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“Exactly. Ever since then I haven’t been willing to put myself out there.” He sighed and made anadmission. “You were a good thing for me. It was nice to have someone who cared—who wanted me to be more. I’m going to apply for lieutenant and take those oboe lessons.”
She sniffled. “I feel so lame right now. Me and my stupid problem of not knowing what I want, when you went through hell… I like you. But my life, my future, is in Chicago. Though I don’t even know if I want that future anymore.”
Crying women all always got to him. Before he thought about it, his arms were around her, and he was smoothing back her hair. “Then change majors. Do you want to be a doctor now like your brother?”
“No idea. Totallyclueless. I’ve been so focused on school and achieving that I never asked the question. I’ve never hung out in bed just reading books that don’t do something. I read all of the Lord of the Rings books and the three Fifty Shades of Grey books.”
He couldn’t help but admire how industrious she was that she’d found reading two thousand pages in a week and watching twenty hours of movies relaxing. “You don’t have to know yet. That’s the job of college, right? Find what you want. It’s not comfortable, for sure, but it is an adventure.”
She pressed her head into his chest, right over his heart. “I didn’t think it would hurt this much. This is the opposite of comfortable.”
“Do you want to be comfortable?”
“I don’t know anymore. When I stole the microphone, I felt different. Like I was flying, like I was someone else. And I think I want that…”
“That’s something at least.” He rubbed her back gently, parts of him relaxing. Other parts were not responding in the same way.
“I know one thing.” She leaned forward and kissed his mouth. “Our last kiss cannot be while I was having sex with you in a bathroom at a club.”
“Vandy…” Royce was wavering. They were supposed to be saying goodbye, getting closure.
“I did something cliche and rebellious. I skipped lunch with my parents today and got a tattoo instead,” she whispered conspiratorially. “It’s in a secret spot. My flight leaves in three hours.”
Music to his ears, because twenty seconds later they were naked in his bed, and he had her nipple in his mouth, loving the way she moaned.
His fingers found a bandage on her left hip by her bikini line. He peeled it back and saw a small black glyph.
He paused because it was vaguely familiar. “The Lord of the Rings? Elvish?”
“Sindar Elvish for ‘loved.’” She trembled in his arms for the last word. “I wanted it to mean something, even if it just means it to me.”
She wasn’t talking solely about the tattoo.
He kissed her lips, holding back his own feelings. “It means something to me.”
“Even if this is goodbye.” A tear formed in the corner of her eye.
He wiped it away. “It’s not goodbye as long as you’re in Ohio.”
“Good. You can drive me to the airport.” She kissed him and gave herself over to him.
CHAPTER 9
Vandy sat waiting to board her flight to Chicago, trying not to cry. She and Royce had stayed in bed until the last possible moment, and he’d kissed her at the security line. It made her want to cancel her flight and stay another day.
Or forever.
But that wouldn’t do. She had a life in Chicago. An internship and a degree or two to finish.
She was fine.
Fine was relative because she couldn’t stop texting Royce.
V: So, you haven’t cut your hair for a year?
R: Nope.
Two photos popped up, the one she’d found when he’d had short hair and a current one where he was gloriously tattooed and shirtless – most likely taken the second he’d arrived home since he was wearing the same boxers she’d stripped off him a few short hours ago.
