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“It was,” agreed Hope.
Ava pushed her glasses up onto her head and Hope almost fainted. “It’s not that I don’t want you to touch me again,” she said. “It’s that I want us both to know what’s going on, and just at the moment I feel like we’re groping around in the dark.”
“Sounds fun,” Hope couldn’t help but say.
“I’m not the only one that can be infuriating.” Ava crossed her legs. “Someone today told me that I needed to remember how to be vulnerable.”
“Sounds like someone smart,” Hope said, getting the sense that maybe this conversation wasn’t going badly.
“She’s got blue hair,” said Ava, as though blue hair meant someone couldn’t be smart.
“That would be Mila.” Whitebridge was a small town. “And she is smart. You do need to be vulnerable. We all do. That’s the only way we let other people in. You can build a big old garden wall or you can open up your front door. Guess which one gets you the most visitors? Assuming you want visitors, that is.”
“I’m being open,” Ava said. “I’m being honest with you. I like you. God knows why. But I do. I’m interested. There. I said it. I’m interested but I’m not at all sure where this is going or whether I can handle it.”
“Fair,” Hope said, picking up her mug from the table. “How about… no pressure?”
“No pressure.”
“Look, I’m not asking you to marry me,” Hope said. She put her cup down again and moved forward on her chair until she was closer to Ava. “But I do like you. And you like me. So maybe we could… see where things go?”
“See where things go.”
“Are you going to repeat everything that I say?” Hope asked. But Ava had been open with her, so it was only fair that she was open back. “I’m not sure either,” she said. “To tell you the truth, Noah is the only person I’ve ever… been with.”
Ava’s eyebrows about shot off her forehead. “Say what now?”
Hope shrugged. “I’ve had other boyfriends and girlfriends. But in terms of, um, being intimate, Noah was the only one. So starting everything all over again is just as confusing and frightening for me as for you. You’re not the only one that needs to take things slowly.”
Hesitantly, Ava reached out a hand and put it on Hope’s knee. Hope felt her insides melt into jelly. She really hoped she could take things slowly. But Ava’s touch was enough to make slow the last thing on her mind.
“Slowly,” Ava said, her voice low and deep.
Hope nodded. “Slowly.”
Ava’s hand moved up her leg slightly and Hope felt a tickle of desire run over her skin. “This slowly?”
“Maybe a little faster,” said Hope, eyes half-closing as Ava’s fingers moved up her thigh.
“You can be demanding.”
“So can you,” Hope said.
“You have no idea,” drawled Ava.
Hope flashed her eyes open. If they were being careful, being slow, then she needed to stop this. She took Ava’s hand in her own. “We have time. Time to figure out what we want, what this is, if it’s anything.”
Ava’s cheeks were flushed pink. “We do,” she agreed.
“Then we’re going to try this?”
Ava took a breath. “Yes.”
Hope grinned, leaned in and cupped Ava’s face in her hands, wanting to kiss her again, wanting to do more than that.
The front door opened. “I’m back,” Caz called.
Ava jumped a foot in the air and then hurriedly stood up. “I’d better be going.”
