“My mother would have loved this place,” he tells me. “She was a free-spirit.”
I smile, not quite sure what to say. I know he misses her.
“What was your mom like?” he asks. “Tell me about her.”
I smile. “She was funny, overprotective, and a little uptight sometimes. I don’t think she would like this place at all.”
He toys with a blade of grass. I study his long fingers. “I guess our mothers were very different.”
“She loved me so much,” I go on, wanting to tell someone this — I’ve never really talked about my mother to anyone. Once in a while, the kids will ask me questions about her, especially Emma. Unfortunately, Theo doesn’t quite remember her. “She was very protective of me.”
“I think all mothers are.”
“True,” I agree. I know I am. “She never liked John,” I confess. “She was pretty vocal about it. I mean… not right in front of him but…”
His brow curves with a curious expression. “Why not?”
“She thought he was a bit controlling, a bit of a narcissist. She resented the fact that I left my job to take care of the kids when he’s home all day. She always saw me as a modern woman, and I guess I disappointed her.”
“I disappointed my mother too when I moved out here,” he says. “I think we all do.”
“That’s why we were fighting when she died,” I finally confess, the words painful to utter. “I told her to mind her own business and get out of my life… those were the exact words I used before hanging up on her. Those were the last words I ever spoke to her.”
He wraps an arm around me, and the both of us are silent for the longest time.
“She was out with her two best friends for a night on the town, when they got T-boned by a pick-up truck on the way home. She was sitting in the passenger seat and died instantly. Her friends survived, but one of them is paralyzed from the waist down.”
He squeezes me tighter. “I’m so sorry.”
“It happened only a week after we last spoke. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“You can’t re-hash the past, Gabriella. You’re slowly drowning yourself if you do.”
“I know… but I can’t stop obsessing about it. It’s all I’ve thought about until…”
“Until what…”
“Until I met you,” I confess. “Nowyou’reall I think about.”
“Happy thoughts,” he says with a playful grin. “That’s good.”
“Sexy, happy thoughts.” I grin like an idiot.
And he kisses me.
Chapter Thirty-Three
ELI PULLS OUT A TREAT for Floyd, and we scarf down some sausage on a bun from a street vendor — we’re both famished. “This is the best sausage I’ve ever tasted,” I tell him.
“Everything tastes better when you’re starving,” he says as we walk out of Christiania. The weather has been overcast all day and finally the rain hits us. We’re not surprised. We expected it, but not early enough to bring umbrellas. We get drenched as we walk back home, and it is freezing. Yet, I’m having so much fun. How can even the nastiest weather not foul my mood? I guess this is what they call love. The giddy kind. The kind that has an expiration date. Our expiration date is in four days.
When we finally get home, Floyd shakes off his fur, showering us in the process, but we couldn’t care less — we’re already drenched. “Come here,” Eli says. He grabs my bag, takes my hands, and we head to the bedroom. He throws the bag on the bed, and peels off his jacket. “Strip,” he says. “I want it all off, except for the panties.”
I smile and obey willingly, peeling off my clothes so fast, you’d swear I was in a ‘get naked’ contest. He tears off his white t-shirt, and his abs look more delicious than ever. When I finally get down to my panties and bra, he winks. “The bra too.”
I reach back for the clasp, bashful. I undo it and let the flimsy lace material fall to the floor. I’m cold and vulnerable. My nipples are hard, from the chill of the room, and also from the way he’s looking at me, like he wants to eat me up whole.
“God, you’re beautiful,” he says and inches closer. “Let me have a taste before I cover you.” He bends down, and takes my breast in his mouth.
