Page 94 of Run Away With Me

She was super focused on the road ahead, on getting to Nashville and then Orlando as soon as possible, and even though it was going to take us a few more days and a lot more miles, it was starting to feel like we were running out of road. All the things I didn’t want to talk to Brooke about were going to be shaken loose eventually. My job now was to prepare myself for that, and the inevitable fallout.

Having someone I cared about was totally new territory for me, and I was stuck between wanting to tell Brooke everything, so she knew all of it – the good and the bad – and hiding the bad stuff so she didn’t decide to ditch me. I didn’t really think Brooke would do that, but we hadn’ttalked about our relationship, about what this was between us. I wanted it to be more than friendship, but I didn’t know if it was normal to be that upfront.

I watched as she stirred, and yawned, and blinked awake, my heart impossibly full.

‘Hey,’ she said sleepily.

‘Hey back.’

‘I’m hungry.’

That made me chuckle, because if Brooke was hungry, then she was feeling normal.

‘Do you want to go back to Molly’s?’

She stretched and grinned. ‘Definitely.’

‘Good, because I do too.’

‘Is it time to go for dinner yet?’

I glanced at the alarm clock on the nightstand. ‘It’s five thirty. By the time we get ready and walk over there, yeah.’

‘Okay, good,’ she said around a huge yawn.

I reached out and brushed my hand over her hair, and she smiled up at me then touched my hand.

‘Are you okay?’ Brooke asked. I nodded, but she gave me alook. ‘Sure?’

I hesitated, then got up off the bed. I was full of nervous energy, and I needed to pace it out. All of a sudden, the flirting and touching and occasional kissing wasn’t enough – I needed toknow, for sure, that I wasn’t trying to force something between the two of us that wasn’t really there.

‘What is this?’ I asked, pointing between us and feeling like my chest was being cracked open.

She shrugged. ‘Whatever we want it to be, Jessie.’

‘That’s really easy for you to say,’ I said desperately. ‘You’re not the one with an enormous, cringey crush –’

‘I’m not?’ she said, interrupting me, and I bulldozed over that, totally unable to process it.

‘And I don’t want to get myself into something which is only going to hurt more in the long run. I’d rather just pretend that last night never happened if that’s the case,’ I finished in a rush.

Brooke got up off the bed and came over to me.

‘Jessie,’ she said, leaning in and taking my face in both her hands so I couldn’t escape her intense gaze. ‘I don’t want to pretend last night never happened.’

‘No?’ I said pathetically.

Her eyes softened. ‘No, I really don’t.’

‘But –’

‘No buts.’ She kissed me then, so softly that my toes curled, and hot, static electricity crawled down my spine. Then she brushed her thumbs over my cheeks, and I felt like I was going to crumble into dust.

‘But you’re you,’ I said when she pulled away and put her hands back in her pockets. ‘And I’m me.’

‘Yeah,’ she said, like I was being exceptionally stupid. ‘That’s what I like about it.’

I fidgeted, fingers tapping my thighs as I rocked back onto my heels, and Brooke laughed and leaned in to kiss me again, whichvery much did not help.