“You think I’d kiss you like I did this morning if I had a girlfriend?” he asked.

“I didn’t know. But Brett said no.”

“For once, that guy is right,” he muttered.

“Though, you told me yourself you were seeing someone.”

“At that time, I still was, even though I intended to end it with her. That said, I told you that so you wouldn’t feel pressure and might feel safe connecting with me. Then, when I got you to that place, I was gonna move us forward.”

Hmm.

“Are you done talking so we can open up discussion now?” he asked, sounding amused.

The amused part didn’t make me happy, seeing as this wasn’t super easy on me.

Even so, we kinda already were discussing since I was letting him talk.

Nevertheless, I squinted my eyes at him and snapped, “No.”

“Right,” he murmured, now visibly fighting a smile.

Grr.

Onward!

“So, obviously, I had something to say with my ‘Shut Up’ dance that I wanted you to hear but I thought you had a girlfriend and I also was still messed up myself. So maybe I shouldn’t have said it when I wasn’t giving you the opportunity to react to it, but I had to do it and so I did. And I’m sorry if that wasn’t the right thing to do or if that seemed like I was jacking you around. I can assure you, that was one hundred percent not my intent.”

He said nothing.

But when I said nothing either, he said, “Is it discussion time now?”

“No,” I answered.

This time, he dipped his ear toward his shoulder and twisted his neck to hide his outright smile.

Really?

“I’m not finding anything amusing,” I informed him. “This isn’t super easy.”

He looked at me, still outright smiling. “I get that, honey. But you’re not experiencing the adorableness of you.”

Adorableness?

He thought I was adorable?

Wow.

Sweet.

No.

Concentrate!

“Can I finish?” I asked snappishly, or maybe somewhat fake snappishly, but whatever.

He threw out a hand in invitation to continue before crossing it on his chest again.

So I continued.

“However, even if you thought I was jacking you around, which I will repeat, I was not.”

“I didn’t think you were jacking me around, baby,” he assured, again with the soft.

And man, did I like that soft.

“Good, but onward from that, I screwed up with the girls, and I know Lottie is special to you, but that’s mine and theirs and not for you to get in the middle of.”

He looked like he was going to say something, thought better of it, and closed his mouth.

Through all this, I kept speaking.