His eyes snag mine from across the yard then, and my entire body freezes, my hand gripping the cup that is still suspended in the air. It’s magnetic, the way he looks at me. If I were a more honest woman, I might even say it has been since the first time. Even if he opened his mouth a moment later and ruined everything by revealing just how big of an ass he can be. Even from this distance, I can see when his gaze dips to my mouth, and I can’t fathom what possesses me to choose that moment to let my tongue swipe along my lower lip to lick away the excess punch, but I can’t even begin to pretend that the answering tightness of his jaw isn’t a little satisfying. Even if I can’t fully puzzle out why.

Yes you can, you fucking liar.

It feels like it takes hours for him to pull his gaze away from mine to answer something Mrs. Liechman has just asked, but in reality, it can’t be more than a few seconds. I watch as he gives her a polite smile and a nod before separating himself from the little group he was mingling with. My eyes follow him as he finds my dad a few yards away and says something to him before my dad gestures back toward the house. Ezra doesn’t look back at me as he stalks over to the deck, climbing the stairs and weaving through the crowd before disappearing through the patio doors, but I’m looking at him. Hell, I’m tracking his every move. Why am I doing that?

I can feel my heart thumping in my ears, can feel my skin warmed by the punch in my belly and the goose bumps erupting all over from the breeze washing over me, and I blame all of these things for what I do next. It’s just easier that way.

Especially since I’m already heading toward the deck.

OceanofPDF.com

Eleven

On a scale of one to ten of “how bad of an idea is the thing you’re currently doing”—I’d have to say that following Ezra to the guest bathroom of my parents’ house and knocking on the door is a solid eleven. I can hear the water running from the sink, so I know he’s in there, and for a moment I am frozen on the other side with my fist suspended in the air asking myself what in the hell I’m doing. But I’m here, and I know if I go back outside right now, the thoughts in my head will just drive me crazy.

So I knock.

“Are you decent?”

I hear his answering chuckle just as the water shuts off. “I guess that depends on who you ask.”

“Ezra.”

There’s a soft snick as he turns the lock. “It’s open.”

I push open the door just as he’s drying his hands, amusement in his eyes as he watches me step inside and close the door behind me. I admit that I hadn’t given much thought to what I was going to say when I came in here, so hopped up on the adrenaline of following him that the after hadn’t fully occurred to me.

“Do you always follow your party guests into the bathroom?” Ezra asks with one arched brow and the barest hint of a smile at his lips. “Not the best host protocol.”

I scowl at him, pressing my fists to my hips. “I just needed to talk to you.”

“You could have talked to me outside.”

“There’s too many”—I wave my hand aimlessly—“people out there. Besides, I don’t know how I would have done that with the way you were ignoring me.”

I immediately regret letting the words slip out. Ezra’s face flashes with surprise just before it morphs into something like delight, his mouth tilting at the corners until it settles into an impish grin. “Were you feeling lonely?”

“Shut up.” I cross my arms over my chest. “I’m just trying to figure out what game you’re playing.”

“Who said I was playing a game?”

“Because there’s no other valid reason for you to be here.”

“It sounds like maybe you want to play a game with me,” he teases.

I flush at the once-over he gives me, crossing my arms over my chest and huffing indignantly. “See? That right there. We agreed we were going to keep things professional, and it hasn’t even been three weeks and you’re here trying to…” I frown, not really sure what Ezra is trying to do here. I want to say that’s what has me so worked up, but I’m not sure that’s true. “It’s just weird. You being here.”

“I’m still having a hard time understanding why it’s weird. Especially since I was invited.”

“Right,” I snort. “As if you’d have jumped at the chance to come to my family’s party three weeks ago when we were still fucking if I’d asked you to.”

“Who’s to say I wouldn’t have?”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Don’t be cute.”

“One,” he says, holding up a single digit. “We’ve established that I’m adorable.” He adds another finger. “And two, I’m not being anything, Dani. I’m just saying, how would we know if I would have come? Would you have actually asked me?”

“I—” My lips open, close again, and then press together for a moment. “Why would I? We’re not even friends. We were just…”

“People who fucked,” he says quietly, helping me when I’m clearly floundering to put a word to what we were.

I swallow. “Yes. That.” I chew at the inside of my lip, feeling those unfamiliar goose bumps creeping over my skin once more. “And we ended that. Which I thought you were adhering to, since you haven’t so much as texted me in the last few weeks, but then you show up here—”

“Did you want me to text you?”

“No,” I say too quickly, practically spitting the word in a way that doesn’t sound that convincing. “Of course I didn’t.”

“Hmm. Well, that’s twice now you’ve mentioned me not reaching out. Not texting you…ignoring you at the party—your words, by the way. I don’t know, Dani. It almost sounds like maybe you really did miss me.”

I have to clench my jaw to try to compose myself, hoping that the heat in my cheeks isn’t evident on my face, even as I feel it spreading down to my chest. I will my expression into one that I hope comes across as brusque. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you.”

He surprises me when he answers, “And what if I said I would?”

I feel my lips part on an unsteady inhale.

“What?”

“What if I said I liked the idea of you missing me?”

“Ezra…” I practically growl in frustration, running my fingers through my hair. “What are you doing here? Seriously? Are you just trying to fuck with me? Is that it?”

“So you really think,” Ezra says with humor in his tone, “that coming to your family’s party and not talking to you after you explicitly said that you wanted to end whatever we were doing is some sort of ploy to make you…what? Upset? Jealous? What is it that you’re feeling right now, Dani? Because by all accounts, it doesn’t sound like a very well-thought-out ploy. I would think you would give me a little more credit.”

I feel silly after hearing it said out loud, my cheeks heating. “Then why the hell are you here, Ezra? Coming to my family’s house? Prancing around the backyard and making friends with everyone here and pretending I don’t exist? Why are you here?”

I can see his jaw working as he considers the question, and the way his eyes trace along the planes of my face make me want to shift on my feet. I do my very best to keep still. I won’t let him think he’s unnerving me with his stare, even if he is.

Something shifts in his gaze that is hard to read, something…soft. Almost worn down. Like whatever Ezra is thinking is enough to leave him weary. “Maybe I came here to see you.”

I feel the blood rushing to my head so quickly it makes me dizzy, the room spinning for half a second while I try to determine whether he’s just said what I think he’s just said.