40. Shower Songs
SHOWER SONGS
CHLOE
In the lobby, I’m still floating on cloud nine. I feel like I’m the one who got engaged—I’m that bubbly, that happy. I keep showing off my rose to everyone. “Look. He had my dog give it to me,” I say to Bridget, even though, of course, she was there.
In the second row. She saw it.
“Yes, it was perfect. But so was the number,” she says, then whispers in my ear, “I told you so.”
I arch a brow. “Did you?”
She straightens her shoulders. “I told you to tell him how you feel. And you did. And it worked out.”
Damn. She has me there. “Fine, you’re right,” I say when my attention snags on a handsome man in a suit, lingering at the edge of the lobby, his eyes laser-locked on…Bridget.
“Do you have a secret admirer?” I whisper, forehead-tipping toward him.
She shifts her gaze to look at him. He has neat brown hair, intense eyes, and a mysterious air about him. Scruff lines his jaw, and he’s broad and strong.
“I don’t know. Do I?” she asks, a little breathy.
“I think you should swipe right,” I say.
She rolls her eyes, turning away from him and focusing back on me. “Anyway, the show was amazing. You’re incredible and…can I say it?” She gathers Ripley, Banks, and Sawyer close. “We should do karaoke.”
Sawyer smiles. “Yeah, we all should. Next week?”
“It’s a date,” I say.
“A double date,” Banks adds.
“And I’ll be the third wheel,” Bridget says, but she doesn’t sound upset about that.
I’m not upset about anything anymore, especially when Sawyer kisses me. A sweet, hot kiss that doesn’t last long enough. When he breaks it, we head over to see my mom, passing the guy in the suit again. He’s talking on his phone.
“Yes, Oliver here,” he says, tone confident, commanding. “Yes, this place looks great. It’s everything we want,” he says—then his eyes stray to Bridget once more. “And everything I want.”
My eyes pop. “What does he want?” I whisper to Sawyer.
“Maybe we’ll find out someday soon,” he says.
Before I can even answer with a maybe we will, I do a double take when I spot Ian.
The Brit from the dance class, and from Dog Tails.
He’s here too. Seems like he’s waiting for someone in the lobby since he’s looking around.
But then, he stops looking when his gaze lands on Bridget, and stays there, his lips curving into a grin.
Well, well, well.
Someone has more than one admirer.
But I put my bestie’s prospects out of my mind tonight when my mom and Angelo make their way to the lobby, where my brother congratulates them. We head straight toward the happy couple too.
“Finally, your mother has made me an honest man,” Angelo says, sounding over the moon.
“I’m so happy for you. But I’m not calling you my stepdad.”
“Me neither,” Jay says.
“I wouldn’t dream of asking either of you to,” he says, then kisses my mom’s hand once more.
Life is good in Darling Springs.
Really good.
But I also want to get out of here with my dog and my man.
After we say hello to his sisters, then chat with his dad and mom, as well as Latanya, my heart is full, but I’m so ready to go.
We retrieve Captain from Levi, then escape the theater, and I draw a big breath of the warm night air, a little sea salt in the breeze.
“I love it here,” I say.
“Me too. Almost as much as I love you,” Sawyer says, then he tilts his head, an apology in his deep brown eyes.
“I’m sorry again about the other day. I should have told you then.
But I was convinced I’d let everyone down at the event.
I was spiraling because of that. I thought I had handled it all badly. ”
“You don’t have to do everything the right way all the time. What matters is that you see it and try again,” I say, trying to reassure him.
But he’ll have none of that. He reaches for my hand, squeezes it. “I’m not sorry I accidentally knocked your ex into the pool. He had it coming.”
I laugh. “I am definitely not sorry about that accident either. And you say choreography isn’t your thing. Please.”
He smiles, but then it fades, replaced by a vulnerable look in his eyes. “But mostly I pushed you away because I was afraid of being hurt.”
He sounds so raw and vulnerable. My heart aches.
“Me too,” I say. “I’m afraid of the same thing. And I didn’t give you much of a chance to say anything at your car. I didn’t tell you how I felt. But now you know. And I suppose we can be afraid together,” I say.
“We can be brave together,” he adds.
“I like that.” I tap-dance my fingers up his chest, stopping at his neck and standing close, very close to this sexy man. “But can we just fuck now?”
* * *
“Yes, yes, yes.”
I’m answering the question over and over again at his home.
“Say it one more time. Can we fuck every night?” he asks—or really, demands—as he drives into me, filling me all the way.
I’m bent over the bed, clutching the sheets, and Sawyer’s giving me one of my favorite things.
A good, hard railing.
I can feel it in my toes. In my belly. In every damn cell that’s lighting up and singing as he fucks me to pieces.
Until I fall apart, crying out in pleasure. And seconds later, with a grunt and a moan, he follows me there. Collapses on me. Wraps his arms around me and kisses my neck.
While a dog whines.
I glance down. It’s Mister Dog, thumping his tail.
“I guess someone needs to learn his sex manners,” I say as Sawyer eases out.
“Good thing my girlfriend is the best dog trainer around.”
I beam at that word. “So I’m your girlfriend, Sam?”
“You are. You’re mine. All mine.”
I like the sound of that. “That’s music to my ears,” I say, then I glance down. “Shower time. Also, you never sang in the shower for me.”
“I’m not going to sing with you.”
“I have to discover you singing?”
“That’s the way it works, Chloe.”
And in the morning, I find him crooning in the shower. He’s singing “Let’s Stay Together.”
Yes. Let’s.