“Fuck that.”
I stop in front of him. Hang up my phone and smile at him. “Hi.”
He does the same. “Hey, princess.”
All we do is stare at one another. Content to just be in one another’s presence. To be together, at last. His woodsy scent fills the air around us, making me wonder how I could be homesick for a smell, even as it wraps around me.
“Jet-lagged?” he asks.
“Incredibly.”
“Thought you might need this.” He presents me with a cup of coffee from the table behind him.
That’s when I burst into tears.
“Yeah, I thought that might happen, too.” And he fishes a packet of tissues from his jacket pocket, which only makes me cry more. “I wouldn’t use them all now. You’re just gonna fucking cry more when you see them.”
“See who?” I sniffle.
But in the next second, a loud voice pierces the air with my name. It echoes, and I realize it’s from a chorus of voices, each one excitedly trying to get my attention.
And I start crying even harder than I thought possible, because my entire family is here. My mom and dad and all my sisters and their significant others and my nieces, all rushing toward me with hugs and kisses and a cacophony of love and questions about my trip.
My voice wobbles when I respond with questions of my own. What and how and why and how?
“Spencer,” Brigid whispers in my ear when she shoves Deirdre out of the way to hug me. “He arranged the whole thing. You know he and Dad have been texting, like, nonstop all summer, right? Give a man a football, and you become bros for life, I guess.”
Spencer grunts, hiding just the teeniest flush of red on his cheeks. And then I want nothing more than to launch myself at him and kiss him.
Unfortunately, there are children present. And my parents. So I relegate the desire coursing through me to a tame arm squeeze.
I squeeze again, for good measure.
After everyone settles down and we start making our way to baggage claim, I hold Spencer back.
“I can’t even begin to imagine how you pulled this off,” I tell him.
“Well, I started by making a calendar…”
He dodges when I try to pull his mouth to mine. Brushes his lips over my ear instead and whispers, “Kennedy, the next time I kiss you, it’ll be when we’re good and alone and I can slide my cock inside you.”
I groan, but I nod. Spencer pecks my forehead and lightly tugs my ponytail. It’ll have to tide us over. For now.
“Come on,” he says, holding out his hand.
I take it.
* * *
Later, after recounting the highlights of my summer studies over a feast at my family’s hotel, we bid farewell to my loved ones. My sisters and their families need to catch flights of their own in the morning, but my parents will be staying a few more days. I leave most of my luggage with them, since they’ll be visiting us at Lakewood tomorrow, and Spencer straps my carry-on to the back of his bike for our drive back to campus.
In the spring, he’d taken me on a couple of rides in the days leading up to my departure. And followed those up with rides of an entirely different nature. Those of the long and hard variety.
So by the time we arrive at Tipsy Turvy, my body’s responding to those memories. Then reminiscing on our summer apart. To those winding phone calls, late into the night, when we’d whispered every single thing we’d do to each other upon my return. To those days we couldn’t find time to connect, when Spencer would leave me voicemails wishing me a very good night. Because quickly into our long-distance, he’d learned something about his new girlfriend: just the sound of his voice drives her absolutely wild with lust.
Spencer’s hands are on me the second we’re off the bike. Skimming under my shirt. Squeezing my butt. Massaging my breasts over my bra. Twice, we drop my carry-on, and once, he trips on the front steps. I almost drop my keys trying to unlock the door when he runs his tongue over the nape of my neck and pushes his hard-on into my thigh.
No one’s home when we enter the house. Natalie’s been away at her grandmother’s all summer, and I’d explicitly texted Rylie to clear out and stay the night with Levi at Main Desire. That under no circumstance should anything or anyone come through that door after Spencer and I have walked through it. We’ll see our friends tomorrow. But tonight…
This night is ours.
Made evident by the fact that, for the second time, my living room has disappeared.
It’s been replaced by another blanket fort.
Only a portion of this one has fallen in on itself.
I gasp seeing it, tears springing to my eyes again. My family, my fort, my coffee. There’s no end to the ways he keeps stunning me.
“Fuck,” Spencer says behind me. “It was fine earlier.”
“No,” I turn to him. “It’s perfect. This whole night, Spencer…”
“Kennedy Fucking Walsh.” Spencer unravels my ponytail and digs his hands into my hair. “I missed you so fucking much.”
“Me, too. Me, too,” I whimper, tearing at his shirt.
He slants his mouth over mine. I moan into his lips, slide my tongue along his. He crushes me against the front door, and our over-eager kiss turns soft as I sink into his body. Slow and sensual despite our urgency. Reuniting and savoring one another, relishing in how good it feels to be able to see and smell and touch and taste after months of mostly hearing.
Though, the hearing had been, admittedly, top-notch. Turns out, Spencer and I are just as talented at phone sex as the real thing. But nothing beats his warm breath scattering chills down my spine when he growls in my ear, “Say it.”
“Say what?” I playfully ask, lifting his shirt again. “I know a lot of words.”
He whips it off. Then helps me with my shirt. And
