Total pages in book: 176
Estimated words: 164533 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 823(@200wpm)___ 658(@250wpm)___ 548(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164533 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 823(@200wpm)___ 658(@250wpm)___ 548(@300wpm)
Our eyes locked, and my throat grew dry. “Rhys,” I whispered, and something flared in his eyes hearing me utter his name. His attention lowered to my mouth, and I thought he might kiss me. I wanted him to kiss me more than anything.
The moment hung between us, but then I saw the very second his hesitation kicked in because his hand left me, and I instantly mourned the loss.
Rhys cleared his throat as he drew away. “That should start to work in a few minutes,” he said then left the room like he couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
10.
Charli
I sat on the bed for several minutes after Rhys left, wondering if I’d done something wrong. Maybe my attraction to him wasn’t as reciprocated as my wishful imagination wanted to believe. God, had I been giving off desperate vibes, my eyes begging for him to kiss me? I wanted to stand under a cold shower just so the shock of it would wash away my embarrassment.
No, I needed to quit overthinking things. For all I knew, Rhys simply left because he’d finished applying the balm, and it was the polite thing to do.
Slipping off my pants and crawling into bed to sleep and rest my shoulder, the menthol balm continued tingling warmly, easing a good deal of the pain.
I overslept the next morning, not waking until a little after ten. Finally, the jet lag had shifted, and I was sleeping on Irish time. Rising, I was relieved when I rotated my shoulder, and it felt much better. Only a small measure of stiffness remained, and I was glad I hadn’t gone to the hospital since it was clearly only a pulled muscle. I needed to get into better shape or, at the very least, start learning how to lift heavy boxes correctly.
Heading into my bathroom, I turned on the shower and stepped under the hot spray. I’d just started shampooing my hair when I heard someone step into my bedroom.
“Charli, are you in here?” Nuala called out.
“I’m showering. I’ll just be a couple minutes,” I called back then heard her step close to the door before nudging it open a little.
“Morning, babe. I have some exciting news,” she said, not at all awkward to be talking to me while I showered.
“Oh?” I questioned, rinsing out the last of the shampoo before applying my coconut conditioner.
“Mam and Dad are away for a charity event down in Wicklow tonight, and they won’t be home until late, so we have the house to ourselves. I was thinking we could order pizza and have a movie marathon. There are also some cocktail recipes I’ve been dying to try.”
I smiled because she really did sound excited at the prospect of a girls’ night.
“That sounds great.”
“Oh, and I hope you don’t mind, but I asked Derek if he thought Milly might want to join us. After I heard about what happened with the prank the other night, I’ve wanted to reach out to her. We share some classes at school, but I don’t know her very well.”
“What did Derek say?”
“He’s going to call her and extend the invite. Hopefully, she says yes.”
“Fingers crossed,” I said, and she finally left me alone to finish my shower.
It was only later in the day Nuala realised the error in her plan for a girls’ night. Sure, her parents were out, but that didn’t mean her brothers weren’t going to be around. Milly had just arrived, and Nuala and I gave her a warm welcome. We then went into the kitchen and were trying out Nuala’s recipe for Cosmopolitans when the boys decided to gatecrash.
Derek, Tristan, Theo, Aidan, and Rhys barrelled into the kitchen, throwing a definite wrench in our plans. It was Nuala’s mistake asking Derek to invite Milly. By the way he looked at the girl, I doubted there was any chance he could keep away when she was at his house.
I wasn’t surprised that I felt a little awkward seeing Rhys for the first time since last night’s encounter. I was nervous because I’d been mostly confident he liked me back. Maybe his attraction wasn’t as strong as mine, but I believed it wasn’t entirely unreciprocated. I wasn’t so sure anymore because if he’d ever wanted to kiss me, last night, alone in my room with the door closed, was the ideal moment. But he hadn’t. He’d left without a single backward glance.
I started to think back on our interactions, questioning everything. There’d been moments when I was flirtatious, and his responses could’ve simply been him trying to be polite. I mean, sometimes it felt like he was flirting back, but perhaps he hadn’t been.
Nuala frowned at her brothers and folded her arms. “What are you all doing here?”
“We do live here, too,” Tristan replied. “You didn’t think we were gonna let you have the place all to yourselves with Mam and Dad away, did you?”