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I take my time as I move from one breast to the other, enjoying the taste of her skin and how she feels as she rocks her hips against mine. Slow, lazy afternoon make-out sessions on our couch, with the fire burning and no place we need to be, might quickly become one of my favorite things. That is until I’m suddenly being shoved off and onto the floor.
“There! Did you hear it?” Goldie jumps up from the couch and moves toward the plants we brought up from her house and where I hid the chirper. Having it in the house has made changing the battery easy. The pressure of me lying on it or her pushing against it must have triggered the remote.
“Hear what?” I ask nonchalantly, like she’s going crazy, while enjoying the view. Pieces of her hair have fallen loose, and the skin on her chest is red from my beard scratching it, but her boobs are as perfect as they were the night we met.
“Oh my God, I know you heard it. You had to have.” She’s waving her arms wide. “There’s a cricket following me, and it just won’t die! It was in my house for weeks, and now it’s here. I can’t take it anymore.”
I push the button again, and the cricket chirp goes off again.
She whips around and looks at another plant. “There!” She moves toward it and looks around, only coming up with nothing.
I don’t know how they do it where it sounds like it’s coming from different places around the room, but it does.
“I might have heard something,” I say to her, only this time she spins to face my direction.
Smart girl.
“You.” Her tone is deep, her eyes have narrowed, and I can’t help the grin that splits my face. A deep blush creeps up her chest and into her neck. I swear, one by one, her fingers slowly curl into fists, and then she leaps at me. “I’m going to kill you!”
EPILOGUE
CORA
“Ihave to say, I really am shocked they actually went through with a Christmas Eve wedding,” I tell Briggs as we walk into the most Christmassy-themed ballroom I’ve ever seen. The five-star hotel in downtown Charlotte has been transformed with red, gold, and green colors. There are decorated Christmas trees, black walkway lanterns, snowflakes hanging, a sleigh to take photos in, and the entire room glows with candles.
“I’m not. Don’t you know my brother eats small children for breakfast,” Briggs says, threading his fingers through mine. I stifle my laugh so as not to draw attention our way.
Today hasn’t been as terrible as I thought it would be. No one wants to be at their ex’s wedding, and no one wants to be the date of the ex when they were together for such a long time. But with the positive way people have greeted us and how disinterested Briggs has been over the two of them, my nerves were quickly settled.
The ceremony was at a small quaint church just outside of town, and for convenience, they bused all three hundred guests to and from. There was no bridal party, just the two of them, and they requested that everyone wear black. Jaxon’s tux is black with a gold and red boutonniere, and Adele’s bouquet was exquisite with poinsettias and white roses. While they genuinely look happy, I found Briggs studying them a few times. It’s like he still can’t believe they’re together, but then, at the same time, he can.
“It is really pretty in here, though. Adele did a good job.”
“If by that you mean the wedding planners did a good job, I’m sure landing this event will rank high in their portfolio. Adele is not the type of person to pull all this together. Her mother, now, she’s a different story. She always had an eye for these types of things.”
“Adele is the type of daughter I’m certain my mother wishes she had.”
Briggs looks down at me and frowns. “Goldie, you are perfect just the way you are. Fuck her.”
Oh, this man and his mouth. I laugh even though I shouldn’t.
“Still, she had to have had some of this vision. It is her wedding after all.”
I glance in Adele’s direction. She and Jaxon are standing in the middle of the room on the dance floor, receiving people. In all white, she is literally the center of attention, and she’s soaking it up. As she should, I guess, since it is their wedding day.
“Maybe she has been dreaming about this day for years. Regardless of who the groom is.”
“Do you think they’ll be happy together?” I ask him, looking at him to see his reaction.
He tilts his head as he thinks about this. “I don’t know, but most likely yes. Despite it all, I do want them both to be happy.”
Leaning into him, I hug his arm closest to me. “I know you do.”
We both turn to look at them. At the moment, they are by themselves and smiling at each other. Their conversation looks genuine, and no matter how they got together, there’s no denying she’s glowing today.
“I do know that I never would have been happy with her or this life. It’s not for me, and every time we do something like this, all I crave is to be back home on the mountain. Home with you.” I look up at him, and all I see is love shining back at me.
“I know what you mean, but don’t get too homesick. Tomorrow, we have that long flight to Positano.”
