“I want you safe.”
“With you, I’ve always been safe.” She gives me a small smile.
I lift my hand and wrap it around the back of her head, pulling her down to me. She places her lips on mine, opening her mouth, allowing my tongue to caress hers.
She places her hand against my chest, gently pulling herself back.
“Why did you stop?” I ask her.
“Because you have to go to work.” She laughs.
“You’re right.” I groan, tilting my head back. The sun peeks through the wooden slats of our pergola. I squeeze my eyes shut, the rays warming my face.
I still had to talk to Natalie. It had been two days since I’d confronted her on the sidewalk outside the restaurant the other night. Her worried face has haunted me, telling me there was more going on with her than I knew.
Lena runs her fingers through my hair, gently pulling me back to face her.
“I have to leave for Abby’s office in a few anyway.”
“Are you still planning on asking her why she told Max she’s in a relationship?” Lena had told me about how she had run into Max at her office yesterday. Seeds of doubt took root in my brain. Whether it was Max or Abby, someone wasn’t telling the truth. My stomach was constantly upturned, nervous to find out the truth. I didn’t know whether Natalie held the answers, but I had to at least try.
“I think so.” Lena’s eyes pool with worry. Fear is embedded in them, darkening her pale brown eyes to a deep mahogany shade.
“It’ll all work out,” I reassure her. “We’ll get through this. Text me when you get there and tell Abby I said congratulations.”
“I will.”
Pulling her down to me, I kiss her once more before heading up to take a shower. I’m about to step out when I hear Lena’s voice coming from outside the shower door.
“Hey,” she says. “I’m heading out now to go see Abby.”
Her silhouette is shaped behind the fogged glass door. The water still beats against my skin when I open the door.
She grins, her eyes scanning my body. She steps back, holding her finger out. “Oh no you don’t.” She laughs. “I can’t get in there with you.”
“I wasn’t going to pull you in here.”
“Yeah, right.” She rolls her eyes. “I don’t trust you.”
I pretend she’s wounded me. “That hurts, you know that?”
“Whatever.” She waves me off. “I just wanted to tell you I was leaving.”
“Come on, if you won’t join me, can you at least give me a goodbye kiss?”
“You’re the worst.” She smirks.
Water splashes off my back, drops spraying through the open door. The mat in front of the shower is damp with water.
Lena steps forward, leaning out to kiss me. I reach outside of the shower and grip the back of her head, pulling her toward me. She squeals before my mouth lands on hers.
My soaking wet fingers thread through her blonde hair. She laughs against my mouth. Her voice shudders against me, shooting through my body. My dick hardens, warmth growing beneath my waist. I fight the urge to pull Lena in to join me, knowing she needs to leave to meet Abby.
“Logan.” She laughs against my mouth.
I pull back but keep my hand around the back of her head, keeping her close. Water sprays against her face, tiny droplets dotted across her skin.
“Your voice is beautiful.”
She rolls her eyes. “Stop it. It is not.”
“It is.” I nod. “I knew I was in love with you the first time I heard it.”
Standing on her toes, she presses her lips to mine then pulls back. Her eyelashes are dotted with water, reflecting off her bright eyes. “I love you, Logan.” She taps my cheek, the corner of her mouth curling into a smirk. “Now finish your shower or you’ll be late for work.”
Twenty-Six
Lena
It’s an unusually warm fall day. Leaves are scattered across the sidewalk as I head toward Abby’s office, falling from the small trees lining the street. The clouds are thick and heavy in the sky, barely allowing the sun to peek through. One of my feet lands against a shadow on the concrete, another hits a small sliver of sun.
I still couldn’t shake the conversation Max and I had yesterday.
Abby and I’s relationship had gone from best friends to estranged then back to friends. I wish I could say we were the same as we were all those years ago. But deep in my soul, I knew we weren’t. Ever since her return, I’ve felt like we were on separate paths, never quite merging back together. I wanted to give credence to our new form of friendship, believing it was the way it used to be and if nothing else, we could build a new, better form of friendship. My soul, however, refused to believe time could simply be reversed. She felt like a stranger, a woman I no longer knew.
The truth of the matter was my life wasn’t the same and I was no longer the woman I used to be. I had left her back in Providence. I wanted that part of me to wither away, turning into evidence of a life I no longer wanted.
The street where Abby’s office is located is still as quiet and secluded as the other times I’ve been here. Nothing has changed. It’s eerily desolate, the sounds of the bay echoing off the tall building surrounding me. I breathe in, wrapping my arms around my body. The air smells like the sea, salted and refreshing. A promise of a thunderstorm lingers in the air, the clouds increasing by the second.
When I make it to the front of Abby’s office, I stand on the sidewalk and look up. There isn’t a sign above the door and the logo I’d designed for her isn’t anywhere to be seen. The windows are still covered in a film of dust, blocking the view to inside. Confused, I pull my phone out from my purse and text
