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“Noah,” he clipped out, and I could see his patience leaking onto the sidewalk. “Can we please stay on topic?”

I tried not to laugh at the vein popping out on his forehead. He couldn’t push his glasses up his nose because he was holding the ugliest basket of apples I’d ever seen in my life.

“Did I do something to you? Did your parents? Why have you been avoiding me?”

“My sleep has been fucked up more than usual lately.” That wasn’t a lie, and it was as close to the truth as we were gonna get.I had a wet dream about you and True on your bedwas never leaving my lips.

Greyson let my words sink in and nodded. “You sure that’s it? Because you were acting like I did something.” His voice went quiet. “I’m not used to that.”

Something unfamiliar fisted my heart. I wanted to tell him everything. About how much I adored True and wanted a chance with her. How much I loved watching the way he took care of her. Took care of us. How much I loved the way we’d gone from the two of us to the three of us without blinking because we both knew she was right where she belonged with us.

And as cathartic as that word vomit would have been, I pushed it back down and changed the subject.

“Where’d you get those ugly ass apples?”

“True sold them to me.” Greyson cracked a real smile and I shook my head. He had it just as bad as I did.

Pathetic.

“You know those are the throw aways, right?”

There was pride in his voice when he said, “I don’t care.”

When we got back from the Fall Festival, Noah and I went our separate ways to shower the day off of us.

I was back in my cabin, with the windows open and a candle that smelled like fall burning on my kitchen counter. I’d gotten it from one of the stalls near my grandmother’s and it smelled even better lit. I was sniffing it again when a knock rattled my screen door.

I knew it was Greyson. It was always Greyson, but a fresh wave of giddy anticipation trickled through me as I hurried to the front of the cabin.

He was standing on my doorstep with his sleeves rolled up and a huge bouquet of pink roses shielding his face.

When he peeked around it with a tentative smile, I knew I was in trouble. I’d been in trouble since the day I met this man.

“These are for you,” he said, carefully placing the roses in my arms.

“Greyson, how many flowers did you buy?”

“Five dozen, that was all they had left,” he answered evenly. “I went to the florist before I came home to cook and the guy said pink symbolized admiration and appreciation.”

I buried my nose in the petals, watching the way his eyes tracked my every move. He was nervous. And proud of himself. But mostly nervous.

He wasn’t pushing his glasses up on his nose but he kept rolling the thick sleeves of his sweater up his forearm as he waited for a reaction from me. That gave me time to admire the simple, gold rope bracelet on his left wrist and the chunky gold watch on his right. Andthose hands. They were manicured perfectly, healthy veins prominent against the smooth skin.

My lips twisted in a skeptical smile as I tried to get myself back on track. “You admire me, Greyson?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Since the second I laid eyes on you, I’ve been in awe of you, True.”

Tightness in my throat caged a witty response.

“That was sweet.”

“I can be sweet,” he followed up, crowding my space in the doorway. “Dinner is ready and Noah said it’s game night since you missed last night.”

“Let me put these down.” Thankfully, the roses were already in a heavy crystal vase because I didn’t have anything in this apartment big enough to house even half of these flowers.

Greyson nodded, following close behind me when I turned to walk back into the house.

The base of the vase had barely landed on the countertop before Greyson spun me around by my waist, his hands fastened to my hips like they belonged there.