Falling for Fallon (Oak Hill 2)

He smiled brightly at me, flashing his charm. His smile was so warm and inviting. I quickly tried to replace the warmth he set through my body with a cool, detached feeling, but I was left feeling like I’d touched the sun. He was dangerous… so, so dangerous.

“How did you even find me?” I asked, lowering my hands from my hips. I breezed past him, and it was almost as if his scent followed me. He smelled like a tasty indulgence of temptation, and it only lured me in further.

“Is it a problem that I’m here?” he questioned, turning his body and following me into the kitchen area. I stood back behind the counter, and when he reached the other side, he leaned his hands down on top of it. My eyes raked down his arms, noticing the toned bulges peeking out from below his t-shirt sleeves. Slowly, my eyes trailed upward to his face, but they paused, just for a second, on the collar of his shirt. It was pulled down, just barely, on one side, and I could see the tiniest, sliver of dark ink. A fire from deep within erupted in raging flames as I tried to imagine what was underneath his shirt’s entirety.

Whew. I need an ice water.

I finally managed to shake myself out of my trance and answer him. “Kind of.”

God, if my mom decided to walk over here, and saw some guy standing in my kitchen, she would lose it. What if Derek showed up right now? He said last night, after the lovely family dinner, that he’d be over sometime today to “talk.” Why couldn’t he just call me? I had no idea.

I didn’t want anyone from my family—or this… life—to even come close to Emmett, because everything and everyone that they touched suddenly became tarnished.

Ruined.

Anything that was within a ten-mile radius of this town would simply ruin my fantasy of Emmett, and I couldn’t have that. It was all I had to begin with!

“Why is it a problem?”

I stared back at Emmett, sensitive to the spark his dark eyes set forth.

“Because.”

Emmett’s dark brows slanted. “Are you not allowed to have… friends?”

I rolled my eyes again, feeling frustrated. “I can have friends, Emmett.”

Emmett leveled me with a stare, and I suddenly felt nervous. What was I wearing? How did my hair look? Was I even wearing lip gloss? Don’t look down, Fallon. Don’t!

I looked down and saw that I was wearing yoga pants and a black, skin-tight tank top. I was doing yoga before Mallory banged on my door and pulled me outside to sit with her and Katie while she “tanned” her legs.

It was only the beginning of spring. The sun wasn’t strong enough to tan her bony-ass legs, but like I said, she was an idiot.

Emmett’s voice had my head snapping up from my attire. “You look fine, Fallon.” Then he beamed that coy smile at me.

I think my heart just skipped a beat.

“Hmm,” he murmured, running his hand through his dark locks. “I’m gonna guess… that you’re freaking out because… of this.” Emmett inched his hand over to the right, and before I knew what he was doing, he snatched my notebook from off the end of the counter and flipped it open. He slammed his finger down and pointed to the title of my bucket list.

WHY DID HE HAVE TO SEE THAT RIDICULOUS THING?!

I didn’t have to read the word that his finger was pointing to because I knew that it was inching toward “marry.” I still couldn’t get over the fact that he saw that crazy thing! I only created it in the midst of a mental breakdown after dinner with Derek’s and my parents last night. I knew I shouldn’t have gone back to Oak Hill, but I went anyway. There I was, right there in Ships, scribbling furiously in a notebook, pretending that I didn’t want Emmett to show up but hoping with everything in my body that he did.

“Am I right?” he asked, moving his finger off the paper.

“My life is complicated, Emmett. That’s why I said we can’t be friends.”

“Are you engaged?”

I blinked rapidly, looking anywhere but at his face.

“Not yet, but I will be.”

“So you have a boyfriend?”

“Why are you here?!” I asked again, finally looking at his face.

Emmett’s jaw worked back and forth as he pushed off the top of the counter. He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest again. My heart thumped, because as much as I was pushing him away, poking him to just leave, I wanted him to stay. I wanted it in the worst of ways.