Page 49 of Stay With Me

His eyes soften, lowering to my mouth. “Enough to know you have a code name for me.”

“You weren’t supposed to know about that.”

“It’s not his fault. I saw the texts and blackmailed him intotellin’ me. The first time I saw it, he dismissed me completely. It wasn’t until I thoughtThorcould actually be a threat that I snapped.”

My tongue peeks out, and I lick my lips. “A threat to what?”

His hand cups my cheek and his face splits into a wide smile. “Takin’ you from me.”

My throat goes dry, and when I open my mouth, nothing comes out, which isn’t like me.

Finally, I manage to speak. “I’m gonna need some context here.”

I feel like I missed a few chapters.

How’d we go from him barely acknowledging me to him asking me to go with him to the party? Oh God, how much of Landen’s and my messages did he read?

Then his calloused thumb brushes muffin crumbs off my cheek when he adds, “Ilikeyou, Magnolia. And I want us to hang out on Friday.”

Magnolia?

I shake my head, wondering if maybe I’m in a dream state. Did I hit my skull on something and suddenly wake up in my fantasies?

If that’s the case, leave me to die so I never leave here.

“You do?” I squeak out embarrassingly.

He nods with a grin. “I have for some time.”

And he couldn’t have told me like I don’t know…a few years ago?Or at the very least, before last weekend happened when my stupid self made the worst decision of my life.

“So all this time…” I blink, still trying to wrap my brain around this news because I’ve been waiting for this moment for as long as I can remember and now that it’s happening, I’m taken off guard.

All because he thought I liked another man and was at risk of losing his chance of telling me?

His tongue peeks out and swipes along his bottom lip as he leans forward to my ear. “I can hear your mind going a millionmiles an hour. Say you’ll go with me to the Halloween party, Sunny.”

He has no clue—or hell, maybe he does—that whispering in my ear in that seductive tone would have me doing just about anything he asked.

“Okay,” I finally manage to answer. “But do I really have to go as Jane?”

He chuckles, sliding his hand down my arm until it captures my fingers. “You can go as anything you want.”

Maybe Noah will let me borrow her yeehaw clothes, and I’ll go as a cowgirl. Not an original idea, but it’s the best I can do on short notice. I’ll have to be sneaky about it, though, or she’ll ask me a hundred questions, and I’m not ready to add that level of pressure. It’s bad enough Landen knows, but as soon as it’s out there in the open, everyone else will add in their two cents and get in my head.

“Is this a date?” I ask because I’m done second-guessing when it comes to Tripp. If he likes me, then he should want to take me out on one.

“I wanna say yes, but I also don’t want our first date to be at The Lodge surrounded by a dozen little kids singing Disney songs.”

I chuckle. “Fair enough.”

He steps an inch closer, grabbing a piece of loose hair and twirling it around his finger. “But just so you know, when we do go on one, you won’t need to ask for clarification. You’ll know.” Then he fuckingwinks.

I want to give him shit for how overconfident he sounds considering how long it took him to even admit he likes me—some Ross and Rachel fromFriendsstyle bullshit—but then a throat clears behind us and we break apart.

Smiling apologetically at the woman waiting to order, I quickly turn back to Tripp.

“You better go before y’alls drinks get cold,” I tell him.