“It had to be a dream because I don’t own sugar or hardly anything to cook with.” He smiled, slow and devastating. “I had a dream about you too.”
Lily blinked. “You did?” She stepped closer as well, suddenly feeling seductive and bold, and so unlike herself. “What was I doing?”
He laughed softly to himself again, like he had a secret that he wished he could share with her.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
She watched the hollow of his throat pulsate with each heartbeat. Her eyes traveled up to the small scar above his top lip, where the skin was slightly raised. She wanted to touch him there, to know where the scar had come from. She wanted to know what it would feel like to kiss him, this man who felt so familiar, yet whom she hardly knew. From the way he was looking at her, hungry and mesmerized, it was clear that he felt the same way. Her whole body instantly heated. She was dizzy, staring into Nick’s face. And he still wasn’t looking away. If anything, he’d moved closer again. He braced his arms on either side of Lily, and she pressed her lower back into the kitchen counter and bit her lip. She wondered how things had escalated between them so quickly. Then she chose to stop wondering and just go with it.
Gently, Nick brushed a stray curl behind her ear and she closed her eyes. His lips hovered above hers and she felt his cool breath fan across her mouth.
“Is it crazy that I want to kiss you?” he asked, his voice low and husky, just like in her daydream.
“No,” she whispered. And in a flash of bravado that surprised her, Lily closed the gap between them and pressed her lips to his.
The kiss was soft and tentative at first, then Nick pulled her closer, one hand cradling the side of her face and the other on her hip as he brought her flush against him.
Fireworks burst in her mind as his tongue slid into her mouth. What was she doing? She didn’t even know his last name.
Oh well, who cared! Because Fine as Hell Neighbor was kissing her with his fine-ass lips, and he was going to need a mop from the way she was straight up melting in his embrace.
She looped her arms around Nick’s neck and angled her head to deepen the kiss. Then she heard the faint sound of Tomcat’s meow, and the next thing she knew, Nick yelped and nearly jumped out of his skin. He pulled away from Lily and stared down at Tomcat, wide-eyed and wary, his chest heaving. Tomcat, who’d made his usual silent entrance, meowed and bumped his head against Lily’s leg. With a curious gaze, he looked up at Nick.
“Fuck, I forgot about your cat,” Nick whispered.
Lily was still in a daze. She gently brought her fingers to her tender bottom lip, which Nick had just lightly bit before Tomcat interrupted them. He finally pulled his attention away from Tomcat to look at Lily again, and his intent gaze made her feel like she might burst into flames. It took her brain a moment to string words together.
“Are—are you afraid of cats?” she asked, bending down and running a hand over Tomcat’s back, attempting to regain her composure.
Nick nodded, studying Tomcat. After a beat, he said, “That looks like another cat I knew.”
“I guess all calicos look similar.” She stood and scooped Tomcat into her arms. “But Tomcat is special. Only one in three thousand calicos are born male. You don’t have to be afraid of him. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
Nick visibly froze. “His name is Tomcat?”
“Yep,” Lily said. Tomcat pushed away, wriggling to get out of her embrace. She let him go and he leaped to the floor. As Lily poured food into Tomcat’s bowl, she noticed how Nick attempted to put as much space between himself and her cat as possible. Most fears people had about cats were unfounded. She wondered if he’d had a bad experience with a cat as a child.
Nick walked into the living room, and when he reached Lily’s book stack against the wall, he paused, picking up her old copy of The Elves of Ceradon with the battered and plain, red cover. He frowned and stared at it for a long while. Finally, he turned to Lily and held up the book.
“Hey, where’d you get this?” he asked.
Of course of all the books she owned, he’d picked up that one. Lily should have thrown out her copy because looking at it was triggering. But she couldn’t bear to do so. She loved the story too much.
“I got it at my old job.” She walked over to him. “It’s an original edition, but it’s being republished now. Have you heard of it?”
He nodded, still frowning. This close again, Lily had the perfect view of his handsome face. Days before, she’d been too nervous to even speak to him and now he was inside of her (temporary) apartment and had very nearly kissed her soul out of her body.
“Do you want to sit?” She gestured to the couch, ready to pick up where they’d left off.
Nick glanced away from the book to look at Lily. “Yeah, yeah. Of course.”
He followed her to the couch and sat beside her. He was still holding her copy of The Elves of Ceradon, then his gaze zeroed in on Tomcat, who was stretched out on the floor right in front of them. He glanced back and forth between Tomcat and the book and slowly his expression morphed into one of alarm. Was he really that afraid of cats? Lily didn’t like shutting Tomcat up in Violet’s room, especially because Violet didn’t like Tomcat being on her bed, but Lily would have to temporarily remove Tomcat from her current situation if she wanted Nick to relax.
She walked to the hallway and took off her Keds. Tomcat eagerly followed behind because he had a weird obsession with smelling her shoes after she’d sweated in them all day.
She approached Nick again, but now he was staring at her bare feet with that same alarmed look. She slowed her walk, feeling self-conscious for a moment. She knew her feet were okay-looking. Plus, she’d given herself a shimmery lavender pedicure before Violet’s engagement party last weekend.
He pointed at her right foot. “Is that a tattoo of a lily flower?”
“Yes,” she said, lifting her foot. “My sisters have matching ones for their names. Violet and Iris.”
Nick’s eyes became the size of golf balls. He quickly stood and dropped her copy of The Elves of Ceradon in the process. He fumbled to pick it up and haphazardly put it back on top of her book stack.
“I, uh, I have to go,” he said abruptly, brushing past her toward the door.
What?
Lily had the strongest feeling of whiplash. He’d just had his tongue down her throat and now he was leaving? She hadn’t even brought up the wedding!
“Wait!” she called, sliding on her shoes and rushing behind him.
5
“My sister Violet is getting married at the end of summer and I made a bet with her that I’d find my own date to her wedding.”
It all came out like word vomit as Lily hurried behind Nick into the hallway. Where had that come from? She wasn’t supposed to tell him about the bet! Whatever, it was too late. She might as well plow through while she had the chance.