Page 19 of Overruled

Eleven

Dani

On a scale of one to ten of “how bad of an idea is the thing you’re currently doing”—I’d have to say that following Ezra to the guest bathroom of my parents’ house and knocking on the door is a solid eleven.

I can hear the water running from the sink, so I know he’s in there, and for a moment I am frozen on the other side with my fist suspended in the air asking myself what in the hell I’m doing.

But I’m here, and I know if I go back outside right now, the thoughts in my head will just drive me crazy.

So I knock.

“Are you decent?”

I hear his answering chuckle just as the water shuts off. “I guess that depends on who you ask.”

“Ezra.”

There’s a soft snick as he turns the lock. “It’s open.”

I push open the door just as he’s drying his hands, amusement in his eyes as he watches me step inside and close the door behind me.

I admit that I hadn’t given much thought to what I was going to say when I came in here, so hopped up on the adrenaline of following him that the after hadn’t fully occurred to me.

“Do you always follow your party guests into the bathroom?” Ezra asks with one arched brow and the barest hint of a smile at his lips. “Not the best host protocol.”

I scowl at him, pressing my fists to my hips. “I just needed to talk to you.”

“You could have talked to me outside.”

“There’s too many”—I wave my hand aimlessly—“people out there. Besides, I don’t know how I would have done that with the way you were ignoring me.”

I immediately regret letting the words slip out. Ezra’s face flashes with surprise just before it morphs into something like delight, his mouth tilting at the corners until it settles into an impish grin. “Were you feeling lonely?”

“Shut up.” I cross my arms over my chest. “I’m just trying to figure out what game you’re playing.”

“Who said I was playing a game?”

“Because there’s no other valid reason for you to be here.”

“It sounds like maybe you want to play a game with me,” he teases.

I flush at the once-over he gives me, crossing my arms over my chest and huffing indignantly.

“See? That right there. We agreed we were going to keep things professional, and it hasn’t even been three weeks and you’re here trying to…

” I frown, not really sure what Ezra is trying to do here.

I want to say that’s what has me so worked up, but I’m not sure that’s true. “It’s just weird. You being here.”

“I’m still having a hard time understanding why it’s weird. Especially since I was invited.”

“Right,” I snort. “As if you’d have jumped at the chance to come to my family’s party three weeks ago when we were still fucking if I’d asked you to.”

“Who’s to say I wouldn’t have?”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Don’t be cute.”

“One,” he says, holding up a single digit. “We’ve established that I’m adorable.” He adds another finger. “And two, I’m not being anything, Dani. I’m just saying, how would we know if I would have come? Would you have actually asked me?”

“I—” My lips open, close again, and then press together for a moment. “Why would I? We’re not even friends. We were just…”

“People who fucked,” he says quietly, helping me when I’m clearly floundering to put a word to what we were.

I swallow. “Yes. That.” I chew at the inside of my lip, feeling those unfamiliar goose bumps creeping over my skin once more. “And we ended that. Which I thought you were adhering to, since you haven’t so much as texted me in the last few weeks, but then you show up here—”

“Did you want me to text you?”

“No,” I say too quickly, practically spitting the word in a way that doesn’t sound that convincing. “Of course I didn’t.”

“Hmm. Well, that’s twice now you’ve mentioned me not reaching out. Not texting you…ignoring you at the party—your words, by the way. I don’t know, Dani. It almost sounds like maybe you really did miss me.”

I have to clench my jaw to try to compose myself, hoping that the heat in my cheeks isn’t evident on my face, even as I feel it spreading down to my chest. I will my expression into one that I hope comes across as brusque. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you.”

He surprises me when he answers, “And what if I said I would?”

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 you explicitly said 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 you here ?”

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’t want me 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’s the 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. He missed me? 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 have ever been.

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 should know better.

“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.”

I open my mouth to do that, but the words won’t come. Why won’t they come?

Because you don’t want them to.

I shut my eyes tight, pressing my lips together as I try to make my tongue form one simple sentence that will put a stop to all of this nonsense.

“Tell me to leave, Dani.” Ezra’s voice is quiet now, and I can feel the warmth of his breath only inches from my mouth. “Or I’m going to kiss you. Tell me to leave, or you’re going to let me kiss you.”

I make a sound that might embarrass me on any normal day, something like a muted whimper that’s caught in my throat.

I’m trembling all over—from nerves or anticipation I’m not sure—and I know all it would take is a few simple words to send him away.

A few words, and that would be the end of it. It’s what I should do.

I kiss him instead.