“Thank the stars for that.” She frowns. “So how did your date go?”
“Okay.”
“Come on,” Laurie cranes her neck to look at me, “You’ve got to give me more than that.”
“I met his brother,” I say with a smile.
“The hot one I saw online? Cool.” She wiggles her eyebrows. “So you’ve met the family. This is definitely dating.”
“It’s not like he introduced me as the love of his life.”
Laurie studies my face. “Is that what you want?”
I sigh. “I don’t want to think about what I want. If I do, I won’t be able to enjoy what we have.”
“How long will you be able to enjoy it? You’re in love with him. Soon you won’t be able to take it if you don’t know for sure that he feels the same way.”
I’m silent. Of course, Laurie knows how I feel. She knows me too well not to have picked up on it.
“Do you know how he feels?” she asks gently.
“He says, he wants me, and can’t stop thinking about me.” I sigh. “When we’re together it feels like nothing else matters. I’ve never felt something so intense.”
She nods. “He might feel the same way, you know. I saw the way he looked at you earlier. I seemed like way more than lust and chemistry to me.”
Yes, but was it love? Anything else is temporary. Anything else means that one day, he’ll be through with me, and then I’ll have to deal with his rejection.
I change the subject, steering Laurie into telling me more about her fight with Brett. Afterward, I say goodnight and go to my room, where, as soon as I’m alone, my mind goes back to Landon.
He wants me. I don’t doubt that, but how does he feel about me? How long will I be able to love him without knowing if there’s any chance that he’ll ever feel the same?
I wash the makeup off my face and change into a tank top and shorts, but when I get into bed, I’m still unable to fall asleep. In the distance, a car alarm goes off, and I start to wonder what Landon is doing. He would have finished talking with Aidan long ago. Was he back at his apartment now? Was he alone? An unbidden, unwanted thought of him with another woman flashes across my mind. It’s far-fetched, improbable, but it still makes me feel desperate.
My phone starts to ring, rescuing me from my thoughts. I grab it from my nightstand and see Landon’s name on the screen. The surge of relief weakens me.
“Hey,” I say softly.
“Did I wake you?”
“No,” I reply. “I wasn’t asleep.”
“Oh?” he sounds surprised. “What are you doing?”
Thinking about you. “Nothing. I’m just lying in bed.”
“Alone?”
I smile. “Very funny.”
I hear him breathe. “Were you thinking of me?”
Always. “What if I was?”
“I’d tell you that I was thinking about you too. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you all night.”
My breath catches. “You should stop,” I tell him, “You’re in danger of starting to sound romantic.”
“Do you have anything against romance?”