Cash cracked up. “Oh, come on! It was funny!”
She shrugged. “I suppose.”
“It was!” Cash elbowed her lightly on the arm. “You really haven’t been watching it. Don’t let work take over your life. Laugh at the movie.”
“I really should have watched the movie more.” Her smile was a little sheepish.
Cash bumped her with his shoulder and grinned. “It was funnier than that.”
“I promise that I’ll actually watch the next movie. I guess I’m just distracted.”
In the movie, the main character was yelling something about the beauty of the clouds to the bad guy, who was wound around his leg about four times. The look of sheer terror on his face was pretty funny, considering that he was so evil that he had been trying to steal money from baby sloths. His shoe fell off and plummeted hundreds of feet through the air, landing in the orange vat of goo, where it bubbled and disintegrated.
“Wait, how did the other guy fall in the big vat of orange goo and not die?” she asked.
“Because he’s Awesomeman. He just looks like a shlub because he’s still undercover in his secret identity.”
“I love it when you say ‘shlub’ with that British accent. That’s even funnier than the movie.”
“Is it? Do I amuse you with the way that I speak?”
“Of course. It’s just darlin’ when you try to speak American.” She looked back at the TV as if she didn’t even need to keep an eye on him.
He asked, “Do I make you laugh?” and he grabbed her side, pinching her ribs with his fingers just hard enough to tickle her.
His move surprised her, and she flinched, trying to jump away from him. He never tickled her. They never laid hands on each other unless it was absolutely necessary. It was a rule.
His fingertips crawled up her side, digging in and making her whole body contract while she laughed helplessly. “Stop it!”
“Do I make you laugh?”
“Oh my God yes! Stop it. Stop it!”
He grabbed her side harder, clutching her flesh with his fingertips, and she flipped over on the couch and tried to crawl away from him, giggling like she’d gone insane. “Please, oh God. Stop!”
“Now you’re laughing.” He grabbed her around her waist with his other arm and dragged her back to him, her stomach sliding on the couch cushions. “I’ll make sure that you’re laughing, this time.”
She reached behind herself and slapped at his head and shoulders, but she was laughing too hard to do anything effective. “Cash!”
He tossed her in his arms, turning her back around to face him and then dropping her on the couch. As he hovered over her, his green eyes were bright with laughter, and his hair had fallen down over his forehead. “Come on, laugh!”
“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, breathless from laughter and trying to wiggle away from him, but he drew her body against his.
“Making you laugh.” Cash dug his fingers into her ribs harder, and paroxysms of tickling ran up her ribs and through her whole body. She laughed and writhed in his arms, kicking futilely.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and gasped out. “Okay, stop it. I mean it. Stop it.”
Cash stopped tickling her with one arm around her waist, and his other hand stretched over her ribs.
That was when she realized that he was half-lying on her, their bodies pressed together, and his hand was against her bare skin under her shirt. His face was flushed, and the brightness in his eyes faded as he looked at her lips, replaced by a misty tenderness that she had never seen before. His lips parted, even though he was still panting from wrestling with her.
Her arms were around the back of his neck.
She should move those. She should push him away. She should make a joke of this, and they should never speak of it again.
Her hands dropped slowly from around his neck, caressing his neck and brushing his jaw line just underneath that white bandage that he still wore.
His face turned, and he nudged his chin into her palm. His five o’clock shadow felt like sandpaper in her hand, and the heat of their bodies brought out the last subtle scent of his cologne.
A heartbeat.
His eyes searched hers, and he didn’t move away.
Another heartbeat.
She said, “I think the movie’s over.”
They both turned their heads to look at the television. Credits scrolled up the large screen.
Rox let her hand drop away from his face, and Cash pushed himself up on his arms. The cool air chilled her side where he had been lying against her.
“I guess it is.” He sat up and stared at the screen. “You didn’t miss much.”
His hands curled into fists on his knees, and his downward glance seemed ashamed. “That went too far. It won’t happen again.”