Chasing His Kickass Luna Back novel Chapter 217

Abby

“Need some company?”

Karl’s eyes slide over to the bottle in my hand, and a slight smirk tugs at the corners of his lips. He scooches aside and nods for me to join him. “Sure.”

I join him as he leans against the wall. Our shoulders brush as we stand beside one another, a familiar yet bittersweetly nostalgic current of electricity running up my spine. I tilt the bottle up to my lips and take a swig, then hand it to him. He does the same.

“So…” he starts, but then hesitates, the words hanging heavily in the air.

“What’s up?”

“We have a lot to talk about,” he says, peering down into the bottle as he swirls the wine around.

“Like what happened the other night?” The words escape before I can rein them in. A hot flush of embarrassment immediately rises into my cheeks; the alcohol tonight has made my lips looser than usual, and I hate to admit it, but I’ve been thinking about our kiss in the pantry a lot tonight.

A beat of silence passes between us.

“You mean the kiss,” he says softly, looking up at me, his eyes intense and unreadable. “Abby, I—”

“I want to apologize,” I interrupt. “I shouldn’t have—”

“Stop,” he says. “Don’t apologize. I’m the one who should be apologizing. I shouldn’t have done that. It was insensitive and selfish.”

My eyes widen slightly at Karl’s words. I didn’t expect him to apologize like that. Apologizing isn’t exactly something that the old Karl ever liked to do.

I find myself turning toward him, taking the bottle from his hands. I take a big swig, then hand it back. Our fingers brush and our eyes meet.

“Karl, I…”

He shakes his head as though reading my mind. “Let’s not talk about it tonight, okay? Right now, you should be focusing on tomorrow. On your cook-off.”