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“Do you know how difficult it was to watch them manhandle you?”
“They were just showing their appreciation.”
“Come here, baby girl.”
I don’t hesitate to walk toward him. Once I’m close enough, he lifts me into his arms, and I instinctively wrap my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. He kisses me. With the hunger that I saw reflecting in his eyes, I expected it to be a primal kiss, much like last night, but it’s tender and slow.
“Been wanting to do that all damn day,” he says, when he finally releases my lips. He rests his forehead against mine, and I soak up every moment of being in his arms. “Are you really leaving the week after next?” he asks.
“Yeah. We go back a week from Monday.”
“That’s not even two weeks.”
“I have to go back.”
“I know.”
“I’ll be home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, then spring break, and then next summer I’ll be home for good.”
“I want to see you every day until then.”
“Okay.” My heart is so full at his admission it could burst wide open. “We’ll figure it out.”
“Yeah,” he agrees. Slowly, he places me back on my feet. “Grab what you need and we can work together in my office. I need to make use of all the time I can get before you leave.”
“All right.” I go up on my tiptoes and kiss the corner of his mouth, before moving to make sure the front door is locked, which it is. I gather what I need to make a schedule, and all three résumés, since Cleo deserves a call as well. I settle at his desk while he’s at his drafting table. Every so often, Roman rolls over to where I’m sitting and kisses me, but then gets right back to work. Together, we work in silence, but it’s not uncomfortable. How could it be when we’re together?
ChapterEleven
Roman
Days. I’m down to mere days before she heads off to college. I was up all night last night thinking about the consequences of what I’ve done. I kissed my best friend’s little sister. I didn’t just kiss her; I claimed her mouth like it was my own. We agreed we’re not kissing or fucking other people.
That’s a big deal.
I tossed every scenario around in my head, and I kept coming back to the same conclusion. I’m too weak to stay away from her. She’s right: she’s an adult who can make her own choices, and all I can do is hope and pray that when Forrest finds out, because I’m certain he’s going to find out, that he finds a way to be okay with whatever this is.
I don’t see a time in which I’ll be ready, willing, or able to let her go.
Now, here I am on a Friday night, pacing my living room floor. I walked her to her car, mindful of the parking lot cameras, and my hands twitched to touch her. To pull her into me and kiss her goodbye, even though I’d already done so in the shop.
Which reminds me…
I pull up the shop cameras on my phone and erase the videos of me kissing her inside the shop. Thankfully, they are motion censored, and I tried to keep the PDA this time to my office. Well, outside of that kiss in the break room. I erase every trace of us together. Thankfully, it’s not so much that the other guys will notice. Hell, they never look at the cameras. None of us do unless there is an issue. Either way, it’s not a chance I’m willing to take.
I’m not ready for this to blow up yet.
Grabbing my phone, I quickly type out a text before I can change my mind.
Me: Are you up?
Emerson: Yes.
Me: Can you get out of the house?
Emerson: Where am I going to go?
My sassy girl. She wants me to say it, and I deserve that. After all the back and forth, I put us through. I should kick my own ass for holding off as long as I did. Now, I can count on my fingers how many days I have with her before she goes back to school. I could have had her all summer. I was certain that I could hold strong. I almost did, but she broke through the barrier of my stubbornness, and honestly, it’s a relief to no longer fight what I’m feeling for her.
