“We certainly did,” I said, remembering how Ky had interrupted us right when I was just thinking about pulling Theo away from the group and finding a more secluded space on the beach to explore each other a little more.
Yeah… I had definitely not been thinking straight.
But could you really blame me when a man who looked like he belonged on the cover of a magazine was holding me and touching me and whispering things in my ear?
If anything, I deserved an award for having so much self-restraint.
I peeked back at Theo, studying his tall, muscular form. Taking in his biceps. Following the winding veins in his sexy forearms.
This man was a work of art.
And not only that, he was also just an amazing human. A hard worker. A great dad.
When I was younger, I’d often daydreamed about the kind of guy I wanted to marry. Made a whole list of the qualities and attributes I wanted him to have.
My list had contained things like: has a good work ethic; is good-looking; has nice eyes; is kind, smart, and funny; he likes kids and kids like him; doesn’t make enemies easily; is my best friend…
I’d listed all kinds of things that sounded nice, hoping I’d one day find a guy who had all those qualities and also wanted me back.
But as the years had gone by and I’d ended up more and more heartbroken with every failed dating attempt, I started to wonder if I was just asking the universe for too much.
If a guy like that could even exist.
Because while I’d seen guys like that in movies and read about them in books, I never seemed to be able to find someone like that in real life.
But with Theo… I was pretty sure he might just be able to check every single one of those boxes.
I guess the only question now was whetherIwas someone he would want in return.
If it was even possible for a man as accomplished, amazing, and kind as he was to be drawn to someone like me.
Did I even stand a chance? Or was I just living in some sort of fantasy?
I sighed, not sure I even dared do anything to try and figure that out. Because if this thing I’d thought might be building between us turned out to indeed just be all an act… I didn’t know if I actually wanted to burst that bubble.
Sometimes it was better to live in delusion than find out your dreams were never possible in the first place.
So, forcing my thoughts away from suggesting we do something crazy like have a practice kiss, I took a deep breath insteadand simply climbed onto my side of the bed, tugging the covers up to my waist and smoothing them down.
Yes, I could act normal. I could pretend for a night like I had everything together and wasn’t looking for any little signal that he was interested in me jumping his bones.
Okay, so maybe I was still definitely on high alert for all of that. I was a mere mortal, after all.
Theo climbed in bed then, too, the mattress dipping under his weight. And as he slid lower and pulled the covers over him, I was intimately aware of just how close he was to me.
I was used to sharing this very bed with someone else, since I’d shared it with his sister multiple times before.
But Lucy was my same size. Just five foot one and didn’t take up very much space.
But Theo… Well, I didn’t know if Lucy had always just hugged the edge of the bed without me realizing it or if Theo had simply climbed in closer to the center than I’d ever thought to, but… suddenly, this bed didn’t seem as big as it had before.
And I didn’t know if I should be happy or worried about that.
Worried because if he happened to accidentally brush his arm against mine during the night, my amped-up brain might just take that as an invitation to cuddle.
Would it even be possible to keep my hands to myself when he was sleeping inches away?
Because after a year of unintentional celibacy, I honestly didn’t know if I had the self-control to not at leasttrysomething.