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I was this new woman. I was Charlie.
I closed my eyes as my body started to feel a little lighter. I held out my arms and dropped my head back, opening my eyes and looking up at the star-filled sky.
“I’m so serious all the time.” I shook out my arms and then my whole body, then slowly started spinning. The sky above rotated as I spun. “The whole point of leaving was so I could start to live,” I murmured. My body started to relax, and it felt like relief. Relief to be rid of her.
“Looks like you’re doing a fine job of living to me,” Reece said and he sounded earnest, not like he was laughing at me or making fun.
I looked over at him and his head was leaned back, also looking up at the stars.
“I grew up in the city,” he said. “I didn’t know so many stars could even be real.”
“Shut the front door,” I said. “That’s just what I was thinking when I came out! Mind-reader.”
He smiled my way, that special smile I’d never seen him give to anyone else. “Nah, it’s just that great minds think alike.”
I grinned, and for the first time in forever, it felt easy. My facial features just sort of relaxed into it instead of having to force my lips to curve upwards. Could a person even go from devastation to smiling in such a short time, or was swinging that far on a pendulum just another indication of how fucked up I truly was?
God, in this second I didn’t care. I was just grateful for the relief, so I clung to it. The feeling was so foreign. Is this what… is this what being happy feels like?
Reece laughed. “I don’t know. Is this what being happy feels like? I sure hope so.”
Shit, did I say that out loud?
He laughed even harder. “Yep, you said it out loud.”
I clapped a hand over my mouth, but I was grinning too hard, so I dropped it. “Screw it. Is it really so bad to just say whatever’s on my mind?”
Reece shook his head. “I certainly hope not. I do it all the time.”
“Does it get you into trouble?”
He nodded. “Fuck yeah, it has.”
I laughed. And I mean laughed, like doubled over laughing, holding my gut.
“Okay, okay, why don’t we get you somewhere you can sit down. I think the weed’s hitting.”
He came over and put his hand at the small of my back. I leaned into his touch because it felt heavenly. I suddenly wished the robe I had on wasn’t so thick.
He led me forward, which meant he was close. I looked up at him. He was looking ahead so I could just stare at his strong jaw in the light from the moon and stars. Before I could fully think it through, my hand was up, and the tips of my fingers traced along his jawline. Stubbly and prickly.
“I’m obsessed with your jaw,” I said. “Every time I look at you, all I want to do is this.” I ran my thumb back and forth across the bristles and then pressed harder, feeling the shape of the firm bones underneath.
He swallowed hard, and I watched in abject fascination as his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “Maybe I should get you back inside, Captain.”
I licked my lips. “Or maybe we should go into the stables and make out.”
He opened his mouth like he was gonna say something else and I moved in front of him, reaching up with both hands to caress his jaw with both hands.
His face was dark, shadowed, but I imagined mine was clear in the moonlight as he looked down at me.
“Don’t you want to kiss me?” I asked, and I couldn’t help the vulnerability in the question.
He was silent and it hit me that, oh my God, what if I was making a fool out of myself? Yes, we’d slept together once, but he probably did that kind of thing all the time. It didn’t mean he wanted a repeat performance, and certainly not with some high, sloppy chick—
“Are you fucking kidding?” He didn’t say anything else. He just leaned down and kissed me.
Not hard. Not demanding.
