One thing I’ve always loved about Aubrey is that she never wears any makeup. Even yesterday for the wedding, while all the others wore at least a minimal amount of makeup, she went bare. A lot of women are natural beauties, but my Angel is the definition of one. And I hope she always stays that way. She doesn’t need anything to make her look more beautiful; she already is.
Leaning in closer, I glide my finger over the freckles on her back, connecting every little dot together as I trace from one to the other. She sighs and a content smile spreads over her lips. I kiss her shoulder as her eyes slowly flutter open. “Good morning, Angel.”
“Good morning, Shane.”
I’ve always loved the way she says my name. While most give me a nickname or call me Coach, she doesn’t. She says my name like it’s important to her, like she’ll never forget it.I hope she never does.
“What are you doing?”
I continue tracing over her freckles and smile. “Counting your freckles. I bet I could find every constellation within them.”
She blushes at my comment, and I can’t help but move up to kiss her lips. Her eyes widen as she pushes me away and covers her mouth with her hand. “I haven’t brushed my teeth,” she says in a whisper and turns a darker shade of red when I laugh.
Grabbing her waist quickly, I roll her toward me and onto her back as I climb above her, nibbling at her neck and jaw as I tickle her ribs with my fingers. She squeals and shrieks while laughing.
“Shane! Stop! Oh my God, stop! I’m going to pee myself!” Her hands come down and grab my wrists, trying to stop me.
I finally give in and kiss her giggling lips again. “I don’t care about your morning breath, sweetheart. If I want to kiss you, I’m going to kiss you. Anyway, I haven’t brushed mine either.”
She sighs. “Yeah, but you smell nice.”
“And you still smell like peaches.” I kiss her neck next, taking in a big inhalation of her scent.
“It’s my cream,” she clarifies.Well, now I’m going to have to find out just which one and buy a whole case.
She looks over to the side where our phones rest. I plugged them in last night before we finally went to bed and noticed she had a few unanswered messages from her girlfriends. “What time is it? We probably have the brunch soon.”
Reaching over, I tap on my screen to check the time. “We still have two hours.”
She groans. “I have to get back to my room and get ready,” she says in a whiny voice like she doesn’t want to leave our little nest.I get it because I don’t either.
“How about you give me a little time to get ready, and then we can head over to your room, and I’ll pack up your things while you shower and change? I’m guessing you’re going to your parents’ place after brunch?” I slide my fingers through her long pale blonde hair.
“Yeah, what time is your flight?” she asks.
I shake my head. “Actually, I rented a car to drive down to my parents’ house in Detroit. It’s only four hours away from here.”
“Oh...” she says with a hopeful tone.
“And I only need to be there for dinnertime, so I still have about five hours before I absolutely have to leave.” I peck her lips when she smiles.
“I wish you didn’t have to go,” she whispers timidly. “I wish we could stay here forever.”
Pulling away, I cup her cheek and stare into her vulnerable eyes. “I wish we could too,” I tell her. “But Aubrey, I don’t want to go back to how things were. I can’t. I can’t go back to pretending this isn’t happening between us. I don’t want to hide anymore.”
I know I’m putting her on the spot, and I know this subject makes her uncomfortable. But it’s a conversation we need to have because after the night we spent together, I can’t go back to pretending we’re only acquaintances. Friends of friends. I want her to be my girlfriend, my lover, my everything.
“Shane…” She looks down with sad eyes.
“I know it’s complicated and this puts us in a tough position, but I’m willing to try. I think it’s worth the risk.”
Her gaze comes back up to mine—there’s so much uncertainty in her eyes, so much hesitation that my heart sinks as I wait for her to say no. As I wait for her to crush my heart and tell me this can’t happen again, that it will never work. But then she says the last words I would have expected, the ones I prayed for but never thought she’d speak.
“Okay.” My eyes widen as I register what she’s saying. “Yes, Shane. I want to try. I don’t think I could go back to before either, not after last night. I don’t want to.”
“Oh, thank God,” I breathe and grab her face as I crush my lips to hers.
“Wait,” she says and pushes me back slightly. “I want to see where this goes with you, Shane. But I need you to understand that we can’t just walk out of here holding hands. I need time to work around my brother. Most of our friends already know something’s going on and are okay with it, but Greyson won’t accept this easily. So can you just give me a little time to figure out how to talk to him about it?” She pleads with her eyes.
