Page 212 of Securing the Pucking Rebound

“Really?” I ask, my brows drawing together as I stare into her eyes.

“Really.”

Her smile is soft, but it’s what I can see in her eyes that really makes my chest tighten. The honesty.

This is real, and it’s almost as terrifying as that bird.

Something in her hair catches my eye.

“You’ve got a …” I reach out. “A feather.” I laugh, holding it between us.

But Sienna has turned away, her eyes locked onto something else.

“Calvin?” she whispers.

And when I turn to look at what she’s found, my heart stops.

“How long have you had that?” she asks before walking around me and to my nightstand.

“Umm …”

It’s impossible to miss the way her hand trembles as she reaches for the new frame that’s standing there proudly.

I cough, clearing my throat before I can respond. “Since that summer,” I confess roughly.

Ripping her eyes from the framed photo of us as preteens, she looks back at me tearfully.

I swear her eyes nearly bug out of her head. “You’ve had this on your nightstand since that summer?”

“Oh…um…no. I had it in an album. I put it on my nightstand more recently.”

“Calvin,” she sobs.

“It means even if you’re downstairs or with your parents, you’re still the last person I see at night and the first one in the morning. Oh shit,” I hiss when her tears fall. “I didn’t mean to make you cry,” I say, rushing over, taking the frame from her hands and wrapping her in my arms.

“They’re happy tears,” she admits, resting her chin on my chest and staring up into my eyes.

“I—” I swallow down the words that want to bubble up.

She’s not ready.

“I’m sorry,” I say in a rush, realizing that all of this might be too soon. I still don’t know if she’s forgiven me. My chicken parmigiana was good, but I’m not sure it was that good.

Reluctantly, I let my arms drop, but any concern I had of pushing her too hard is forgotten when she fists my shirt and drags me closer again. She stretches up on her toes, her eyes holding mine before she rasps, “Kiss me.”

I’m so shocked that I don’t do anything for a couple of seconds.

But then reality comes crashing back into me, and I remember that I’ve got Sienna Wentworth in my bedroom, demanding that I kiss her.

Who the hell could ever say no to that?

I duck my head as she stretches up taller, and our lips brush in the sweetest of kisses.

“More,” she moans, parting her lips and dragging her tongue across my bottom lip.

Powerless but to comply, I open my mouth and deepen the kiss.

I shudder as her hands slide down my sides before slipping under the fabric of my T-shirt.