Page 134 of More For Me

She points at me. “We’re coming back to the kissing like nobody’s business in a minute, because you’ve given me an unacceptable lack of details in that department. But I think I get what you mean. Bodhi has always been your buddy.”

“Exactly.”

“The guy you watch silly TV with and go shopping with and gossip about celebrities.”

“Right. I had no idea there was the whole other layer underneath all that.”

“A naked layer?”

I smack her arm. “Will you stop with the naked jokes? I’m being serious here.”

She flattens her expression, though I can tell she wants to laugh. “Sorry. I’ll be good. Tell me all about Bodhi’s hidden layers.”

“I’m just saying, being with him like this is not exactly what I expected. And that’s been really fun to discover.” I roll my eyes. “You totally want to make another naked joke.”

“You’re making it too easy!” She leans in closer. “Seriously, though. What’s he like?” She waggles her eyebrows again. “Is he as sweet in bed as he is in real life?”

“Um.” I know I’m blushing, which is ridiculous. Alex and I always talk about stuff like this. But there’s something about talking about Bodhi that feels different. Like it’s too important to share, or something. “Kind of? He’s actually a little more, um, bossy.”

She grins. “Bossy can be hot.”

I sigh. “It’ssohot.”

She throws back her head and laughs. “God, I love this for you.”

“It’s not really that big of a deal,” I mutter, feeling uncomfortable all over again.

“But it’s okay if it is,” she says, suddenly serious. “You know that, right? It’s okay for this to be a big deal. That doesn’t have to be scary.”

There’s a part of me that wants to insist that it’s not. That what I have with Bodhi is just a slight upgrade of the relationship we already had. But the truth is, I knew this was going to be a Big Deal from the very beginning. Isn’t that why I resisted it so much?

“He told me he loves me,” I whisper.

“Of course he loves you,” she says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Did you say it back?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know if I’m there yet, Alex.”

“Oh, honey. You’ve been there for a long, long time.” Then she slips her arm through mine. “But it’s okay if you’re not ready to admit it yet.”

“I love this thing you do where you assume you know my brain better than I do.”

“Everly.” She meets my gaze, her expression serious. “You went with him on theswan boats.Of course you love him.” She smiles. “But I can see this conversation is about to make you break out in panic hives, so I’ll drop it.” She nods across the room where Juniper Cain is standing next to her fiancé. “Is it just me, or is that a completely different person from the girl we met at lunch?”

“Oh my God, I was going to say the same thing!”

We both watch her for a long moment. The formerly-bubbly actress is standing silently next to a tall man in an impeccable tuxedo. Her face is drawn, mouth turned down. I can’t decide if she looks really bored or incredibly sad. Either way, she doesn’t say a word the entire time we watch her. The fiancé has a hand clamped to her lower back while he talks to the crowd around him, but otherwise they don’t seem to be interacting at all.

“Don’t get that look on your face,” Alex says.

“What look?”

“The look that says you want to rescue someone.”

I point across the room. “Alex, that girl is lonely as hell. Couldn’t you tell at lunch?”

She sighs. “Yes. But that doesn’t mean I want to hang out with her. I don’t think I can pretend to be interested in her movies and her awful friends more than we already did.”

Alex has a point. But I can’t help feeling sad for the gorgeous woman who looks so blank on what should be a happy day.