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He lowered his lips to her neck, as he’d been doing all day. And that was fine with her. If she could get away with him following her through her day with a nibble here, a kiss there, a slick of his tongue everywhere, she’d be perfectly happy. Of course, her clients might not be.
“It was every moment we’ve spent together, every phone call, every text, every glance, that brought us here.” He framed her face with his hands and kissed her tenderly. “That’s how it happens. One moment at a time.”
She was so swept up in him she forgot what she’d said. “That’s how what happens?”
He smiled and touched his lips to hers again. She would never get enough of his kisses, and that stirred anxiety that hadn’t been there all evening.
With a hand cupping her chin, a look of genuine adoration in his eyes, and a brush of his thumb over her lower lip, he said, “Whatever this is between us,” and lowered his mouth to hers, chasing away her anxiety once and for all.
They ate dinner on the blanket, sharing their entrées, and when Tiffany’s phone vibrated with the millionth message, she powered it off.
“You sure?” Dylan asked.
“The world didn’t end when we were with Gigi, so I’m pretty sure we’re safe for a little while. But I’ll have to check it in a bit.” She lifted her wineglass and said, “To our mostly phone-free first real date.”
Theyclinkedglasses and drank to the toast. After they finished eating, they lay beneath the stars with their fingers intertwined, getting to know each other better, just like Dylan had hoped. Tiffany didn’t realize how much she could enjoy being fully present without distractions of work and deadlines, and it made her want more of it with Dylan. They’d kicked off their shoes, and every so often Dylan rubbed his foot over hers. It was such a little thing, his toe moving along the arch of her foot or the underside of his foot sliding overtop of hers, but it felt intimate and special.
“First kiss?” he asked.
“Ralph Frizzio, in fourth grade. Behind the big tree on the playground. I’ll never forget, because he was yelling at me and I grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the tree. I wanted to hit him, but then I remembered something I had heard Rocco say to Perry. He said, ‘When someone pisses you off, kiss them. It shuts them right up.’” She laughed. “It didn’t work. He yelled at me every day for a week until I realized he was doing it just so I’d kiss him.”
Dylan laughed. “That’s hilarious.”
“Rocco didn’t think so when I yelled at him for it. Of course, he was in high school, and I’m sure I’d taken his advice out of context. He gave me a lecture about kissing boys.”
“I’ll have to thank him for that. He probably caused you to save all the best kisses for me.”
She was learning to accept Dylan’s sweet smooth lines as words from his heart, and it felt good to trust them. It felt good to trust him.
“How about you?” she asked. “First kiss?”
“I was fourteen.”
“Old,” she teased.
He squeezed her hand. “Yeah.”
His tone was so somber, she pushed up on her elbow so she could see him. A soft smile formed on his lips, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “It was after school with Chelsea Randy. Great name, right?” He laughed. “She lived around the corner from us, and we made out in her backyard. We kissed, and I think I touched her boob. And then she moved on to another guy the next day.”
“Aw, that’s sad. She didn’t know what she had.”
“Nobody could get close to me then.” Sadness washed over his face. “That was two years after we lost my sister, Lorelei,” he said with a heavy sigh. “It was also the year my parents split up.”
Her chest constricted, and for a moment she remained silent as emotions clogged her throat. He had lost a sister and his family in two short years. “I don’t know what words could possibly make that feel less awful. I’m sorry seems so small, but I am sorry. I can’t imagine losing a sibling. I’m sorry about your parents, of course, but your sister…Oh, Dylan.” She rested her head on his chest and held him, feeling his heart beating steady and strong against her cheek.
“Lorelei was the coolest kid. She was funny, and smart, and rebellious. Kind of like you.” He lifted his hips, pulling his wallet from his back pocket. He fished around in it for a minute, withdrew a small laminated picture, and handed it to Tiffany. The edges were worn and curled. Cracks mapped the lamination like wrinkles on skin.
“That’s her. The Wilds lived around the corner from us. Cooper took this picture a few months before we lost her. We were all out on my parents’ back deck fooling around. She loved to hang out with all of us and be part of the group, you know? She’d say the silliest things, tease us, call us dorks. She dreamed of being famous when she got older.” He smiled and shook his head. “She would have, too. She had this confidence and attitude that drew us all in. It was like you couldn’t look away from her because she was that charismatic, even as a little girl.”
Tiffany looked at the little girl in the picture, and tears welled in her eyes. Lorelei sat in a wicker chair with her head cocked to the side. Her long brown hair was blowing in the wind, hiding the left side of her face. She wore enormous sunglasses with tiger-striped frames. She had a slim, upturned nose and a beautiful half smirk, half smile that reminded her of Dylan so much her breath hitched. Her smile revealed slightly crooked front teeth that were too big for her mouth. The kind of teeth a girl had to grow into. She wore a pair of white sweatpants with big blue palm trees and elephants on them. There was a grass stain on the knee, and her blue sweater had a piece of a leaf stuck to the sleeve, like she’d run up and flopped onto the chair after tumbling in the grass. She looked happy and carefree, reminding Tiffany of how she felt before her mother left. She glanced at Dylan thinking about how one day life was just…life. And the next, their whole worlds had changed. She never would have guessed how much they had in common, and yet he was so open and willing to embrace every possibility, while she was trying to hide from thewhat-ifs.
“I called herSquirt, she called meDilly, and she used to sneak up behind me if I was playing a game or on my computer, and she’d whisper in my ear,Dilly, I’m bored, orDilly, let’s go get in trouble. She never got in trouble, but she liked to push the envelope.” He was staring up at the sky, as if watching a memory unfold before him. “I don’t know when or why it started, but at some point she began coming into my room at midnight on the weekends and coaxing me into making cupcakes with her.”
“Cupcakes?” She lifted her head off his chest, willing her tears not to fall and wanting to see his face. “It sounds like she adored you.” He smiled as she spoke, but his eyes were haunted.
“Yeah.” His voice cracked, and he pushed up to a sitting position. “She was a great kid,” he said with finality.
“And she loved the trapeze?” She wanted to know more about the little girl whose effervescence radiated from the picture she held within her hands.
