Page 67 of Rune’s Solace

“You’re very grumpy in the morning,” she informed me.

“I’ve been awake ten minutes and you’ve already started shit.”

“You said you’d been awake a while.”

“Feels like ten minutes.”

“That’s not how time works.”

“Thank you, college.”

She smacked my chest, and I caught her hand without thinking.

Neither of us laughed after that.

It was pure reflex, her palm coming down and mine closing around her wrist, but the second I had her there, the air changed again. Her eyes dropped to my hand and mine followed, and I opened my fingers immediately, letting her go before either of us had to think about it.

Amy didn’t pull away.

She turned her hand inside mine instead, slowly, until our palms met, then threaded her fingers through mine.

Such a little thing.

After last night it shouldn’t have been anything at all, but I swear it damn near stopped my heart.

She looked at our hands for a long moment, her thumb moving once over my knuckle, and when she spoke again the teasing had gone out of her voice.

“Are you going to be weird now?”

“Almost certainly.”

That got the smallest smile out of her.

“I mean about us.”

I knew what she meant, but I also knew better than to answer a question she hadn’t quite asked.

“What about us?”

Her nose wrinkled. “I hate when you do that.”

“Do what?”

“Make me actually say things.”

“Thought that was the point.”

The look she gave me said I deserved that one, and I probably did, but then she dropped her eyes back to our joined hands and went quiet long enough that I could feel how hard the next words were costing her.

“I don’t know what this is yet.”

“Okay.”

“And I’m still mad at you.”

“Know that.”

“Like, really mad.”