Page 56 of False Start

I knew instantly that I’d taken it too far.

I was eating up the fact that she was showing a little bit of who she used to be, that her feistiness was coming out the more time we spent together. Razzing each other used to be our favorite way to communicate.

But she wasn’t smiling anymore.

She was staring up at me with wide eyes, her breath shallow in her chest, lips parted.

This wasn’t just a friendly gesture.

This was flirting.

And there was no one around to pretend for.

Fuck.

I tried to play it off, laughing and pushing off the bed to stand. I reached a hand down for hers. “Alright, let’s unpack.You can plot how to kill me while you put your panties in a drawer.”

She rolled her eyes as I helped her stand.

And I hoped like hell I hadn’t just ruined whatever progress we were making.

Madelyn

We unpacked in silence.

My heart finally stopped racing about halfway through, and then Kyle put on a playlist — a mixture of rap from the 90s, 00s, and 10s. I felt like I took my first real breath when “So Fresh, So Clean” by OutKast came on.

I bobbed my head to the beat, singing along in my head as I hung my dress for the wedding. Every now and then, I’d glance at Kyle, who was busy unpacking his own things.

My heart rate spiked again when I blinked and saw him on top of me on that bed, that wicked gleam in his eyes.

Or what?

I shivered, closing my eyes and shaking my head. He was just playing around. It was a joke.

But it was so close to how weusedto be, how we used to flirt and test the friendship boundary between us with little stunts like that.

It could have been innocent.

But we both knew it wasn’t.

I needed to clear the air, to get things back to comfortable between us. Otherwise, I was going to crawl out of my skin.

We had a whole weekend together, and I didn’t want to spend it walking on eggshells.

“Your friends seem really close,” I said, and then covered my mouth with a yawn, shaking it off. I’d been tired from themoment I woke up this morning, but between flying, the chaos in the lobby, and the adrenaline spike from Kyle pinning me on the bed — I was downright exhausted now.

Kyle smiled from where he was tucking some athletic shorts into one of the dresser drawers. “I told you — like family.”

“Mary said she lived with you at one point?” I cocked a brow.

“Aw, don’t be jealous, Mads,” he said, crossing to where I was still working on unpacking. He’d finished up, tucking his empty suitcase into the closet. He plopped down on the couch to watch me. “She was all Leo’s, from the moment she moved in.”

I rolled my eyes, but then frowned a bit, glancing at him and then focusing on smoothing out the wrinkles in the tops I’d brought.

“All of the girls had… interesting stories to tell about you.”

Kyle quieted, crossing an ankle over his opposite knee. “I’m sure they did.”