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“Mine.” I grinned, but her expression sobered.
“Don’t make me regret this, Noah.”
“I won’t.” I kissed her again, hoping she could feel the promise in every slide of my mouth over hers. “I swear.”
“Favorite place?” I asked her as we sat on the couch, watching a movie.
Connor and Austin hadn’t made it home—too preoccupied with the women in their lives—so we snuggled up on the couch, keeping a respectable distance, and turned on a movie.
Aurora glanced up at me, her green eyes glittering in the dark. “Will you think I’m a complete loser if I say the library?”
“Never.” I dropped a kiss on the end of her nose. “But you’re going to need to explain that one to me, shortcake.”
“Growing up, I read a lot.” She shrugged. “Too much, probably. But I had no one, Noah. My mom was too obsessed with her career and her endless disappointment with me. Austin was focused on hockey. On being as far away from Mom as possible. I struggled to make friends… so I turned to books.”
Fuck, I hated hearing her talk like this. But I didn’t interrupt because the fact she was gifting me these pieces of her past was a fucking honor.
“Books became my sanctuary, and the characters inside the pages became my friends. It’s sad, I know.”
“Not at all, shortcake. I just wish I could go back in time and knock some sense into your brother and the kids at school.”
Things between Aurora and Austin were strained, but I hadn’t pushed her to talk about it, hoping that she would open up to me when she was ready.
“At the time, I couldn’t get out of my head, but now I can look back and see what a vicious cycle it was, how my feelings and emotions became so intrinsically tied to my eating habits and self-esteem. It’s like a web, the threads getting so entangled you can’t pull them apart.”
“What about your ex?” I broached the subject that had been gnawing away at me. “How did he factor into everything?”
She peered up at me with big, uncertain eyes. “When I started high school, I thought things would be easier. Austin was a senior. I thought he would look out for me. And other girls had started to develop, so I wouldn’t stand out so much. But it was no different than junior high.
“Austin barely acknowledged me, and I spent my days trying to avoid my classmates as much as possible. Wearing baggy shirts, hiding in the girls’ bathroom.”
“Fuck, shortcake.”
Her pain was palpable, swirling around us like the air after a storm. Thick and heavy.
“Anyway, enough of that,” she said. “What about you, where is your favorite place?”
“Is it cliché if I say the rink?”
“Only as cliché as me saying the library.” She smiled, and my chest swelled.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” I whispered, leaning in to brush my nose over hers.
“When you look at me like that, I almost believe it.”
“Good.” I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and switched it to camera mode.
“Noah, what are you—”
I kissed her again, snapping a selfie of us. And another as I buried my face in her neck, licking and nipping her soft skin as her laughter filled the house.
“If anyone sees these—”
“They won’t.” I grinned. “They’re for my eyes only, shortcake. Although I wouldn’t mind some nudes. You know, for my own personal collection.”
“Absolutely not.” She gave me a pointed look. “It’s taking everything inside me not to steal your phone and delete the ones you just took.”
“We’ll see.”
