“Ezra…” I practically growl in frustration, running my fingers through my hair. “What are you doing here? Seriously? Are you just trying to fuck with me? Is that it?”

“So you really think,” Ezra says with humor in his tone, “that coming to your family’s party and not talking to you after youexplicitlysaid that you wanted to end whatever we were doing is some sort of ploy to make you…what? Upset? Jealous? What is it that you’re feeling right now, Dani? Because by all accounts, it doesn’t sound like a very well-thought-out ploy. I would think you would give me a little more credit.”

I feel silly after hearing it said out loud, my cheeks heating. “Then why the hell are you here, Ezra? Coming to my family’s house? Prancing around the backyard and making friends with everyone here and pretending I don’t exist? Why are youhere?”

I can see his jaw working as he considers the question, and the way his eyes trace along the planes of my face make me want to shift on my feet. I do my very best to keep still. I won’t let him think he’s unnerving me with his stare, even if he is.

Something shifts in his gaze that is hard to read, something…soft. Almost worn down. Like whatever Ezra is thinking is enough to leave him weary. “Maybe I came here to see you.”

I feel the blood rushing to my head so quickly it makes me dizzy, the room spinning for half a second while I try to determine whether he’s just said what I think he’s just said.

“What?”

“I didn’t stutter, Dani.”

“But you haven’t said a word to me since we talked by the shed.”

“Because you told me you had no interest in being anything more than professional with each other.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you would come here.”

“Because I just…” He huffs out a breath, frowning as he looks away from me. “I don’t know, okay? I just know I want to text you every fucking day, and I don’t, because you don’twantme to, and I just…fuck. How stupid is it that I miss you busting my balls as often as you possibly can?”

I blink, trying to process this, and then my nose wrinkles. “I don’t do that.”

“That’sthe part you’re focusing on?”

“I don’t know what to make of the rest of it. None of what you just said makes any fucking sense.”

That weary look rests heavier on him now, and he shakes his head. “Trust me, Dani. It doesn’t make any sense to me either.”

I can’t do anything except stand there uselessly, my heart thudding in my chest in an unsteady rhythm that I can practically feel in my throat. He missed me. Hemissedme? What am I supposed to do with that information? He can’t miss me. That’s not what this is. It’s not what we haveeverbeen.

So again, why do I feel so…relieved?

“You can’t miss me,” I say softly, not at all what I wanted to say but what comes out regardless. My throat feels like it might be closing up. It feels like it’s getting harder and harder to catch my breath.

I gasp softly when he takes a step toward me, his finger coming to rest just under my chin as he tilts my face up to meet his. “Why?”

“Because—” I swallow around the giant lump in my throat, panic churning in my stomach. “Because I shouldn’t have missed you.”

There’s a hint of relief on his face as well, slight but there. “But you did.”

I don’t answer, because I can’t. I physically can’t. I don’t even know what’s happening right now, but I’m terrified that I’m going to regret it tomorrow. I should know better than this. If Grant taught me anything, it was to be careful not to let my guard down. I shouldknowbetter.

“It’s okay,” he says softly, saving me the need. “I missed you too.”

I feel his other hand gliding down my bare arm, leaving goose bumps everywhere he touches. It’s terrifying, how good it feels. That panic inside is clawing its way into my chest; everything in my head is screaming at me to run, to get out of this room, that this is dangerous territory that will leave me in uncharted waters until I’m drowning—and maybe that’s why I try to pull away.

“I didn’t miss you,” I say too loudly. “And you didn’t miss me.” I try to untangle myself from his grip, his fingers wrapped around my arm a little tighter than they were moments ago. “This is stupid. It was just sex, Ezra. That’s all it’s ever been. There’s no way that you—”

His hand cups my jaw, squeezing gently, the words dying on my tongue as he forces me to meet his gaze. “Tell me you want me to go,” he says carefully, each word slow and deliberate. “Tell me that, and I will. Tell me to let you go, and I’ll walk out of here and leave.”