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She’d understand. She had Sean and Avery. Fragility and time were concepts they carried around, and Lizziewas a realist. She was blunt, intrepid, and mine. I loved it, and I sure as hell cared about her…Who am I kidding? I was falling faster, and harder, than a boulder over a cliff for her.
“Hey, Lizzie?” I called, stepping out of the bathroom with her white towel wrapped around my hips and wine glass in hand. I swallowed a sip as I watched her head poke out from the closet. Her blue eyes grinned as much as her painted lips. “You think getting me wasted before meeting your friends is the best idea?”
“Well,” she hesitated, stepping out from behind her closet door, sending my heart straight down beneath my towel, “I didn’t think one glass could hurt. If you don’t want it, I’ll drink it.” She approached, arms extended as she greedily reached for the stem between my fingers. The soft tips of her fingers tickled against my knuckles as she pinched the stem, her stare meeting mine.
Lizzie’s free hand pressed against my bare abs, her fingernails grazing the outline of roses painted over my muscles, as she stepped closer to me. Her chest against my stomach, her sweet vanilla perfume, and the drops of water dripping from my hair was sensory overload, causing me to shiver and Lizzie to giggle. It was muffled against my skin as she kissed my sternum. I love that sound.
Every muscle in my body tightened with the soft thump of my towel at my feet. Lizzie’s fingers roamed around my stomach, stopping at my hips before she took a sip from the wine glass. I swallowed, struggling to breathe as her nails grazed my skin.
“I want it,” I declared, my body threatening to implode, desperate for release with Lizzie. It wasn’t just the wineI wanted. Her chest lifted, pushing against me as Lizzie stepped onto her tiptoes, our lips meeting in a rush that turned my balls to the darkest shade of navy as her doorbell rang.
Lizzie’s giggle fanned my chest as the doorbell rang once more with impatience. “They’re excited to meet you.”
“I’m excited to meet them,” I leaned forward to pick up my towel on the third ring, “but you could be doing anything in here.”
“Oh,” she squealed, bouncing once as she stepped away, “I like the promise behind that idea.” With her fingers wrapped around the bedroom door, and me standing in a towel, the bell continuing to scream, Lizzie smiled softly at me.
“What’s keeping you?” I winked, pulling on my clothes. I couldn’t lie. The anticipation of meeting Sean, the man I watched die, the guy anchoring their group of friends, the one who brought Lizzie and me together without knowing it, this mythical creature, was terrifying. I felt like meeting Lizzie’s father, who also happened to be in charge of a mafia family or something. I’d seen trauma, disaster, violence…and none of it left me as anxious as the idea of meeting this guy.
“They really want to meet you,” she repeated, “and…they’re protective…Sean is protective. It’s a pain in the ass, but he’s like my brother.”
“What’s his story?” I tried to play it cool, sipping from the wine glass with my free hand.
Lizzie chuckled while focused on me “His story?”
“Yeah. Tell me about him, your friend. Prepare me.” I placed the empty wine glass on her wooden dresser as I walked toward her, peeling her fingers from the door and intertwining them with mine.
“Prepare you,” Lizzie scoffed, “did a beam fall on you or something? Are you feeling well?”
“Don’t joke about work, Lizzie.” I shook my head when our eyes met. She let out a sigh and lowered from her tiptoes, sensing I wasn’t in the mood to play.
“You know they’re waiting for us,” she shook her head, “and they’re going to be nosy as hell when I finally answer the door.” I looked at her, squinting with a smile that urged her to divulge. She pretended to pout, rolling her eyes at me before continuing. “Fine. Sean’s one of my best friends. He’s easy on the eyes too. Billboard for hotness, walking around like there’s nobody cuter.”
“Sounds obnoxious.”
“He is,” she laughed, “and the funny part is that he’s clueless as hell. Well, obviously he knows he’s hot.”
“Can we focus on another trait…like how smart he is or something? The fact he beat cancer?”
“Turning a little green, mermaid?” Lizzie poked her index finger into my sternum, lifting her eyebrows. “Sean has green eyes.”
I lowered my face toward hers, wrapping my fingers around the one she pressed into me, and grinned once our foreheads met. “So do I.”
“I noticed right away,” she whispered, her lips parting with a grin. “I also noticed your muscles, tattoos, the whole savior thing. But deep down, you’re just a big softie.”
“True.” I shrugged. “Want a refund?”
“Never.” Lizzie sighed, tightening her arms around me when she stepped closer. It felt incredible to have her contain me, to put my pieces together and ground me.
“Do you think he’ll be okay with you and me having sleepovers?” I blurted, nervous for a moment when I considered what a big deal it was for me to meet Lizzie’s friends as a group. “Did you two ever have sleepovers?”
“Not like ours, Noah,” Lizzie lifted her head and pressed her chin into my sternum as she smiled, “but there were two times in undergrad he mistook me for Avery and tried to tell me he loved me. I should’ve known then. I should’ve told her. Things would’ve been so different.”
“We wouldn’t have met.” I leaned forward to kiss her hair. “Now,” I spun her out from holding me, tapping her behind as she stumbled forward with laughter, “go answer your door so we can get this over with and get back to that wine.”
