She began to nod, relieving for an instant the knot that formed in his stomach halfway through his declaration, and then she stopped. “I need to know what I’m agreeing to exactly first. You say you’ll probably suck at it. I don’t want you to mistake me needing more to mean more often. At the risk of sounding greedy, I have to be completely honest. I’ve never done the relationship thing either, but I know now I can’t do the open kind.”

“Open?”

She nodded, clearing her throat. “I’m not sure what you’re proposing exactly, but you have a lot of girl . . . friends. I can’t do a relationship where we’re seeing each other but will still see others on the side.”

What she was saying—thinking he might be proposing—hit him suddenly. “Hell no! I don’t want that either.” He leaned his forehead against hers, taking her face in his hands. “Have you not seen my reaction to you with someone else already? I think I’ve made it pretty clear that I’d definitely have a problem with an open relationship. And, of course, that would go both ways.” He kissed her softly. “I meant I might suck at the formalities: remembering anniversaries, being romantic and saying the right things when I’m supposed to—that kind of stuff. But if I’m doing this with you, then it’s only you.”

Finally, the hesitant expression gave way to a smile. “Okay,” she said softly.

The smile was once again plastered on his face. He’d never felt so relieved in his life. He kissed her again a little longer this time then brought his leg over the bench to straddle it. He then pulled her leg over too then over his thigh and pulled her closer to him. To his surprise, she lifted her other leg over his other thigh also and brought her arms around his neck. She was now straddling him, and he was only glad her behind was still on the bench or she might feel just how turned on this made him.

“So how does this work?” he asked, leaning against her forehead. “Do we like wear matching outfits and give each other nicknames?” She laughed so heartily and sweetly he had to laugh too. “Well, I don’t know.” He feigned feeling slighted by her laughing at him. “I’ve never done this.”

“I’ve never done it either,” she said, still laughing.

“Really? That surprises me. Never? Not even come close like seeing someone or something?”

She wasn’t laughing anymore and even looked away for the first time since they tangled up the way they were now. He rubbed her back. “All right, this is good,” he said, feeling his muscles getting a little tense already. “I may’ve never been in a relationship before, but I’ve been around people who have and have a couple of close friends who are in them. This is a huge thing for them and will be for me too, okay? Honesty. Complete honesty.”

He lifted her chin because she was looking down again, avoiding his eyes. When he had her full attention, he spoke again. “The closest I’ve ever had to a relationship was with a girl I thought I was falling for, but she moved away, and even then we kept it up via texts and phone calls. Turned out she wasn’t nearly as serious as I was, because she started seeing someone else.” He’d take this honesty thing a little further to make a point about how serious he was. “It was the same girl you saw me with at the fight, the one that sat with me in the front row. But we’re just friends now, and she was just out here visiting.” Charlee lifted an eyebrow and he kissed it. “I sent her packing that night to go look for you, remember?” That reminder seemed to ease her a bit. “Now.” He pulled her even closer to him so her legs were practically around his waist. “Your turn.”

Staring at her, he tried to understand why she seemed so uncomfortable suddenly when she’d been laughing so happily just moments ago. What difference did it make if she had been in a relationship in the past? As long as it was just that—in the past.

She was sitting so close to him with her arms and legs around him that he could feel how tense this conversation was making her. Whatever it was, he was getting it out of her now because he didn’t like how whatever it was had changed the mood so abruptly. This could be someone she wasn’t over yet, and he braced himself, his muscles going even tauter as that thought sunk in.

Chapter 23

It was so unfair, and Charlee cursed Danny that even after all this time thoughts of him could almost ruin what should be one of the best days of her life. She hated that Hector’s playfulness was gone and he was now staring at her with that same intensity she’d seen in him before. It wasn’t that she had anything to hide from him. It was just so humiliating. Not even Drew brought it up much because she knew that Charlee had been so mortified by the whole thing that she hated talking about it.

She took a deep breath, trying to come up with a short and sweet version of the truth. “I’ve never had a boyfriend, nor have I ever been in a relationship where I was seeing someone. But like you, I thought I’d started seeing someone last year. That’s what he made it feel like anyway, and it turned out I wasn’t even close.” She smiled, leaning in and kissing him in the hopes that they’d drop it.

“That’s it?” He asked, not looking the least bit satisfied.

Trying to appear as happy as she’d been moments before the thought of Danny had come barreling into her wonderful day, she nodded. “In a nutshell.”

To her surprise, the corner of his lip went up, but he lifted a brow, taking the lightheartedness out of what might’ve been a playful smile. “Do you realize you blink really fast when you’re lying?”