Page 70 of Falling for Raine

Raine sent a thumbs-up emoji and his flat number.

I charged up three flights of stairs, stopping in my tracks at the sight of the beautiful man with floppy hair standing in the open doorway. He was dressed infinitely more appropriately than me in shorts, a ripped white tee, and bare feet.

“What are you doing here, Graham?”

Good question.

I held up the takeaway bag. “Special delivery…for you.”

He widened his eyes. “Curry?”

“Yes. I—” I massaged my neck and took a deep breath. “May I come in?”

“Of course.” Raine inclined his head, closing the door behind us. My nerves were out of control. I wanted to blame the summer heat, but that didn’t explain my dry throat and racing pulse. I eyed the sparsely furnished flat and zeroed in on the banjo propped on a stand in the corner.

“The infamous banjo,” I commented, stuffing my hands into my pockets.

“Ronan says he’s getting better, but it’s pretty painful if you ask me.” He set the curry on a battered old coffee table. “Did you want something to drink? It’s hot out there.”

“No, I’m fine,” I lied.

Raine perched on the corner of the sofa and flattened his palms on his knees. “I’m sorry about everything that happened. I heard the news about the stock market?—”

“Oh, right. It’ll be fine.” I waved, pacing to the edge of his tiny kitchen. “Stocks will bounce back, and investors will forgive us…or not. You can’t win them all. It’s alreet or it will be alreet…eventually.”

“So…how are you?”

“Alreet.”

“Good.”

“No. I’m not.” I scratched my temple and opened my arms in surrender. “I’m not okay.”

His eyes clouded. “Oh. I’m sorry.”

“You should be. It’s your fault, you know.”

Raine pointed at his chest. “What did I do?”

“Everything. Fucking everything.” I paced to the door and back again. “You waltzed into my life, turned it tits up, and I don’t know how tobe…without you. I don’t care about deals, stock, dividends, or monstrous houses in the hinterlands. I don’t care about getting even. All I want is you, Ray-n.”

His lips parted. “Yeah?”

“Aye.” I stopped and pulled out a wrinkled Post-it note with a heart and his name scribbled at the bottom. Plucking it between my fingers, I perched on the corner of the coffee table facing him. “I’ve carried this in my pocket for days. I don’t know why.…It’s not like me to get fanciful over notes with hearts. Maybe itwas a link to you? Maybe I wanted it to mean something more? I’m not sure. I know this, though…I was wrong, Ray-n.”

“About what?”

“You, me…us. When I told you I didn’t need anyone and that I was happy to be alone, I was totally and absolutely full of shit. I need you, Ray-n, and I want to be with you.”

“I—you…yeah?”

I nodded slowly. “I didn’t think I could feel these…feelings for anyone, but here I am. And I’m not too proud to admit that I’m lost without you. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat. The world has been cratering around my ears for a week and all I could think was, ‘Ray-n would love the sunset tonight, Ray-n would like the silly commercial with talking dogs, and he’d want to see the documentary about the Roman legion.’”

“That sounds interesting.”

“No, it sounds bloody boring. Doesn’t matter. I’d watch it anyway. Happily. Becauseyoumake me happy. You make everything sweeter, brighter, lighter. I’m a better man when I’m with you, and there’s no point in fighting it. I might not believe in fairy tales, romance, or fate, but I believe in us.”

“Me too,” he whispered.