He frowned. “What do you mean?”
She hadn’t really meant to say that, or to get into a discussion about their relationship on the sticky dance floor, but her doubts were getting the best of her. She wanted so much to be with Rhett in a way that was real, yet at the same time it freaked her out. Shouldn’t she want to be independent? Shouldn’t she be ticked like his sisters that he had crashed her girl’s night?
“I don’t know,” was her cop-out response.
But Rhett shook his head. “Don’t pull that. You know you can trust me. Tell me what you’re feeling.”
Shit. How did she explain her jumbled thoughts and feelings?
“It’s just that . . . well, I think about you every day, Rhett. I want to please you, I want to be with you all the time . . . I feel like I’m being absorbed by you. It scares the shit out of me.”
Just hearing her own words had her heart rate increasing. It sounded crazy. She was crazy for him.
He didn’t look particularly alarmed. His nostrils flared and if anything, he looked aroused. “That’s funny, because I feel the same way, yet my understanding was that this is how falling in love works, Shawn.”
“Falling in love?” she asked dumbly. Was he saying he loved her?
“Yes. Falling in love. Which is what I’m doing.” He softly brushed her hair off her cheek. “Do you think that is what you’re doing?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Maybe. Yes.” Way to commit. She mentally kicked herself. Then she took a deep breath and added, “Yes. I am falling in love with you.”
She’d never said those words to anyone. Not even to her high school boyfriend, who she had been sure she would spend the rest of her life with. She’d never told a man she loved him. While this was still one step away from that, it was pretty damn close. Her cheeks burned with the overwhelming realization of what was happening. This was it. This was major.
He smiled at her. “So what do we do now?”
Hell if she knew. “I guess we dance. And we live together. And tomorrow we have a wedding reception.”
Rhett’s thumb rubbed over her bottom lip. “So pragmatic. Where’s the romance, darlin’?”
That made her grin back at him, relieved that he knew her so well already that he was lightening the mood. That he was allowing her to steer this conversation. “Read a novel,” she told him. “You’re barking up the wrong tree if you want a gushy girl.”
“Oh, I think I can get you to gush a little . . . you get more romantic in bed than you realize.”
“I wasn’t aware that begging was romantic,” she said wryly.
But Rhett shook his head. “That’s not what I was referring to. I was thinking more about the way your eyes darken and your skin flushes and the way your fingers trace my face like you can’t quite believe I’m real.”
It was true. She did all that. And she blushed anew to realize that he was so aware of her and her reactions. “Sometimes I wonder if you are real,” she whispered. “Sometimes I think that I’m going to wake up with the clock rewound and find none of the last two weeks has happened.”
“How would that make you feel?”
“Heartbroken,” she told him truthfully.
“Me, too.” His green eyes were shiny with sincerity.
A tap on her arm made Shawn jump. She glanced over and saw Eve and Nolan watching them in amusement.
“You do know you’re slow dancing to nothing, don’t you? The music stopped sixty seconds ago.”
Oh, Lord, she was right. The dance floor was completely empty except for them.
“But the rhythm of my heart is beating like a drum,” Rhett said, deadpan.
Shawn lost it, laughter spilling out. That was such a Rhett comeback, and she loved it.
Nolan shook his head. “Bro, my hat is off to you. You managed to find the one woman in the world who doesn’t think you’re a freak.”
• • •
RHETT opened the back door of Harley’s car for Shawn and eyed his wife’s backside as she climbed in.
“I saw that,” Eve told him, sliding past him to follow Shawn into the car.
“I don’t care,” he told her with an unrepentant grin. “And why aren’t you going with Nolan? Not that I don’t enjoy your presence thoroughly, but I would think you’d want to go home with your husband.”
“He has to drive Jared home. He’s shit-faced. I’m dead on my feet, so I’ll get back faster this way.”
“So Harley’s dropping you first, then us?”
“Yes. It’s on the way,” she said defensively.
It was a toss-up whether it was or not, but Rhett didn’t care to argue. He was damn happy. Happy as a dead pig in the sunshine. So he just smiled at her and got in the car. “Switch seats with me, Eve. I want to sit next to Shawn.”
“Kiss my butt,” was her reply. “You can fondle her later. I’m not climbing over the top of you so you can sit next to her. God, so high school.”
“You are tired,” he commented. That was a bit sharp even for Eve.
“I’m exhausted. I drank just enough to dance like a fool, but not enough to not feel the crash. So don’t piss me off or I’ll cream your corn.”
“I’m not afraid of you, big talker.” Rhett leaned around her to talk to Shawn, intentionally getting his elbow in Eve’s face. “Baby, I hope we don’t need to be anywhere first thing tomorrow because I’m not ready for sleeping yet. I’ve got at least two hours in me.”
“Gross,” was Charity’s opinion from the front passenger seat.
He just laughed. Shawn smiled at him, bundled up in her coat. Eve pinched his arm.
“Move it,” she said.
Settling back, he found himself feeling very conversational. “So Harley, you’re quiet up there. Did you have fun?”
“It was fine,” was Harley’s clipped reply from the front seat.
Charity snorted.
“Wrong question, hon,” Shawn told him in a warning voice.
Was it wrong that he was more interested in the fact that Shawn had called him “hon” than whatever was bothering Harley?
The thought guilted him into saying, “I’m sorry, Harley. Didn’t mean to poke a sore spot.”
“I didn’t know you were crushing on him,” Charity exploded at her sister. “If you would actually share something with me once in a while, I wouldn’t have kissed him. You know, it’s really very hurtful that you won’t let me in, Harley. I tell you everything.”