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“You’re safe now,” I murmur, pressing my lips to her temple. I would never let anyone or anything hurt her. “You can relax, and you don’t need to worry.”
“I have to tell you something,” Kathleen whispered, her lips brushing my ear. She hesitates for just a moment. “I lied about my age when I interviewed for the job with Peter. I’m not twenty-one, I’m nineteen, and I turned nineteen about three months ago.”
I can’t help but let out a little chuckle. She looked surprised at my reaction.
“I know that. Your friend Chrissy told me all about it. I know all of that already.”
Kathleen rolls her eyes good-naturedly at me.
“Oh, of course, she did.”
“She was just looking out for you,” I tell her, curling a lock of her silky smooth pale hair around my fingers. “She told me not to give up on you or let you go.”
“She’s a good friend,” Kathleen says, letting out a breath. “She’s the only one I have now. She cares about people, and she cares about me like no one else does.”
“No,” I tell her, shaking my head. “No, Kat. You have me now too.”
“I do,” Kathleen answers. Her eyes are luminous and bewitching in the dark.
From the French restaurant below the apartments, a soft melody trails in through the thin panes of the window, twirling softly enough for us both to hear it but not loud enough to wake up Stevie on the couch. It’s a song I know well enough by now. They play the same sort of tune every night before they close for the day.
“You know,” I murmur into the soft skin of her neck. “I’ve never danced with a woman as beautiful as you are, Kathleen. What do you say? Dance with me?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t really even know how to dance, Eddie.”
“I do,” I answer, pulling her up to stand in front of me. “Just follow my lead.”
Kathleen’s hand curls over mine, and her other palm is pressed to my neck. I pull her in closer, wrapping my arm around her waist.
We sway back and forth to the sound, falling into the mesmerizing dreamlike feeling of a foggy night.
Kathleen stumbles as she looks at me and shakes her head, stepping back.
“I can’t do it, Eddie,” she says, discouraged. “I don’t have any rhythm.”
“Here,” I answer, tucking my arm fully around her waist. I lift her to stand on my feet in her socks. “There, see? Now you don’t have to have rhythm. You have me.”
Kathleen giggles, and it’s the first carefree moment I’ve seen from her in the past few days since I’ve come to know her again.
She looks so young, and I mourn who she thought she would be before life got in the way of her dreams. I decide then and there that I’m not letting her give all that up.
She will have everything.
I spin her around, still holding onto her hand as if she’s not standing on my feet. Kathleen smiles and it’s like the sun peeking behind the clouds at me.
“You’re a great dancer,” I murmur, trying not to smile and break character.
“Oh yeah,” Kathleen says, letting out a laugh. She presses her body against mine even more than before. “It’s almost like I’m not doing any of the work, huh?”
When I lean down, she meets me halfway, brushing her lips over mine gently. Her long, pale hair trails down her back, still damp from the shower she had when she got to the apartment. She and Stevie had been so tired.
This kiss isn’t our first one, but it feels as if it should be. Every moment spent with her brings a new sort of emotion to the surface, calming me and waking me all at once.
My hand moves up and down her back, and Kathleen lets out a little moan into my mouth when my hand dips into the back pocket of her sweatpants.
When I squeeze gently, Kathleen lets out a little gasp in my ear and it goes straight to my lower half causing my length to pulse. She pushes herself against me, and I tighten my arm around her body letting her feel me.
“Eddie,” she hesitantly says as she pulls back. “I need to tell you….”
