feel his warm breath as he let out a masculine sigh. “I never realized the nickname hurt you, Lia,” he said huskily. “It was never meant as anything more than a term of endearment.”
My heart somersaulted inside my chest as his tender, contemplative gaze swept over me. I had a love/hate relationship with that look.
I loved the fact that Zeke always cared enough to try to read my emotions.
And…I hated it because I’d never seen anything except concerned friendship in that assessing glance.
Exasperated, and remorseful that I’d snapped at him, I released his shirt and let him move away. “You never hurt me, Zeke, and sometimes I like it when you call me Jellybean because I know it’s meant to be…affectionate,” I confessed. “I guess I’m just being pissy because I’m trying to tell you something from my heart, and you’re treating me like I have no idea what I’m talking about.”
I shivered as he reached out and pushed a wayward lock of blonde hair from my eyes, his fingers gently brushing my cheek as he performed the loving gesture. “You’re out of your head, Lia. You know I have complete respect for anything you have to say, but I was also the guy who watched you put away nearly as many drinks as a college frat boy could handle tonight. So yeah, maybe I’m not taking you seriously at the moment because I’ve been just as shitfaced as you are right now, and when I was, nothing I said really made sense. I’ll be surprised if you even remember any of this tomorrow.”
I rolled my eyes like a sulky adolescent, and flopped back onto my pillow. I shot Zeke a look that probably would have killed him if the daggers coming from my eyes were actually real weapons.
Unfortunately, Zeke didn’t even flinch at my furious stare. “Have I mentioned how adorable you are when you’re drunk angry?” he asked, his deep baritone so cajoling that I knew he was trying to tease me out of being pissed off.
I didn’t answer.
“Come on, Lia,” he coaxed. “You know it kills me when you’re angry at me. Give a guy a break. I did carry you when your feet got tangled up with your high heels, right? Not that I’d ever mind carrying you when you couldn’t walk, but you could at least toss a couple of brownie points in my direction.”
I pulled my gaze away from his face because I knew what was coming. The two of us rarely had big disagreements, but on the rare occasions when we had, Zeke would hound me relentlessly until he found a way to get me laughing again.
It had never taken him very long to accomplish that mission, either. One glance at the silly, puppy dog look he always used to get me to relent usually did the trick.
Damn those sexy eyes of his that could speak volumes without him saying a single word. Once those slightly pleading baby blues caught and locked onto my gaze, I always caved in like a building that had been hit with a massive amount of dynamite.
Not. This. Time.
My eyes stayed stubbornly planted on my bedroom wall. I didn’t feel like laughing right now.
He got to his feet. “Okay, so maybe you need a little more time?” he asked hesitantly before he started to stroll toward the bedroom door.
“Where are you going?” I yelled irritably to his retreating figure before I flopped back against my pillow.
“I’ll be back,” he called.
I tried to decide if the bed was really starting to spin, or if it was just my imagination, as I listened to him rummage around in the kitchen.
It wasn’t like it was difficult to hear every move he made.
My new apartment was tiny, but I loved it. I’d just moved out of my grandmother’s house a few weeks ago because I’d gotten promoted to manager at the coffee shop I worked in.
Someday, I desperately wanted to open my own place, but in the meantime, I was learning everything I could about the business of all things coffee. When the time came for me to launch my own store, I was going to be ready, and I planned on giving customers a coffee paradise that would keep bringing them back for more.
I sighed as Zeke sauntered back into the room. It wasn’t easy having a male best friend who looked like him. Especially not when I wanted to be so much more than just his friend. How could I