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I shrugged. “We can talk about it.”
“Good,” she said. “Because I need you to know how amazing it was. But better than that, I need you to know how it shouldn’t change anything. You know, with me and Jace and Courtney.”
I was overwhelmingly relieved to hear that part. My greatest fear — and the one I wanted to talk to Liam about the most — was that we’d screwed up a good thing.
“You guys ever do anything like that before?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “Never.”
“You sure?” she pressed. “Because the two of you were suspiciously good at it.”
I let the wheel slide gently under my palm, guiding us through another quarter-mile of the quiet, sun-splashed streets.
“By necessity we’d shared many things out in the field,” I told her. “Razor blades. Socks. Toothbrushes.”
“Ewww,” Delilah giggled.
“We’ve split MRE rations so old they could’ve fought in the first Gulf War,” I went on. “Or possibly even Vietnam.”
I turned to look at her for a moment. Her eyes were ridiculously brown.
“But we’ve never, ever shared awoman.”
The sun glinted momentarily off a portion of the windshield. We both shielded our eyes from it.
“Huh,” she said, to herself more than me. “First time for everything, I guess.”
We drove in silence for a while, stopping to grab coffee from one of those all-in-one convenience store gas stations before getting back on the road. The entire time I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. Now that I knew what she looked like naked, it was even harder to look away.
Back on the road, we traveled a few more miles while sipping our coffee. There was a lot to process, a lot to say. Right now though, I just wanted to enjoy the morning.
The Downs Farm Preserve eventually appeared, and I eased into it. We took the traps, carried them a good distance into the woods, and then set them down. The raccoons inside were silent and motionless. Either they were suddenly carsick, or plotting revenge.
“What are the chances we open these things and immediately get attacked?” Delilah smirked.
“I’d say 50/50.”
She didn’t look happy with my answer. “Really?”
“Want to head back to the truck?” I offered. “I can open them myse—”
Halfway through my sentence Delilah straddled one of the traps. She lifted the latch and opened the door in one smooth motion.
Oh SHIT!
Sure enough, the raccoon exited, turned ninety-degrees, and made a beeline for me. I leapt out of the way at the last minute, hitting the ground hard enough to partially knock the wind from my lungs. In the meantime, the raccoon skittered past me and disappeared into a pile of brush.
“Oh my God!” Delilah laughed. “You were right!”
I’d been joking of course, but that didn’t stop me from leaping back to my feet. Without thinking too hard I grabbed her, pulled her in, and crushed her against my chest. She looked surprised as I bent to kiss her, savoring the feel of her soft, pliant lips against mine.
“You taste like coffee,” she giggled.
“Good coffee?”
“I’m not sure yet,” she responded. “Let me see…”
With that she kissed me back, sliding the fingernails of both hands through my thick, morning-tousled hair. Her face looked beautiful in the morning light, even with the remains of last-night’s makeup. Other women might’ve made me sit in the truck an extra few minutes while they worked to remove it, but not her.
“Yeah,” she breathed, when she was done swirling her warm tongue through my mouth. “Good coffee.”
The other raccoon was sitting there in its cage, watching our little morning makeout session with its head tilted to one side. We both looked back at it and laughed.
“Ready to join your friend?” I asked it.
I opened the trap, and this time the animal refused to leave. It chased its tail in a tight circle a few times, before pausing to look back at us.
“Could you hurry it up?” asked Delilah, adding a smile. “I’m dying for breakfast.”
