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She braced a hand on the dryer as she took off her shoes and tucked them next to Lydia’s, and swore the world tipped around her when their eyes locked as she straightened. It was silly, really, to be so affected just by seeing Lydia here, in her space, but she was. It was as if a piece she hadn’t even realized was missing in her life slotted seamlessly into place, and it felt so perfectly and profoundly right that it stole the breath from her lungs.
She blinked as that truth settled squarely in her chest, wrapped around her heart, and made its home there.
She’d known that this was special. Unquestionably, undeniably so. But it was so much more than that.
It was everything.
Something of her epiphany must have shown on her face, because Lydia’s expression gentled as she touched her wrist. “You okay?” she asked softly.
Zann’s heart skipped a beat as Lydia’s touch slid lower to tangle their fingers together. She had always thought her amá had been exaggerating when she said she remembered the exact moment she knew she was going to spend the rest of her life with her mamá. But now…
Now she finally understood what her amá had meant.
Because someday, whenever anyone asked, she’d point to this otherwise ordinary moment as the one when she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she wanted a future with Lydia at the center of it.
“Zee?” Lydia prompted when she didn’t respond.
“Yeah.” Zann smiled and lifted Lydia’s hand to kiss the back of it. She’d tell her soon, but she didn’t want the first time she told Lydia that she loved her to be in the middle of the laundry room. “You want the penny tour before I start packing up the gear I’ll need?”
Lydia’s eyes crinkled with her smile. “Not the nickel tour?”
“Nah. Place isn’t big enough to charge a nickel.”
“And if I don’t have a penny?” Lydia batted her lashes as she leaned closer. “Can I pay a different way?”
Zann hummed and lifted her free hand to cradle Lydia’s jaw. She pursed her lips in feigned thoughtfulness as she caressed her cheek, and lifted a shoulder in a small, lopsided shrug as she said, “I guess I could do it for a kiss.”
The crinkles around Lydia’s eyes deepened. “Just one?”
Zann licked her lips and dragged her thumb lower to tease the corner of Lydia’s mouth. “I mean, if you feel it’s worth more than one, I’m not gonna argue.”
Lydia laughed. “Zann…”
“Hm?”
Lydia tugged on Zann’s hand so that she tipped forward into her, and lifted her chin as she implored, “Kiss me.”
Zann chuckled and dipped her head to capture Lydia’s lips with her own. This might not be the time or place to tell Lydia just how deeply she’d fallen, but she would gladly take Lydia into her arms and kiss her until she was absolutely breathless.
The Spanish-style vibes from the exterior of Zann’s house carried to the interior with blond, wide-plank wood floors, warm white walls, and a general feeling of airiness that reminded Lydia of a house she’d stayed in outside Barcelona last year while visiting the company’s branch there. She had no trouble picturing Zann in the space, barefoot and comfortable, sipping a coffee from the ridiculously fancy espresso machine that held pride of place on the counter beside the sink in the sleek, modern kitchen that spanned almost the entire rear of the main floor. She’d already paused the so-called penny tour at least ten times so she could inspect the framed, gallery-worthy photographs from Zann’s travels that were hung with an artist’s eye around the main floor and along the stairwell to the upper level, but that didn’t stop her from doing it yet again when she saw the stunning print that adorned the wall just opposite the head of the stairs.
“Oh, wow.” Lydia blinked in wonder as she stepped closer to appreciate the moment Zann had captured of a banyan tree at dawn, its long, dark limbs gracefully stretching to create the perfect foil for the rose-colored rays of the breaking dawn that cut through its leafy boughs and lit the fog that clung to the ground. “You took this, too?”
“Mm,” Zann hummed, and Lydia leaned into her as Zann stepped closer to wrap her up in a casual embrace as she, too, inspected the photograph. “In Fiji, like…maybe five years ago?” Her lips were warm against Lydia’s ear as she purred, “You like it?”
Lydia nodded. “It is absolutely breathtaking.” She smiled and turned just enough to be able to meet Zann’s gaze as she playfully accused, “Not a photographer, my ass.”
“I never said I wasn’t a photographer,” Zann chuckled. “I just said that I prefer films.”
“Oh, well then…” Lydia rolled her eyes as she lifted her chin to kiss her. “I guess that’s lucky for everyone who does fancy themself a photographer.”
Zann’s arms tightened around her waist, and she rocked her lightly from side to side. “You flatter me.”
“It’s not flattery, Zee.” Lydia spun in her embrace so she could loop her arms around her neck. It was a position she’d become intimately familiar with over the last few days, but there was something about holding Zann, and being held by her, here, in her house, that made all of this feel so much more real. And, god, she wanted more. Wanted to come home from work to Zann and a home absolutely bedecked with her art; to fall into her arms after a long day and kiss her like nothing else mattered.
Her heart pressed against her breastbone as the breadth and scope of what she felt and what she wanted slammed into her, knocking her on her metaphorical ass. She struggled to breathe against the enormity of the truth she’d been flirting with for the last day or so as it wove itself through every fiber of her being.
A lifetime with her isn’t enough.
