“Because that’s where I kept them.” He shrugged and crossed his arms. I loved when he crossed his arms. I loved it even more when he was shirtless. “I must have left one behind.”

“Left one behind? Are you in the habit of leaving your things in random dresser drawers throughout the house?”

“Nope, but I try to make it a habit to leave my things in my dresser drawers.”

“Your dresser drawer?” I repeated slowly, grabbing the comforter to cover my legs. The shirt had seemed large before, but having Jesse look at me that way made me feel all kinds of exposed.

“Well, yeah.” He spread his arms and did a spin. “This is my room.”

“Come again?” I knew I hadn’t heard him wrong, but I wished I had.

“This has been my room from day one. My dresser, my nightstand,”—his smile curved higher on one side as he examined the space around me—“my bed. And my blankets.” He took a few steps toward his bed and his blankets, and I felt like a thousand butterflies had been set loose in my stomach from the way he looked at me.

“Why did you move out?” I asked.

“Because you were coming,” he replied matter-of-factly. “I know from growing up with three sisters that a girl’s bedroom needs to be within arm’s reach of a bathroom, and this room stays a heck of a lot cooler than the attic in the summertime.”

I finally understood why I couldn’t escape Jesse’s scent or presence even when I was locked in my bedroom. I’d been sleeping on the same mattress he had. I’d been snuggled beneath the same old quilt he had. We’d shared a bed the whole time without even touching each other.

“You just picked up and moved into the attic because I was coming?” I said, sounding as dumbfounded as I felt.

He nodded.

“But you didn’t even know me.”

His forehead wrinkled, and he gave me a curious look. “I didn’t have to. You needed a room. I had one. And the attic was empty.”

“You make it sound so easy,” I said, shaking my head. I doubted I’d ever figure out the goodness that moved inside of Jesse Walker. It was the kind that didn’t quite make sense in our world.

“It is easy, Rowen,” he said. “Besides, look at how it all worked out. You’re sleeping on my bed, wearing my undershirt, and haven’t thrown me out the window for jumping inside of it unexpectedly in the middle of the night. I’m not exactly on the losing side of this arrangement.”

He was trying to make less of a big deal out of something that was a very big deal. If I had to move into the attic because some random stranger was coming for the summer, gracious was the last thing I would have been.

“Thank you,” I said, having nothing else to offer. “That was a pretty cool thing to do.”

He waved it off like it was nothing, and he approached the bed. “Please. When I get to move back in, I can sleep all warm and happy every night knowing you were in my bed for a whole summer.” Very slowly, he took a seat next to me on the edge of the mattress. He was so on the edge of the mattress, he could have fallen right off. And now, Jesse and I were sharing a bed in the literal sense.

If it was possible, my heartbeat sped up some more.

“That’s totally worth spending a summer in the attic,” he said, glancing between me and the mattress with a smile. His eyes locked on mine, and with him so close, I could make out every speck of gold in those blue eyes of his. “Whoa.” His head tilted to the side. “Your eyes are blue.”

My face lined with confusion until I remembered Jesse had never seen me without my contacts in. Since I only took them out at bedtime and promptly replaced them after waking up, no one else at Willow Springs had either.

“I wear contacts,” I said as he continued to examine my eyes with an intensity I felt was about to make me combust.

“Oh, are you near or farsighted?”

“Neither.”

“Then why do you wear contacts?”

“They’re color contacts,” I said, wondering why Jesse had to be so observant. Of course I would be attracted to the one guy in the world so observant he probably remembered the color of the shirt I wore yesterday.

“But your eyes were so dark before. I couldn’t tell if they were dark brown or black.”

My shoulders rolled forward. I’d never had to explain it before. The few people who knew the actual color of my eyes didn’t ask why I wore dark color contacts; it just sort of made sense with the rest of me. “I like dark,” I said, wrapping the comforter tighter around me.

“I’ve noticed.” He hitched a leg up onto the bed and twisted to face me. Could someone, please, for the love of God, find the man a shirt? The whole encounter couldn’t be healthy for a girl’s heart. “It seems that preference for dark, or . . . black applies to your taste in guys, too.” Jesse tried to mask it, but the bitter note in his voice was obvious. “I’m hoping after tonight and what that guy did and said, you’ll change your mind.”

Just like that, I was reminded of a rather large something standing between Jesse and me. Someone who kept me from running my hands and lips all over him the way I wanted to.

“And I hope you’ll change your mind the next time you come talk all sweet and make flirty looks at me when your girlfriend’s a few rows behind us.” I’d never been very good at censoring myself, and that wasn’t the moment to change.

“Ah, perfect segue,” he said, looking . . . was that . . . relief?

“Perfect segue? Come again?”

“Josie isn’t my girlfriend.”

“Jesse?” I made a face. “I think you’re mistaking me for one of those girls cool with believing whatever you tell her.”

He smirked at me. “It’s the truth. Josie and I aren’t together.”

“Does she know that?” I asked. I knew what smitten looked like, and Josie had it just as bad, if not worse, as me.

“Yes.” He nodded so strongly his mess of hair fell over his forehead. “We broke up over six months ago.”

Wow. That was a serious case of WTF whiplash. “Wait.” I lifted my hands up. “You and Josie aren’t together anymore?”

“Isn’t that what I’ve been saying?”

I lifted an eyebrow and waited.

“No,” he said. “I am not with Josie. She is not with me. I’m not seeing anyone.”

How had I been so convinced otherwise then? Oh, yeah. “Then why did Garth . . ?”

“Because Garth likes to create controversy everywhere he goes,” Jesse said, his jaw tightening.

Create controversy everywhere he goes . . . yep, that pretty much hit the Garth nail on the head.

“Then why didn’t you tell me?”

“I tried. And I tried. And I tried again. You wouldn’t let me.” He stared at me pointedly. “You remember any of that?”

I bit my lip and felt two inches tall. “Maybe a little bit.”

Jesse laughed and nudged my leg with his. His bare skin against my bare skin. I almost shuddered.

“How long were you two together?” I asked.

“Just over two years.”

“Why did you break up?” Even a possible reason was beyond me. The kind of girl Josie was matched the kind of guy Jesse was spot on.

Jesse stayed silent for a few seconds, playing with the corner of the quilt, then cleared his throat. “We just couldn’t be together anymore.”

How wonderfully detailed. “Anything else you want to add? Maybe the actual reason you couldn’t be together anymore?” I was prying, I knew that, but I didn’t back off. When it came to Jesse and Josie, I wanted that whole relationship tied up in a neat little bow.

“That’s not really my story to tell,” he said, shifting on the bed. “I promised Josie I’d never tell anybody, so the only way you’d be able to find out is from her.”

I recognized that flash of pain on his face. Betrayal.

“She broke your trust.” I felt a strange sense of protectiveness for Jesse. Josie had hurt him, betrayed him, and Jesse was the one person in the world I could say with absolute certainty didn’t deserve it.