AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Better than good.”
“Eh. I’d give it a seven out of ten,” she says, and I lift an eyebrow.
“A seven out of ten? Guess I need to try again.” My fingers run up her thigh, and she shivers against me. “I can’t stop until I get it completely right.”
I love her. I love her. I love her, I think as I lift her out of the water and carry her to my bed, her laughter something I want to get tattooed across my skin to keep forever.
FORTY-THREE
LACEY
The sun dipslow in the sky and covers the dashboard in yellows and reds. We were stuck in traffic for an hour, I-95 backing up for miles in a gridlock because of an accident outside Baltimore.
I didn’t want to leave Shawn’s parents’ house, and it was hard to drive away. We spent forty-five minutes saying goodbye, and it still wasn’t long enough. I want to be back there already, an ache in my chest the further away we drive.
“How do you want to do presents?” Shawn asks as we approach the city. “I have your gifts at my place.”
“And I have yours at my place. We really should have thought this through,” I laugh. The bracelets his nieces made for me jangle on my wrist, and I touch the beads. “Poor planning on our part.”
“I can drop you off, head to my apartment, then come back to your place? I can pick up dinner on the way, too, then we can dive into some dessert and presents.”
“Sounds like a great plan to me. What are you in the mood for?”
“Italian? You like spaghetti, right?”
“Shawn, you saw me eat two plates of your mother’s lasagna. Of course I like spaghetti, and it scares me that there are people out there whodon’t.”
He laughs and taps his fingers against the steering wheel. “Italian it is. Should I grab some garlic bread?”
“The answer to that question should always be yes. I have a pie in the freezer, and I’ll take it out when I go up. I’m not sure it will thaw in time, but we’ll give it a shot.”
“Is it one you made?” Shawn asks, and his excitement bleeds through the question. He wiggles in his seat a little, and I smile. “I’ve been craving your baking.”
“It’s apple. Is that okay?”
“Lacey, you could feed me a pie made of dirt and I’d eat it. Forget food and presents. I’m coming straight up.”
“No way. I have things I need to get ready for you.”
“Things? I thought we were only doing one or two gifts.”
“To be fair, we didn’t specify numbers. They all reminded me of you, and I couldn’t resist.” I gnaw on my bottom lip and twist my hands together. “I hope I didn’t go overboard.”
“There’s no way you did.” He grins at me from across the car, and the last rays of sunlight sneak in through the window behind him. It almost looks like he’s glowing, and he seems so happy. “Besides, I have a stack for you, too.”
“I’m beginning to think gift giving is your love language.”
“It’s definitely my love language, especially for people like you.”
“What do you mean?”
His eyes flick over to me in the quickest of glances, and his grin settles into something softer around the edges. Quieter in his heart. “People I care about very much.”
“Oh.” I gulp down a breath and scoop up his words. I commit them to memory so I can still have them close by in case they ever try to sneak away. “I care about you too,” I blurt out. “You know that, right?”
I’m desperate for him to know it.
Shawn keeps his attention on the road but reaches for me across the center console. His hand finds mine, his palm smooth and warm, and intertwines our fingers. “I do. It’s one of my favorite things about you.”
