“Maybe once or twice.”
I groan, then move, rolling her beneath me and pressing my lips to hers before looking at her seriously.
“How are you feeling?” I ask.
“Good. Really good. You?”
“Fan-fucking-tastic. I woke up with you in my bed,” I inform her.
“Not a bad way to wake up. We uh,” she looks at me, her teeth sinking into her plush lower lip. “We should do it more often.” I’m silent as I stare at her. “I mean, if you want, of course. I’m not sure?—”
I dip my head, pressing my lips to hers to quiet her before pulling back. When I do, she’s a bit dazed, but I don’t hesitate to explain, not when this is so important.
“I told you, June. It changed everything for me. This has been a long time coming, and we both know it.”
She hums contentedly, melting a bit, and my body eases with the sound, like even that small bit of making her happy heals something inside of me.
“Oh. Well, good,” she says with a little smile. I laugh, shaking my head, then dip it to press my lips to her temple.
“It seems like I was right after all,” I say, pressing kisses anywhere I can find. Her shoulder. Her cheek, her jaw, her eyelid. I want to taste her and feel her everywhere I can. It’s not even really sexual. It’s more like, now that I have her, I want to touch her, make sure she’s real and not going anywhere, that she’s mine.
“What were you right about?”
“We aren’t friends,” I say, pressing my lips against her ear. Her entire body stills, and I lift my head, looking into her eyes as my free hand lifts, pushing her hair back. “We are so, so much more than that.”
She smiles then, wide and genuine.
“Oh, you’re good at this, aren’t you?”
“Only for you.” It’s not an agreement, but also not a denial, and I shift to my side, pulling her into me.
“So, you’ve been into me?” she asks after a moment, a smile on her lips.
“Don’t be cute, June. You know I’ve been in you.”
“I’m always cute, Graham,” she counters, that wide, contagious grin on her lips.
I fought it for weeks, trying not to give in to her friendship and joy, to bite back smiles, desperate not to encourage her, but the day at the Seabreeze when she lit up, cheering just because I gave her a mere smile, I decided I couldn’t do any longer.
“How long?”
“How long?”
“How long have you been in me? I mean, I know there was that one night at your place, but…after that you were so…cold.”
I lift my hand, tucking her hair back behind her ear.
“I needed to be that to keep my sanity. I was losing it before you walked in for your first day, and I knew being around you nonstop would only make it worse. If I gave in then, I’d never get anything done.“
She lifts her eyebrow, and I figure it won’t hurt to tell her at leastsomeof my secrets.
“You coming into Daytrips that day was the luckiest moment of my life, but I wasn’t going to rely on luck to find you.”
“Oh?” I smile, looking down at her and brushing my lips against her forehead.
“No way. I went into Seaside Coffee every single morning before work, after the convenience store. I spent two hours there for a week, pretending to work, waiting to see if you would walk in.”
Her face melts, her jaw going slack.
