He jogged up the steps, and Alexis watched him go. She drummed her fingers on the banister for a second. “I don’t know if this helps with the Dean situation or not,” she said, “but when we were at Benny’s the other night, you said you were able to keep your relationships casual by always staying in the present moment and not getting hung up on the future.”

I smirked. “I fell into Dean’s lap like an hour after saying that, and a week later I was actively disregarding every single thing I said.”

Alexis grinned. “You were tempting fate, that’s for sure. But maybe you were onto something. I think you can stay in the present moment and fully enjoy this time with Dean while also opening up your heart.” She held up her thumb and index finger. “Maybe just a little bit?”

I chewed on my lip and shot a glance at the wall Dean and I shared. “I’m willing to experiment with that.”

She skipped up the steps looking so much like her younger self I had to breathe through a sharp pinch of bittersweet nostalgia. That was the curious thing about living in row homes. Linda’s house looked both nothing like the house we grew up in and exactly like it at the same time.

I took my phone out and dialed Dean’s number, thinking about Alexis’s advice. Every time that man smiled at me, my heart spun and toppled like a clumsy ballerina. I could probably open it…just a little. Right?

He picked up in the middle of the first ring. “You don’t have to call me, you know. You can just knock on my door.”

“I like to switch it up. Keep things interesting,” I said. “How did you…sleep last night?”

“Very well,” he said. “It helped that I had a pretty tough workout right before I went to bed.”

Heat flooded my body at the rough scrape in his voice. The same voice that had commanded me to come as he’d groaned raggedly against my ear.

I tsked into the phone. “I’ve heard running those Rocky steps can get you into all kinds of trouble.”

“I can confirm that’s true,” he said. “I missed you today. Guess I’ve gotten used to you showing up at random times to try and get me to eat a hoagie or whatever.”

I laughed and twirled a strand of hair around my finger. I stopped when I realized that I probably looked like a teen girl on the phone with her crush. Although this situation wasn’t far from that.

“I missed seeing you too,” I said. “Can I come over tomorrow?”

“Yes,” he said quickly. “I’d like that.”

“I have a couple of ideas. I’ll text them to you, and you can choose what we do this time.”

“That’s a lot of responsibility.”