“One date, Selene. One date,” he says, growing serious. His warm gaze sweeps across my face, lingering on my mouth and eyes. It’s like he can’t decide where he wants to split his time.
My chest squeezes painfully, and sadness enters my heart. “I can’t.”
He doesn’t say anything for a while. We just continue staring at one another, soaking each other in.
“That’s fair,” he finally says after some time. My younger self is screaming at how stupid and idiotic I am. “Doesn’t mean I can’t change your mind.”
I raise a brow at him, waiting for him to elaborate. “And how do you plan on doing that?”
He shrugs, a small, confident smile stealing over his handsome features. “Courting you, of course.”
A loud laugh bursts past my lips. My eyes widen, and I slap a hand over my mouth, trying to take it back. If possible, his grin widens. “Give me more of that, Selene.”
“More of what?”
“More of your smiles. Your laughter. More of everything. I’ll take whatever you’re willing to give me.”
A heaviness settles between us—a brand-new form of tension created by the man sitting next to me.
“I’m serious, Endymion. We can’t…I can’t.”
A frown steals over my face when he pushes to his feet and smirks down at me. “I heard you, but that doesn’t mean I can’t change your mind. Good night, Selene.”
I watch slack-jawed as he crosses over the hill, leaving me to my own turbulent thoughts. Just before he disappears, he shoots an impish grin over his shoulder that I feel down to my bones. It has my pulse skyrocketing, and my heart threatening to burst out of my chest, squeezing between my ribs.
Once he’s out of sight, I flop back on the grass, staring up at the starry sky. The moon is still there, hanging just as proudly as she was before. I lie there for a while, trying to process what just happened.
Endymion asked me out.
He wants to court me.
How the hell am I going to say no?
It’s been two days since the night at the creek with Selene, and I’ve yet to accomplish any kind of courting. I never had to go out of my way to chase after a woman before. I wasn’t expecting her to agree right away to the idea of a date, but hell, I didn’t expect the flat-out no I’d gotten either. That was a first.
And oddly, I found I liked it.
It was a challenge.
There was a thrill there, something I haven’t felt with a woman in God knows how long. It was thrilling, knowing I held so much space in her mind in her younger years. It makes me wonder if she still has those lingering thoughts. Does she still harbor any of those feelings toward me? Is any part of that crush still there?
The real kicker for me is how blind I was in my youth. How did I miss it? How did I miss her crush on me? If it’s as obvious as everyone is making it out to be, how had I never noticed?
I am still trying to process, trying to think of a way to court her. I know next to nothing about her. None of the guys know anything about her either. It seems my best sources of information are her family, and I’m not sure how to broach the subject.
As if on cue, I spot her little shadow before I see her. Luna, for the third time within the last two hours, slips outside again and finds a spot for herself next to me on the board I’m sitting on. The kid is an absolute riot. She’s an entity of her own. And I find I enjoy her presence more than I should.
“Hey, End,” she says calmly, a Red Vine hanging out of the corner of her mouth.
“Miss Luna,” I reply in greeting. She adopts my exact pose. Her brows pinch together as she stares out at the guys working. Apparently, that’s the severity of my face out here as I look after the guys.
A thought suddenly strikes me since I have her sitting here next to me. I shift on the board, turning toward her the slightest bit.
“Hey, you know, since I have you here, I thought I’d pick your brain.”
She grunts, taking a bite of her Red Vine. “Eww. I don’t want you touching my brain.”
A chuckle gets caught in my chest. “No, it means I have questions for you, specifically about your mom, that