The Girl Who Fell(31)

Alec moves back, runs his fingers through his hair. “You can’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“That.” He points his finger up and down the length of me. “You’re too . . . God, I don’t know. I can’t even think straight. You need to take, like, five steps back at least.”

I move to my dresser, intoxicated by his fumbling. I grab a bra, folding it into a small square that I can palm.

“What’s that?”

“Just a bra. I need to go change.”

A shyness shades over his face. “Can I ask you something?”

“About my bra? Um . . . why does that make me nervous?”

He shakes off his inquiry. “Yeah, no. It’s stupid. Forget it.”

I laugh, now curious. “No. What? Now you have to ask. It’ll be all weird if you don’t.”

Alec blushes, looks down at his socks. “It’s just . . . well, there’s this thing I’ve always wondered about. Like if it can really be done.”

“Okay, now I’m officially curious.”

He blushes deeper. “I can’t.”

“Just say it.” He looks too cute. Too lost.

“Okay.” He pulls in a deep breath, steadying. “Can you do that thing where you take off your bra through your arm hole?”

Hah! That? “All girls can do that.”

“Really?”

“Of course.”

“Would you show me?”

“Show you?”

“No, it’s stupid. I told you it was stupid.”

Maybe it is. Or isn’t. I don’t know. “It’s . . . well, it’s a little more complicated with a sports bra.”

“Yeah, that’s okay. Forget it.”

I watch Alec look around the edge of my bed, unable to make eye contact with me. He is sweet in his embarrassment and I feel almost bad for him. I reach through one arm, pull out the strap. “Is this what you meant?”

Alec lifts his head, his face an ocean of heat.

I pull out the other arm. Nerves hum over and under my skin as his eyes stay fixed on me. It is an effort not to turn away, keep myself from being on display. But I don’t. From under the front of my shirt, I tug the bra down over my hips, wriggling it free.

It takes Alec a beat to find words. “You might be the coolest girl in the universe.”

“It’s that easy?” I say, trying to pretend it was easy.

He smiles. “Might be.”

I drop my sports bra into the hamper. “Okay, now can I change?”

Alec stands, moves behind me. “Please don’t.” His hands round my hips and he presses his long body against my back. I reach my hands to cover his and he breathes out a noise that is both heavy sigh and small moan. My pulse thunders. “Thank you, Zephyr.”

“For what?”

“For trusting me enough to do that in front of me.”

But I liked it. The rush.

Alec steers me to the edge of the bed, moves out from behind me and takes a seat. My heartbeat ricochets against my chest. I force myself to breathe.

Alec takes one hand, pats the bed next to him with the other. I slip beside him. He moves me deeper onto the bed until his legs curl around mine, his arm draping over my stomach. “Is it okay if we just lie here together?”

I want that. To just lie here.

Alec’s fingers mine my hair, excavating curls until his lips discover my neck. He presses kisses like stamps and I let whatever hesitation I may have float away for these few moments.

“I think I might be falling for you, Zephyr actually.”

He whispers to the deepest part of my heart, the part I didn’t even know was there until now. A secret even to me. I hold him there. In this place that is the beginning of everything.





Chapter 11


I wake and fumble for my buzzing phone. A text from Alec.

Miss u

I’m about to respond with the same just as Mom knocks, walks in. She sits on my bed, picks up Baba, my ratty stuffed lamb, and balances it on her lap. “Did you have fun at Karen’s last night?”

I study her to see if this is a trap, but she is somewhere else entirely. “We did.”

“And Alec? You like him?”

“He’s nice, but why do I get the feeling Alec’s not why you’re here?”

“Always so perceptive.” She nudges my calf. “Look, Zephyr. You should know your father is coming by today. He has to get some things from his art studio and I didn’t want you to be surprised when you saw him.”

This is the last thing I expected Mom to say after our talk. “I was already surprised. At last night’s game. He was there you know.”

Mom shakes her head in a way that tells me she did know. “I told him about your game. I didn’t think he was going to show up.”