the other for. And now that he was thinking clearly he realized that. So that meant no more. No more. Never.
Next time he saw her, he was going to make sure she knew that.
Anna was beneath three blankets, and she was starting to swelter. If she hadn’t been too lazy to sit up and grab hold of her ice-cream container, she might not be quite so sweaty.
The fact that she was something of a cliché of what it meant to be a woman behind closed doors was not lost on her. Blankets, old movies, Ben & Jerry’s. But hey, she spent most of the day up to her elbows in engine grease, so she supposed she was entitled to a few stereotypes.
She reached her spoon out from beneath the blankets and scraped the top of the ice cream in the container, gathering up a modest amount.
“Oklahoma!” she sang, humming the rest of the line while taking the bite of marshmallow and chocolate ice cream and sighing as the sugar did its good work. Full-fat dairy products were the way to happiness. Or at least the best way she knew to stop from obsessing.
Her phone buzzed and she looked down, cringing when she saw Chase’s name. She swiped open the lock screen and read the message.
In your driveway. Didn’t want to give you a heart attack.
Why are you in my dr—
She didn’t get a chance to finish the message before there was a knock on her front door.
She closed her eyes, groaning. She really didn’t want to deal with him right now. In fact, he was the last person on earth she wanted to deal with. He was the reason she was currently baking beneath a stack of blankets, seeking solace in the bosom of old movies.
Still, she couldn’t ignore him. That would make things weirder. He was still her best friend, even if she had— Well, she wasn’t going to think about what she had. If she ignored him, it would only cater to the weirdness. It would make events from earlier today seem more important than they needed to be. They did not need to be treated as though they were important.
Sure, she had never exactly done that with a man. Sure, she hadn’t even had sexual contact of any kind with a man for the past several years. And sure, she had never had that kind of contact with Chase. But that was no reason to go assigning meaning. People got ribbons and stickers for their first trips to the dentist. They did not get them for giving their first blow job.
She groaned. Then she rolled off the couch, pushing herself into a standing position before she padded through the small living area to the entryway. She jerked the door open, pushing her hair out of her face and trying to look casual.
Too late, she realized that she was wearing her pajamas. Which were perfectly decent, in that they covered every inch of her body. But they were also baggy, fuzzy and covered in porcupines.
All things considered, it just wasn’t the most glorious of moments.
“Hello,” she said, keeping her body firmly planted in the center of the doorway.
“Hi,” he returned. Then he proceeded to study her pajamas.
“Porcupines,” she informed him, just for something to say.
“Good choice. Not an obvious one.”
“I guess not. Considering they aren’t all that cuddly. But neither am I. So maybe it’s a more obvious choice than it originally appears.”
“Maybe. We’ll have to debate animal-patterned pajama philosophy another time.”
“I guess. What exactly did you come here to debate if not that?”
He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Nothing. I just came to...check on you.”
“Sound of body and mind.”
“I see that. Except you’re in your pajamas at seven o’clock.”
“I’m preparing for an evening in,” she said, planting her hand on her hip. “So pajamas are logical.”
“Okay.”
She frowned. “I’m fine.”
“Can I come in?”
She was frozen for a moment, not quite sure what to say. If she let him come in...well, she didn’t feel entirely comfortable with the idea of letting him in. But if she didn’t let him in, then she would be admitting that she was uncomfortable letting him in. Which would betray the fact that she actually wasn’t really all that okay. She didn’t want to do that, either.
No wonder she had avoided sexual contact for so long. It introduced all manner of things that she really didn’t want to deal with.
“Sure,” she said finally, stepping to the side and allowing him entry.
He just stood there, filling up the entry. She had never really noticed that before. How large he was in the small space of her home. Because he was Chase, and his presence here shouldn’t really be remarkable. It was now.
Because things had changed. She had changed them. She had kissed him the other day, and then...well, she had changed things.
“There. You are in,” she said, moving away from him and heading back into the living room. She took a seat on the couch, picking up the remote control and muting the TV.
“Movie night?”
“Every night is movie night with enough popcorn and a can-do attitude.”
“I admire your dedication. What’s on?”
“Oklahoma!”
He raised his brows. “You haven’t seen that enough times?”
“There is no such thing as seeing a musical too many times, Chase. Multiple viewings only enhance the experience.”
“Do they?”
“Sing-alongs, of course.”
“I should have known.”
She smiled, putting a blanket back over her lap, thinking of it as a sort of flannel shield. “You should know these things about me. Really, you should know everything about me.”
He cleared his throat, and the sudden awkwardness made her think of all the things he didn’t know about her. And the things that he did know. It hit her then—of course, right then, as he was standing in front of her—just how revealing what had happened earlier was.
Giving a guy pleasure like that...well, a woman didn’t do that unless she wanted him. It said a lot about how she felt. About how she had felt for an awfully long time. No matter that she had tried to quash it, the fact remained that she did feel attraction for him. Which he was obviously now completely aware of.
Silence fell like a boulder between them. Crushing, deadly.
“Anyway,”
