Running into Love
Page 8

Heading down the stairs with Muffin leading the way, we leave the building and walk in silence across the street to the park. I expect Muffin to do what she always does as soon as we make it to the grass—which is take care of business quickly before dragging me back home—but tonight is apparently not that kind of night. No, tonight my dog has decided she needs to sniff every single blade of grass and stop at every tree as we walk slowly down the tree-lined path.
“Your sisters seem nice,” he says, breaking the silence, and I turn to him and find his beautiful eyes on me.
“They are, but they are also crazy.” I kick a pebble, watching it fly through the air and bounce a few feet away before rolling into the grass.
“I doubt they have anything on my brothers.”
“You have brothers?” I tilt my head back toward him, again watching him smile.
“Yep, three. All younger.” Studying him with the dim light coming from the streetlamps above us, I try to guess how old he is.
“I’m thirty.” He nudges my shoulder with his, and I duck my head, wondering how he knew what I was thinking.
“How old are you?” he asks, stopping to let Muffin sniff another tree.
“Twenty-seven in three days.”
“You’re still a baby.”
“I guess if I were an old man I’d think twenty-seven was young, too.” I smile, enjoying the sound of his deep laugh as it rumbles through the quiet night. “So, do your brothers live in the city?”
“No, they all live in Connecticut near my parents, in the town we grew up in.” He stops and pulls me close to him as a man jogs by, then lets me go once he’s passed, and we resume walking. “Our mom would lose her mind if any one of them left with her grandkids.”
“Do all of your brothers have kids?”
“Yep.”
“But you live here in the city.”
“I do.”
“So you don’t have kids?” I surmise, watching a slow grin spread across his face.
“Nah, no kids. Not yet anyway.”
“Cool,” I mumble like an idiot, silently begging Muffin to hurry up so I can get home before I make an even bigger fool of myself.
“Are you cold?” he questions, and I realize I’ve half disappeared into my windbreaker, trying to escape the freezing wind that has suddenly picked up.
“A little. It’s been so warm during the day, I keep forgetting how cold the nights are.”
“Come here.” He wraps his arm around my shoulders, and my body stiffens. “Relax, I’m just keeping you warm.” Relax? Is he crazy? How the hell am I supposed to relax when he’s touching me? It’s bad enough being around him, let alone feeling his warmth against my side and his smell of clean soap and musk suffocating me. “What are your plans for your birthday?”
“I . . . um . . .” Oh god, he’s short-circuiting my brain. I can’t even get a full sentence out.
“That sounds fun.” He chuckles, and I smack his abs without thinking.
“Don’t make fun of me.”
“Gorgeous, I’m not making fun of you. I think you’re adorable when you get all flustered.”
“I’m not flustered,” I lie, trying with everything in me to ignore the butterflies in my stomach that have taken flight and the fact that he’s once again making me dizzy.
“It’s cute.”
“Whatever.” I pull my eyes from his, thanking the good lord above when Muffin starts to do her business, then curse under my breath when she looks at me, stops, and walks to another spot to start her search all over again.
“So what are your plans for your birthday?”
“My parents are coming into the city on Friday to take me to see The Lion King. Every year for my birthday we see a show—it’s a tradition.”
“That’s nice, but your birthday’s Tuesday, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So what are you doing on your birthday?”
“I don’t know. I have work the next day, so I’ll probably just order a pizza from Caminos and watch a movie or something.” God, that sounds lame, even to me.
“No boyfriend taking you out?” he asks, and his arm tightens around me ever so slightly on the word boyfriend.
“No . . . um, no boyfriend.” I pull my bottom lip between my teeth and bite hard to keep from asking why he wants to know.
“And your sisters aren’t taking you out?”
“After tonight, I think I need a break from them,” I mutter drily; his arm tightens, and his body shakes with laughter.
“That bad, huh?”
“I told you they’re crazy.”
“Well, if you want some company, I’m off Tuesday. Just knock on my door—we can hang out and order pizza.”
“Okay.” I nod, knowing I’d be more inclined to run naked through Times Square than knock on his door for any reason, let alone ask him to hang out with me on my birthday.
“She’ll never knock,” he says to himself, and I look up at him.
“Pardon?”
“You won’t knock. Hell, if I see you after tonight, I’ll be surprised.”
“What does that mean?” I frown, and his eyes scan my face.
“Since I moved in, you’ve been avoiding me. I don’t see that changing.”
“I haven’t been avoiding you,” I lie, wondering how the hell he knows I’ve been avoiding him. Have I been that obvious? I don’t think I have been.
“Babe, I’ve knocked on your door and heard you on the other side turn off the TV and play possum.”
Oh my god, how the hell did he hear that? “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I bet you don’t.” He sighs, and I can’t tell if it’s a sigh of annoyance or something else as his arm tightens again, forcing me deeper into his side as we stop at another tree.
“Good girl,” I call to Muffin when she finally takes care of business and turns her head toward the sound of my voice. Her ears perk up, and her tail wags, shaking her whole body as she gallops back toward us and bumps her nose into Levi’s thigh.
“Are you ready to head back?” he asks me while rubbing the top of her head.
“Sure.” I let out the breath I’ve been holding as he turns us around and leads us back through the park and across the street to the apartment building. Once we are both inside our building, I expect him to give me Muffin’s leash and remove his arm from around my shoulders, but he doesn’t. Instead he keeps us locked together side by side as we take the stairs with Muffin ahead of us. I want to dislike the way it feels being tucked almost protectively under his arm, but I don’t. Instead I’m wondering what kind of excuse I can make up to spend more time right where I am without actually having to admit to myself that I like him.
“If I don’t see you on your birthday, I hope you have a good time,” he says, letting me go once we reach the landing between his apartment and mine. Turning to face him, I take Muffin’s leash as he holds it out, then look up into his golden eyes.
“Thanks.”
“My pleasure.” His fingers touch the underside of my chin; then his thumb sweeps just below my bottom lip. Getting lost in the way he’s looking at me, I lean into his touch and hold my breath as his face starts to descend toward mine.
“Oh good, you’re back. I was just coming to check on you.” Mac breaks into the moment. I jump back a mile like I’ve been caught with my hand in the cookie jar, and I hear Levi curse quietly behind me. “Oh sorry, I thought you were out here alone,” Mac says, and I don’t even have to look at her to know she’s smirking.
“It’s fine, I was just coming in . . . um, night, Levi.” I wave in his direction without looking at him, then growl under my breath when Muffin tugs on her leash, preventing me from making my escape.
Feeling my face heat, I turn around and find my dog sitting at Levi’s side with his hand on the top of her head. “Go on in, girl,” he commands with a pat to her head, and Muffin looks up at him, then looks at me, but what she doesn’t do is move an inch.