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“I wouldn’t envision it helping,” I ansith a knowing srimace as my oeird relationship vices start to filter into my head And for so hih, I don’t have any roo and relationship track record isn’t good either And I wasn’t evaluating prospective boyfriends by their place on the success ladder In fact, I li but trouble It’s like I kept wanting every relationship to be doomed from the start”

“And what about now?” he asks “With me?”

His question s But for the first time in my whole life, I put , what I’

“I think… I ain “I find myself completely infatuated with you too, Ryan” Holy hell This is so not like s so plainly There’s a part of me that wants to stop time and shove those words back down o back

“You are?” he asks, his face glowing like the moon in the sky

“Yeah,” I answer, but th of e “I am You’re special Like, pretty much one of a kind And I don’t kno it’d be possible for anything to change my mind about that”

His gaze searches mine, and his eyes are too intense, too deep, too much

“Gah Don’tof it” The words fly from my lips, and immediately, I feel my cheeks heat I throw myself back onto the blanket and shield ”

His responding chuckles fill the air, and before I know it, he’s lying besidemy body on top of his

“Carly, look at me,” he says, and I shake my head, still determined to keep my face covered

He chuckles again “Sweetheart, look at me”

Hesitantly, I reht there, his nose al back at me with the kind of tenderness that makes my heart do cartwheels inside my chest

“You’re not the only one who’sfor the Life Alert button,” he whispers, and the humor of his Sunny Creek-themed joke fills me with instant relief, but also makes all of this—the prospect of an us—far more real

“I’ the hell out ofover the sounds of the sea

Thankfully, he chuckles “You too?”