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“I’m going to leave on Sunday. Do you think we can spend tomorrow night together, since it will be my last night here?”
“I’d like that.”
“Me, too.”
Miraculously, I managed to keep it together as I climbed back inside and brushed my teeth. But as I crawled into bed and pulled up the covers, all of my emotions hit me at once. And I started to cry.
And cry.
And cry.
CHAPTER 29
Holden
“Hey, stranger.” Billie smiled.
“What’s up, Mrs. Lennon?” I looked over at Deek, the tattoo artist whose chair was across from hers, and lifted my chin. “What’s up, man?”
He was currently working on a skull tattoo for a guy who would’ve been scary without a head full of tats.
Deek lifted his chin. “’Sup, rock star?”
“Where’ve you been?” Billie asked. “Oh wait. I know exactly where you’ve been. Doing the dirty with lovely little Lala.” She took one look at my face and turned off her machine. She set the needle in her hand down in its holder. “Oh, no. What happened?”
I shrugged. “Nothing. I just came down to ask you for a recommendation for a special restaurant.”
She squinted. “What’s the occasion?”
“Lala’s last night in town. She decided to go back up to Philly early, to be near her mom. She leaves tomorrow.”
“Shit.” Billie took a rag and wiped the excess ink from the arm of the guy she was working on. “I’ll be done in five minutes. You want to go get some ice cream? I’ve been craving peanut butter chunk since I woke up.”
It wasn’t like I had anything better to do. “Sure.”
Fifteen minutes later, we were down the block at an old-fashioned ice cream parlor. Billie licked her lips as the kid behind the counter scooped two heaping mounds of the flavor she’d ordered onto a cone. She rubbed her pregnant belly as she waited.
“How you feeling?” I asked.
“Pretty good, considering I haven’t slept through the night in a month.” She patted her stomach. “This little guy has taken up residence on my bladder. I don’t drink or eat three hours before bed, yet I still get up at least twice to pee. Last night, Colby was snoring, and it pissed me off, so I kicked him and accidentally woke him up.”
I raised a brow. “Accidentally?”
“Well, yeah. I only meant to bruise him a little. Not wake him.”
I chuckled. “I gotta tell you, I love that a five-foot-nothing little lady is getting even for the shit he did to me when we were kids. He’s a year older, so he used to kick my ass back when we were six and seven, just for fun.”
Billie motioned to one of the tables inside the ice cream store. “Why don’t we sit? I don’t have another client for a half hour.”
“Okay.” I took my strawberry shake and sat across from her as she went to town on her cone.
“So talk to me,” she said between licks. “What’s going on with you and Lala? I thought you were having a great time.”
“We were. But that’s all it was for her—a good time.” I shook my head. “I guess I’m finally getting a taste of my own medicine, after being a love-’em-and-leave-’em guy for the last decade.”
“You have real feelings for her though, right?”
I raked a hand through my hair. “I’m in love with her. I think I have been for most of my life.”
Billie put her hand over her heart. “Oh my God. Don’t say things like that. Because aside from being a pee machine, I’m also super emotional. I think I might cry.”
“Well, then it might turn into two of us bawling.” I sighed. “Man, it really sucks to be used for sex.”
“I don’t think Lala used you for sex. You two had a lot of fun together, didn’t you? I mean, outside the bedroom, too?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, but it’s not enough.”
“Did you tell her how you feel?”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to make it harder on her.”
“Then how do you know Lala doesn’t feel the same way you do?”
“She pretty much told me on more than one occasion. Last night, I asked her if she regretted dumping Warren, and she said no, because being with me made her realize something was missing from her relationship—like good sex.”
“That sounds more like an example of things that were missing than the full list.”
I shrugged again. “It’s not the first time she’s made it clear what we are. Plus, her mom is sick, and she just got out of a long-term relationship. I basically pushed her to jump into bed with me. I’m just her rebound guy.”
“You’re assuming an awful lot, Holden.”
“I’m not assuming anything. I’m hearing how she feels loud and clear through her actions. Lala wasn’t even supposed to leave New York for a couple of months. She got an opportunity to go back home early and jumped at it. I don’t know a lot about relationships, but I’m pretty sure when you’re in love with someone, you run to them and not away from them.”
