to get her a wet washcloth for her head. I smirk, turning to walk away with Bowen. When I look back over my shoulder, her jaw is still unhinged, her mouth ready to catch flies.
The minute I looped my arm through his arm, I got shocked, jumping a bit. “I must have static, sorry.”
Bowen steers me away from the group, bending down to whisper in my ear. “Or we just have a spark.”
I flush with desire. One sentence from him and I turn to a puddle of lust. How has he always had this effect on me?
“This best man gig has given you some confidence,” I joke as we walk to the door to exit Kip’s.
Main Street is quiet, with most of Fawn Hill having locked their doors and gone to sleep now that it’s well past ten p.m. Bowen and I walk next to each other, not touching but our steps and our bodies in rhythm. It feels intimate, walking alone down the streets we grew up on. They know so much of our history, are part of the landscape of our relationship.
“I’ve always had confidence; you just haven’t seen it in a while.” He smirks.
“No, I haven’t. It’s … attractive,” I confess, butterflies fluttering in my stomach.
“You look beautiful.” Bowen’s gaze warms my face.
His compliment sends tingles through my body. “It’s just the dress … I wouldn’t normally wear something so tight …”
I skim my hands down the burnt orange fit and flare dress that falls to my mid-calf. It’s a corset design on top, and I’m showing more cleavage than I have in years, but I fell in love with the unique design and had to wear it.
“Notice how I didn’t say tonight? You don’t look beautiful tonight. You look beautiful all the time. I can never seem to keep my eyes off you.”
I blink at him as we turn off Main Street and into the neighborhood that funnels out into streets beyond, one of those being my condo community. Bowen is charming tonight, and something about the wedding gives a rose-colored tint to the world. Nothing bad can happen this weekend, and the love that’s always existed between us is a stronger force than I’ve felt in a long time.
“You’re making me blush.” I smile, looking away.
“Good. You deserve to be told. I … regret not being able to tell you every day of the past ten years.” He reaches for my hand.
I lace my fingers through his, loving the feel of his rough calluses beneath.
“Can I say something without sounding … insensitive?” I proceed cautiously.
“Of course.” His head dips, the long dark mop on the top of his head falling out of its carefully created swoop.
“This is weird.” I giggle nervously.
Bowen chuckles too. “I know.”
“I’m used to you avoiding me. To thinking that you hate me. We fell into this pattern of smoldering avoidance, with tense interactions and now …”
“Now we’re holding hands while I walk you home?”
“Yes!” I say, laughing more. “It’s just weird.”
“But good weird?” Bowen asks.
“Yes, good weird. But it feels like I’m in some kind of time warp. As if no years have passed us by at all. Is it possible to feel this connected after what’s happened between us?”
He glances out into the darkness as we turn onto the court where my townhouse is, a pensive look on his face. I take the couple of seconds he’s quiet with his thoughts to admire the steel cut of his jaw. And the way his eyelashes are long and almost girlish, the only feminine attribute he possesses.
“I think, that if you share something as strong as we do, it’s possible.”
Bowen doesn’t say the word love, but he might as well have. My heart pounds in my chest, and before I realize where we are, the three steps up to my front door appear at my feet.
His hand unlatches from mine, but instead of dropping to his side, it travels up my wrist and to my shoulder, where he uses it to pull me in closer.
“I’m not going to ask to come up or accept an invite to. I said I’d walk you home, and we’re taking it slow. Doesn’t mean I don’t want to, though.”
Bowen’s blue eyes flash in the dark as he says this last part. It makes all the parts south of my waist tingle with anticipation. Of next time.
“I’ll see you tomorrow?” I swallow after asking the dumb question because my throat is dry and of course I’ll see