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It had been impulsive and immature and selfish. Trey needed this job. And she’d put him in a tough position, jumping him the way she had.
Aldo hopped out of the car. He skipped from foot to foot, as if he had a thousand Mexican jumping beans down his pants. ‘I’m gonna go ring his bell.’
‘Aldo, wait!’ Her mum managed to grab his sleeve before he could race off. She peered back across the driver’s seat at Lizzie, keeping a firm grip on Aldo’s arm.
‘Lizzie needs to talk to him first,’ her mum said, the look of total faith in her eyes warming Lizzie from the inside.
‘But I want to see him, too,’ Aldo whined.
‘We’ll speak to him in a bit,’ her mum said. ‘But Lizzie has things she needs to say to him first that you might not want to hear.’
‘Kissing stuff?’ Aldo gagged on the horror of it.
Her mum’s lips quirked. ‘Possibly.’
Lizzie smiled at Aldo’s forceful ‘yuck’. Her stomach muscles twisted uncomfortably, though, as she climbed out of the car.
This was likely to be the hardest conversation she’d ever had in her life. And she wasn’t sure she could pull it off. Her track record when it came to having mature and sensible conversations pretty much sucked.
Her mum gripped her hand. ‘Do you need any advice?’
Lizzie nodded, realising she wanted her mum’s advice more than anything.
‘Be honest with him. However hard that is.’ She squeezed her fingers and then let go. ‘Take as long as you need. Aldo and I will wait in the car till you’re ready for us.’
‘Thanks, Mum.’
Lizzie headed down the basement steps to Trey’s front door, tuning out Aldo’s cry of protest as their mum loaded him back into the car.
She pressed the bell and heard it buzz loudly inside the flat. The blinds on the bay window were drawn, so she couldn’t see in. Maybe he wasn’t at home any more.
The thought of a reprieve didn’t make her stomach settle, though. Then she heard the sound of footsteps and the click of the latch. And her stomach went into free fall.
Trey appeared in the doorway. His eyebrows leaped up his forehead, his expression not happy or horrified, just stunned. ‘Lizzie, what are you doing here?’
‘Hi, my mum’s waiting in the car.’ She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. ‘With Aldo, because all three of us wanted to make sure you’re really OK, after what happened this morning. And we all wanted you to know that we want you to come back to work. Not today, obviously, just when you’re ready.’ She was starting to babble, but she didn’t care. Babbling was better than being struck dumb. ‘But I wanted to talk to you first because … I have some apologising to do.’
The heat in her face had hit boiling point, so she was glad to see that beneath his olive-toned skin, his face had gone a spectacular shade of magenta, too.
‘A lot of apologising to do really,’ she added.
r /> ‘No, you don’t,’ he said, the words firm and succinct, as she noticed the reddened swelling at the side of his mouth and the nasty gash in his lip. ‘I’m the one who needs to apologise.’ He glanced past her. ‘To your mum, and Aldo and your dad …’ His eyes locked back on hers. ‘But most of all to you. What I did was totally inappropriate. Jesus.’ He ran an exasperated hand through his hair, sending the short strands into cute tufts. ‘I still can’t believe I was kissing you like that on your mum’s sofa! Your dad should have hit me a lot harder.’
Her heart ticked into her throat. God, keeping her hands off him was going to be even tougher than she thought. He was so stupidly gallant, and totally adorable. But beneath the surge of love—and lust—was the new and heady feeling of confidence.
Trey being Trey, of course he was taking all the responsibility for the scene this morning. She’d have to set him straight on that score. Because, seriously, did he really think that kiss had been his idea?
But how come she’d never realised before how much power she had? Using that power for good instead of evil was going to make life tough for a while. Not least because she now knew exactly how awesome Trey and his kissing skills were.
But when had anything good, anything worthwhile, ever been easy? And did she really want it to be? She’d recently discovered, not just from Trey, but from what her mum had told her about her and her dad’s relationship, that real grown-up relationships were tough to negotiate for a very good reason. They involved two people whose needs and desires, whose hopes and dreams, all had to be met. Dancing through that minefield successfully without blowing your foot off en route was never going to be easy.
But at least she and Trey would be dancing through the minefield together. And if it was going to take much longer than planned to get to the other side, who cared? Because it was how they got there that mattered.
‘Trey.’ Her heart swelled into her throat at his earnest expression. ‘I know we’re going to have to cool it when you come back to work. Because it would make my mum super uncomfortable if she caught us kissing like that again. And Aldo would probably have a breakdown.’ And the chances of them being able to stop at kissing were iffy at best. And the last thing she wanted to do was make his life harder.
‘Yeah, I know,’ he said, the magenta on his cheeks darkening.
‘But before the no-kissing rule takes effect …’ Lifting on tiptoes, she held his cheeks in her palms. ‘I want you to know, you’re the best kisser I’ve ever met, and I’m completely bonkers about you.’
