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“I’m good. Just need a minute.”
Her fingers didn’t leave. In fact, after a moment, her hand covered mine. “I didn’t know he was so bad.”
Always blunt, this woman. “He’s not always, but when he’s in a flare, it can get pretty terrible. He says it’s like he’s got a fire in his back and the flames lick at his limbs. And this time he’s having trouble with his vision.” I held my face in my hands. “He won’t accept my help, but I feel like I have to dosomething.”
Yael’s warmth enveloped me. One long arm curved around my back and the other hooked around my front as she rested her head on my shoulder. She didn’t say she was sorry or offer platitudes—I’d hate it if she did. Instead, she held me until I got myself together, taking a deep breath of her and the fresh night air.
I opened my eyes and tipped my head back to look at the star-speckled sky. From the corner of my eye, I saw her looking up too.
“Oh yeah, that’s still where it’s at,” she sighed.
“Little twinkling lights and everything,” I replied.
Her breathing hitched. “You must wear a recording device so you can remember every conversation we’ve ever had.”
“Hey,” I looped one of her waves around my finger, “you obviously remember that conversation too.”
“Well,” she rubbed her arms, but didn’t jerk away from me, “that was an important one. It’s not every day a girl meets her future nemesis.”
“Oh please. You just told my dad I was your frenemy.”
She sniffed, lips curving in a naughty way. “I was being kind to your dad. I’d hardly tell him his son’s terrible misdeeds.”
“He knows all of it, Yael. No need to sanitize our history for him.” I held her hair to my nose and took a long sniff. If I didn’t think she’d punch me in the dick, I’d lean in and sniff her neck too. She’d always smelled like home there.
“Oh, so he knows about the night of Charlie’s…?”
“Yep.”
She cringed, curling into herself slightly. “Did you ever tell anyone else?”
I shook my head. “No.” The guys in the band had constantly hassled me about still having my “flower,” so I got shitfaced on my twentieth birthday and had sex with a girl I met backstage at one of our shows. It felt good, I wouldn’t lie, but it hadn’t felt right. It took a while before I could mentally move on from that night with Yael.
Hell, I was pretty sure I’d never entirely moved on.
“I told Allie I took advantage of your grief and felt like a complete slimeball after, especially since Mo had already told me not to go near you that night.”
“What did she say?” I asked.
Yael turned to me, resting her cheek on her hand. “She giggled a lot and asked if I came. She was nineteen too. She tried to be helpful, but back then, sex was still a little bit taboo and we were still trying to figure out how to separate feelings from the act. I didn’t get good at that until later.”
We’d never spoken so candidly about that night. I wasn’t about to miss my chance to dive into Yael’s head, as scary as it had to be.
“What did you feel when we were having sex?”
“Hmmm…” Her pinky tapped her slightly curved lip. “Safe and wistful.”
I chuckled to cover my grimace. “Sexy feelings.”
“I thought we were talking about heart feelings.” One eyebrow arched up. “Do you actually want to know how my pussy felt with your dick in it?”
“No.” I exhaled through my nose. “Give me the heart feelings. You were safe with me. You always are. But why wistful?”
“For what could have been.”
A throat cleared behind us, breaking us out of our shell for two, reminding me where and who we were. I was reminded further when Yael shot to her feet and said his name.
“Harris. Hey, thought you weren’t coming tonight.”
I stood too, hands tucked away so they didn’t see them balled into fists. Harris’s eyebrows puckered when we made eye contact, but he swiftly dismissed me for Yael.
“Michelle’s flight was cancelled. She won’t be getting in until morning.” He laid his hand on her arm, right the fuck in front of me, her completely-fake-but-he-didn’t-know-that boyfriend. “Could we talk?”
Yael didn’t even have the decency to glance at me before she said yes, and I wasn’t about to stand here like the third wheel with my dick in my hand. Nope.
I took Yael by the waist and tugged her against me. “I’ll be up in the room, Boo. Have fun.” Then I dipped my head and covered her mouth with mine. She whimpered, but there was no fight in her, not when her fingers gripped my lapels and her tongue brushed along mine. I pulled away, satisfied I’d gotten my message across to them both. “See you later.”
“I won’t be long,” she murmured.
Winking, I said, “Oh, I know,” then strode away with little confidence I’d be seeing Yael again tonight.
