Chapter Twenty-Five
LUCY
Lucy woke up with an unfamiliar weight on her middle. An arm. Not her own.
Nicky Broome.
He was there. It hadn’t been a dream.
Lucy could feel his breath, strong and steady against the nape of her neck. Feel the heat and solidity of him pressed against her back.
She knew she was supposed to be cool about it. No big deal. Whatever. But her stomach didn’t get the message. It flipped – a tumble of excitement and glee. She allowed herself a grin and an internal squeal because he was there and they had all summer. All fucking summer.
The smell of the ocean and the morning sun warming the shore drifted into her little bedroom.
They mixed with the scent of Nicky’s hot, salty, sexy-man smells and Lucy wanted to soak in it forever.
It was freedom and joy and adventure and comfort.
The summer uncurled like flower petals in her mind’s eye – beautiful and infinite.
So, she stayed there in Nicky’s arms as long as she could, focusing on their touch points in turn.
His hand over her belly button. His forearm on her waist. His chest against her shoulder blades.
The rough hair on his thighs scratching at the back of hers.
The tops of his toes grazing her heel. It was only when her bladder threatened to burst that she finally forced herself to move.
On her way out of the bathroom she slipped into the sexy robe Kim had given her for graduation. She called it a ‘dressing gown.’ To Lucy it had always felt like a silk costume from Dynasty – until she had a naked man waiting for her in her bed.
‘Well, good morning after,’ said Kim cheerily from the living room, dropping her jacket on the sofa. ‘Your stud still here?’
‘Bedroom,’ Lucy replied.
Kim smiled and gave Lucy the hubba-hubba eyebrows. ‘Well, keep all that in there. I’ve gotta get ready for work.’
‘How was your night? You good?’ Lucy asked.
‘ So good,’ Kim replied. ‘You?’
‘I don’t have the words, Kim.’
‘That good, huh?’
Lucy could only nod. She didn’t know how to quantify the jumble of things going through her mind.
Her body. It was too much to process without caffeine and cigarettes.
It was butterflies. Butterflies and rainbows.
Fucking unicorns and a bunch of other sappy things that Lucy knew were too much and yet also not enough.
So, she vowed to just kept her mouth shut until she could make sentences that didn’t sound like a detailed description of Lisa Frank stickers.
‘I get off at seven,’ Kim said.
‘I start at five.’
‘Smoke break at six?’ Kim asked.
‘You got it.’
‘I would hug you, but you smell like sex and bad decisions,’ said Kim.
‘Right back atcha,’ Lucy quipped.
Kim blew Lucy an air kiss and disappeared into the bathroom.
Lucy padded to her bedroom and took a deep breath before opening the door as quietly as possible. She planned to lose the Dynasty robe and slide back into Nicky’s arms. Or maybe wake him up with a blow job. Decisions, decisions.
Instead, though, when she opened the door, he was standing up. His unzipped jeans hung loosely on his hips as he pulled his Beastie Boys T-shirt over his head.
‘Good morning,’ he said, grinning at her.
‘Good morning,’ she replied. ‘Going already?’
Nicky sat down on the chair, shoved his feet in his sneakers. ‘I’m heading to Dover. An hour there. An hour to throw some shit in the Jeep. An hour back. I could be here at, like, three.’
‘My shift at Grotto starts at five.’
‘Perfect. I’ll drive you. That okay?’
‘Yeah, okay,’ she replied calmly. A real feat considering her insides were bouncing up and down and doing the damn Macarena.
Nicky stood up, zipped his fly. He took a step forward and grabbed Lucy around the waist, lifted her off her feet.
He pressed his forehead to hers and exhaled. ‘You make me happy, Lucy Rollins.’
‘You make me happy, too, Nicky Broome.’
Nicky brought his lips to hers and kissed her slowly, thoroughly. With purpose. Nicky Broome made her blood fizz like it had been carbonized. He felt important – real and true. Like his kiss was the beginning of something big.
He set her back down on the floor, and reached for his guitar case.
‘I’ll be back in a few hours,’ he said.
And then, he was gone.