"NEVER WITH SOMEONE I WAS FALLING FOR."
Mailah felt tears prick the corners of her eyes, overwhelmed by the weight of what he'd just admitted.
"Grayson," she whispered.
"I know," he said, his voice rough. "I know it's too soon and too complicated and we have approximately a thousand problems to solve before we should even think about—" He gestured helplessly between them. "This."
"But?"
"But I can't stop thinking about you. Can't stop wanting to be near you. Can't stop wanting to visit your dreams like some lovesick fool who doesn't know when to quit."
She laughed through the tears threatening to fall. "Lovesick fool?"
"Is there a better term for someone who risks entering the dream realm just to see you smile?"
"Dangerously romantic?"
"Dangerously stupid."
"That too."
They lingered face to face, so near that silence became a language of its own—dense with all the things they couldn't bring themselves to say.
