Page 49 of Enchanted to Meet You

“Hey, Ainsley?”

“Hmm?”

“Did I scare you yesterday?”

The question was so quiet, so careful, that for a second I thought I’d imagined it. I squeezed my eyes shut against the dark, my heart giving that now-familiar, fluttering thud against my ribs.

“When?” I whispered, though I knew exactly what he meant.

“In the car,” he said. “When I kissed you. I know I said I had an idea, but I didn’t give you a heads-up. I just did it.” He paused, his breath catching slightly. “I shouldn’t have sprung it on you like that.”

I rolled onto my stomach, burying my face partially in my pillow, holding the phone tight against my ear.

“You didn’t scare me, Rhys,” I said softly.

“You froze for a second,” he noted, his voice carrying a rare, vulnerable edge. “I thought... I was worried I crossed a line.”

“I was just surprised,” I admitted, my cheek warm against the cotton pillowcase. “That’s all. I didn’t expect you to... go all out.”

A low, faint chuckle sounded through the speaker, warm and deep, sending a tiny shiver down my neck.

“I don’t do things by halves, Novak,” he murmured. “You should know that by now.”

“Clearly,” I mumbled, my eyes growing heavier by the second. “Next time, give me a proper warning so I can prepare myself.”

“Noted. I’ll issue a formal written notice twenty-four hours in advance.”

“Thank you. That’s very professional of you.” I let out a long, quiet sigh, my body sinking deeper into the mattress. My laptop screen had dimmed into sleep mode, plunging my room into total darkness except for the thin sliver of moonlight creeping through the blinds.

“Rhys?” I slurred, my words slowing down as sleep pulled heavily at my limbs.

“Yeah?”

“Your light’s still on.”

“I know.”

“You should turn it off. You need to rest your brain.”

“I will,” he whispered. “In a minute.”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. My eyes closed, the heavy fog of exhaustion finally rolling over my brain, taking the chemistry equations, the rain, and the lingering confusion with it. The last thing I was conscious of was the warm, steady sound of his breathing on the line, keeping watch over the dark street between us.

fifteen

When I got to Rhys’s house the next day, he wasn’t the one who opened the front door for me. His dad stood in the wide entryway, dressed in relaxed weekend clothes—a dark gray T-shirt that had seen a few washes and a pair of worn jeans—instead of the crisp, sterile surgical scrubs I’d seen him in the one other time I saw him.

“Ainsley.” He smiled, the expression instant and genuine as he stepped back to let me in without a second’s hesitation. “Come on in. Rhys is upstairs finishing a paper, but he shouldn’t be long. Unless he fell asleep at his desk, which is a fifty-percent possibility.”

I laughed softly and stepped inside, kicking off my flip-flops by the door. He closed the door behind me with a soft, heavy click that shut out the hum of the neighborhood outside.

“You want something to drink? I just made a fresh batch of iced tea, and if I don’t get someone else to drink it, I’m going to consume three gallons of sugar by myself.”

I grinned. “I’d love some, thank you.”

The kitchen was just as fancy as I remembered it from Thursday, a sprawling expanse of light oak cabinetry, polished quartz counters, and high-end stainless steel appliances that looked almost too pristine to belong to just two men, though there were tiny signs of actual life scattered around—a half-empty glass of water by the sink, a folded newspaper on the corner island, a set of car keys resting on a leather tray, and a stack of medical journals sitting beside a block of knives. I settled onto one of the tall, leather-topped barstools at the central island while he pulled a heavy glass pitcher out of the fridge, pulling two tall glasses down from a cabinet.

“So,” he said, sliding a glass across the quartz counter toward me, the condensation immediately pooling around its base and leaving a slick ring on the stone. “Did he convince you to come over under the guise of a quiet afternoon, or did he already confess that Landon will be here too?”