25. Lyric
TWENTY-FIVE
LYRIC
I went home Sunday night with a handful of photos of Jensen in varying stages of puberty and childhood. In every one of them, the shock of dark hair never seemed to be controlled. It was far too cute, and for a moment, I wondered if we made a baby, would it have my curls or his thick wave?
“Whoa, don’t go there,” I said to myself and tapped on my mouse to bring my screen back to life. I wasn’t even sure I wanted kids. I was just getting A Place for All up and running.
And still, the imagine of a dark-eyed boy crept into my head again.
“Hey, Lyric. I just got a call from Nico from Tipsy Glaze. He’s wondering if he can come in and do some measurements of his booth?”
I looked away from my screen at Tatum. “What?”
She leaned on the doorjamb. “Nico wants?—”
“Oh, sorry.” Took a minute for the words to filter in my poor brain. It had been nearly a week since the family dinner. “Sure. I don’t think Jensen is in today, but if he’s cool with just one of us, I can see him today or tomorrow.”
I wasn’t even sure Jensen would be in tomorrow. He’d been working back-to-back shifts at The Cove and The Mason Jar all week. And to make up for not being here in the daytime, he’d been working late nights on the illustrations.
“Great. If you could take it, that would be great. I’m going out to a wine and cheese festival in the Catskills this weekend. See if I can find anyone who wants to fill the last two spots we have.”
“You didn’t have any luck with Ashes and Wine in town?”
Her usually sunny face went positively arctic. “No. They shut me down. Garrett didn’t even let me ask him a question, just pointed to a sign that said no solicitors and disappeared into the back of the taproom. If he doesn’t want exposure, then that’s his problem.”
I laughed. “They do have their very own taproom on Main Street.”
“I know they do but A Place for All is another market. It might get a different set of eyes.”
“I’m sure you can find another small winery who would be interested in a booth. We can even make one of the slots a short-term rental.”
Tatum nodded. “Okay, good. I’ll make that an option for my offers this weekend.”
“I’m sure you’ll find someone.”
“Thanks. I hope so. It’s so stupid that the Andreas Winery right near town isn’t interested. It doesn’t make sense.” She seemed to shake off her mood. “Try to have a good weekend. And please, get out of here for a few hours. I swear, you’re going to grow roots in that chair.”
I laughed. “I promise.”
“Good.” She disappeared from the door, then came right back. “Are you and Jensen doing something for Valentine’s Day?”
“That snuck right up didn’t it?”
“Sure did.”
“I’ll let you know. I should probably go find him something. I don’t even know what to get him.”
“Go to Underneath. It’s the only gift they like opening.” She winked. “Okay, I’m out of here. Text me if you need something. And if that jerk actually replies to my calls, you deal with him.”
“Will do.”
The fact that Tatum was so twisted up made me wonder if there was something else about the interaction. I’d never met any of the family who owned Ashes & Wine. I knew the Andreas family was comprised of many brothers and a few sisters. Most of them took turns at the taproom to entice people to buy their bottles of wine.
I’d been in the taproom a few times before the fire, but I’d been mostly a hermit ever since. Jensen and I enjoyed going out when we could get away, but A Place for All had monopolized both of our attentions for weeks now. We were lucky to fall into bed together at the same time these days.
Even when we hadn’t been able to spend much time together, he slept at my place more often than not. Just feeling his warm body near mine for a few hours helped. I was losing days and as the most candy-filled holiday approached, I made sure to bring Sheba along with me daily. The stress of the busy store and my expanding to-do list meant I needed a little more evening out than I had in the last month.
I wasn’t sure if it correlated to the fact that Jensen wasn’t around much, either.
Was I really that hung up on him?
Yes.
I tried to ignore that little voice inside me. We’d only been together for a few weeks. I shouldn’t be this wrapped up in him.
My phone buzzed, saving me from obsessing. I flipped it over and saw a text from Jensen. I should ignore it, since I had enough work for three people, but I didn’t.
I unlocked my screen and found a funny gif from Dexter .
Jensen
I actually have the night off. Think we can have like five seconds alone tonight?
God, yes. When?
Jensen
Seven?
Where?
Jensen
I’ll come to you at the store.
See you then.
With a renewed bit of energy, I sat up and banged out a bunch of emails. The next few hours flew by. Nova got slammed, so I went out front to help out. By the time seven rolled around, I was assisting the ten deep customers at the register.
Jensen came looking for me and ended up jumping in to help, as well. Seeing him on the floor gave me a shaky minute. A flashback of the night we’d been working came through before I could stop it. I fisted my hands at my sides and stepped back from the counter.
Sheba suddenly materialized at my side. She pressed her nose hard into my thigh until I reached down to stroke her soft fur. She leaned against me, and it did the trick to ground me.
“Miss?” A customer frowned at me.
“Sorry. Did you need that wrapped?”
“If you wouldn’t mind.”
“No problem.” I took the box of truffles and the more kid-centric sour candies over to the wrapping station. Sheba followed me, sitting her fluffy butt right on my foot. “I’m all right, girl.”
She gave a tiny whimper, but she didn’t leave my side. Sometimes the anxiety grew inside my chest no matter what I did. There had been a lot of sleepless nights lately. My brain wouldn’t shut off and my usual favorite trick for that had been nonexistent for the last week and a half.
How had I gotten so very used to an active sex life after a year without?
All I knew was that I was off-balance thanks to our separate busy lives. It was getting to me. I really needed this evening together with him—even more than I’d thought I did.
I turned back from the wrapping station to find him helping a little boy with getting candy down off the full-to-bursting coffin shelves. When he kept picking the wrong one, Jensen scooped him up to pick it out himself.
The sight of it nearly doubled me over.
What the hell was up with the baby moments all of a sudden? I wasn’t the kind of woman who was ruled by my ovaries. I shook it off and tried not to actively give a heartfelt aww when he put him down next to a woman. She was all big smiles as the little boy took the box right up to where I was at the registers.
The line had let up while I had been wrapping. We generally only had one register going but on the busy times, we had extra iPads set up to take credit card payments. There were three of us at the counter ringing out the last of the patrons. Valentine’s Day was two days away and I was trying not to get too excited about it.
Jensen’s multiple jobs were in the restaurant industry, so he’d be working. My sister would probably be out having fun with one of her disposable dates. The fact that she kept napkins longer than some of her dates astounded me.
I couldn’t imagine meeting so many new people. How exhausting.
Jensen came up to the counter and let out a roar as he picked up the little boy. “Lyric, can you help this fine sir?”
“Of course I can. Is this a very special chocolate?”
The boy nodded sagely. “It’s for my gamma.”
My heart melted. No wonder Jensen had been so invested in helping. The woman came up beside the two of them. “This man was super helpful. If a supervisor looks for feedback, I just wanted to let you know.”
Jensen’s dark eyes danced. He was wearing one of his black thermal shirts and a pair of dark-washed jeans. His hair looked as if he’d gotten out of the shower and headed right over to the store.
Had he been excited to see me too?
“I’ll be sure to let his supervisor know,” I said to him. “We’ll make sure he gets a gold star on his chart.”
The little boy perked up. “Like me?”
Jensen bounced the child. “You have a chart too?”
“I do. Mama gives me an extra dollar in my lady bank.”
He grinned at the child. “You mean piggy?”
“No, it’s my lady bank. Her name is Melissa.”
“Well, I wish you all the stars, buddy.” He set the child down. “And I hope your gamma loves her chocolates.”
“Thank you!”
The mother set down her credit card. “He inherited it from his sister when she upgraded her bank.”
Jensen lowered to the kid’s level. “Did she leave you any cash?” he whispered.
The little boy dissolved into giggles. “Only a quarter.”
“Your sister is harsh.”
The boy giggled again and hugged his mom’s leg. “Now I have eighty-three quarters.”
Jensen’s eyebrows raised. “That’s more than most piggy banks.” He ruffled the kid’s hair and straightened. “Hope you guys have a nice Valentine’s Day.”
I finished ringing them out and tucked their candy in a bag. I could hear the rest of the team counting down their drawers in the back room.
“Is that the last of the customers?”
“Unless someone climbed into the coffin, I think we’re good.”
“Thanks for your help, both of you.” Nova appeared. “I’ll take your till.”
I pulled out my register and handed it over. “You’re welcome. I’ll be in A Place for All if you need me.
Nova waved me off. “You’re a rockstar. Off you two go.”
Jensen waited for me at the end of the counter. I locked eyes with him. His smile made my stomach flip. We both waited until Nova disappeared into the cash room and then we were on each other.
He swung me up and around, and I caught his shoulders and held on. His mouth was hot and a little wild.
“I missed you,” I said against his lips between kisses. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in days.”
He hooked his arm around my waist and strode to the front doors and took a left toward our side of the store. “Because you haven’t. I swear my balls are as blue as your dress.”
I laughed as I looked over my shoulder to make sure there was no one around, then I wrapped my legs around him. “You should check under my skirt.”
His dark eyes went hot. “Should I?”
He strode into the office area and past the community area to my domain. He kicked the door closed. I laughed since I was pretty sure I hadn’t closed that door since they day I set up my desk.
He set me on the long table behind my desk, then he pushed aside the stacks of papers and samples of marketing shirts, cups, and keychains. Then he flipped up my skirt and growled.
“How long were you walking around like this?”
I shivered at the cool air washing over my utterly naked lower half.
“Since lunch,” I hissed out as his fingers immediately found me. I arched my back as he sunk into me, tunneling deep until I groaned.
“And you’ve been wet for me this whole time?”
I shook my head.
“Lyric?”
“No,” I groaned as he thrust inside of me again and again with his two fingers then turned his hand to lightly flick over my clit with his thumb.
“When?”
“I don’t know.” But I did know. Watching him with that little boy had sent me into a big marshmallow haze, then the minute he’d lifted me up, I’d been gone.
He stopped circling my clit.
I reached down to grip his forearm. “Don’t stop.”
“When?” He stopped pulsing inside of me and touching my clit. I was stalled out on the edge.
“Always. The minute you picked me up. I knew I was bare. I knew you could get inside me so fast.”
“Fuck.” He buried his nose in my neck and resumed his achingly slow invasion. He knew my body now, knew how to tease and how to push me over the edge. But he excelled at the teasing.
I groaned as he gentled the circles with his thumb, leaving me hanging.
“Shh, baby. Unless you want everyone to know I’m two knuckles deep in your dripping pussy.”
I groaned. When he talked to me like that, it made everything worse. “I don’t want your fingers. I want your cock.”
He thrust harder into me, and I threw my head back. He lowered his face into the deep vee of my wraparound dress. He nosed aside the soft material to find the sheer bra I was wearing. His growl made my body vibrate with need. He sucked through the thin nylon until my nipple was so hard I surely would come.
“Jensen.” My voice was little more than a breath.
He fumbled with his jeans, and I heard the sweet sound of a wrapper. Then he pulled his fingers out of me and shoved his thick shaft inside of me. I gasped and he covered my mouth with his still wet fingers.
My eyes rolled back as he drove into me with powerful strokes. The days without him coalesced into this one wild moment, and I came so hard the lights above flickered. His hand slid away from my mouth and he swallowed the cries that wouldn’t be denied. He licked into my mouth to catch every sigh and groan.
I held onto the side of the table and widened myself for each powerful stroke. I tipped up my hips and the heat spun into a humming vibration that threatened to break me apart.
But he was with me.
Always.
And I trusted him not to let me go alone.
I wrapped around him, sheltering him inside me as I felt the shudder, followed by his guttural groan of his release.
We hung onto each other as if there was no other option.
And when we finally came back into the moment, we were both laughing.
“I can’t tell you how much I needed that.” I pressed my forehead to his shoulder.
He cupped the back of my neck. “Me too. I swear it’s been days since I saw you.”
“We keep passing in the night.” I lifted my head. “I do love that you still come to my place even when it’s late sometimes.”
“Can’t keep me away, Lyric.”
“I’m all right with that.”
He grinned down at me. “Good.” Then he pulled out of me, and I sighed.
I wasn’t sure if it was because of the loss, or the relief of everything.
He discarded the condom in a bunch of tissues in my waste basket. I’d have to remember to take that out to the dumpster myself. I didn’t really need our cleaning lady to know I was banging my boyfriend in my office. He pulled my skirt down, but he trailed his fingers along the top of my thigh. “When did you lose your panties?”
“Around seven.”
His eyebrow arched. “You were behind the registers.”
“AM.”
His eyes went dark again. “You’re going to be the death of me.”
I laughed. “I’d say we are even on that score.” I scooted off the table.
He drifted his hand around the back of my leg to cup my ass. “How the hell am I supposed to concentrate knowing you’re bare under there?”
“Then maybe you should bring me home.”
He sighed. “I have something to show you first.”
“Then I guess you’ll have to be brave.”
He threw his head back with a laugh. “Jesus, I love you.”
“What?” I whispered.
He froze, as if he didn’t realize what he’d said. He hauled me closer. “I won’t take it back. I won’t say it again if you don’t want me to, but I won’t take it back.” His voice was thick.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to.” He cupped my cheeks. “I didn’t expect to say it, even if I knew, deep down, I already loved you.”
And he said it so easily.
How was that possible? It couldn’t be so quick, could it?
I knew the answer even if I wasn’t ready to look at it yet. Of course, it could be this quick. I’d already been intrigued by him. He’d always been my greatest supporter—even on that horrible night. And these weeks were no different.
I went onto my toes to meet his mouth. I wasn’t sure I could find those big words yet. “You overwhelm me.” When he opened his mouth, I pressed my finger to his lips. “In a good way.”
He nipped my finger. “I’ll take it.” He slipped his hand out from under my dress and clasped my other hand. “Now I want to show you something.”
“Okay.”
He drew me out of the office. Sheba was laying on the floor in the common area. “Sorry, girl. Didn’t mean to lock you out.”
Sheba tilted her head, then her pink tongue lolled out. Guess he was forgiven. She popped up off the floor and followed us out into A Place for All.
Jensen had tarps curtained across most of the walls. He was being annoyingly secretive about how things were going to look. But I actually enjoyed the anticipation.
I was doing so much behind the scenes. The idea that something could be new and exciting kept me from peeking behind all the tarps. I’d been studiously avoiding the space for the last few days.
“Nico says he wants to come in to look at his booth tomorrow. Do you want me to push him off?”
He reached back for my hand. “Actually, I am done with that one. I suppose I can show you that space.”
“Oh, you suppose, huh?”
Jensen gave me a wicked smile. “I wondered how long I could get away with it.”
I squeezed his hand. “Excuse me?”
He laughed and dragged me over to the big wall that faced the atrium windows. A massive white drop cloth had been hung from the rafters. “This is really what I was hiding. The other tarps were just to throw you off.”
I put my hands on my hips. “You’ve been driving me crazy for days.”
“I know it. But I hope you’ll think it’s worth it.” He walked over to a cord. Somehow he’d strung up a counterweight. When he pulled the cord, the sheet rose like a curtain and floated up to the ceiling.
I gasped as the large black wall came into view.
“Originally, I was going to draw something that I’d simply wipe away to finish up the booths, but then I had this idea.”
My hand shook as I covered my mouth. He’d illustrated the whole wall with the various companies who had bought a booth. The far corner was Bell Flower Soaps. The corner booth allowed for a dozen hidden gems. Some in the shelves, some on the wall, some in the little cubbies that had been built in. A honeycomb, lavender, and a different version of the peonies from the painting he’d showed me at The Studio.
This one had more details, more mastery somehow. Beyond the peonies there were roses, dahlias, and daisies that burst out of every available nook and cranny. Bell Flower Soaps’ logo was the only bit of color on the black wall. It was a soft watery lavender and honey yellow.
Then there were fun croissants, hot cross buns, and sourdough loves drawn around Mama’s Bread blue and butter yellow logo. There was such movement in the illustrations that I felt like I could pluck them right off the wall.
But the part I couldn’t take in was the illustrated version of A Place for All’s logo. It looked like a neon sign set into a circle with the words stacked on one another. But instead of it being just a massive logo placed in the center of the wall it had been created into a dog tag. Sheba’s friendly face was overlooking the room with her exact coloring done in chalk. It was muted a bit, but her shining blue eyes leapt off the wall.
There was something leaning on the wall in a familiar brown paper.
“Jensen...”
“Do you like it?”
“Like doesn’t cover it. How did you do all this?”
“One of the good things about being in my twenties is that I require very little sleep.” He moved behind me and linked his arms around my shoulders. “I came up with a million different ideas, but in the end, Sheba won as our mascot.”
“I love it so much. I can’t believe how talented you are.”
“I know this place means a lot to you, and because it does, it means a lot to me too. I hope you know that.”
I curled my fingers around his forearms and just couldn’t stop looking at it all. Now that I’d taken in Sheba, I noticed all the other little bits in the drawings. I could stare at it for hours and not find all the hidden pieces.
Next to Sheba, there was Sugar Rush’s doggie treat illustrations as if it had been planned.
“Go check your Valentine’s gift.”
“ This isn’t my gift?”
“No, you paid me to do this. The brown wrapped one is from me.” He released me so I could go over to the wall where it was propped on Sheba’s foot in the mural.
There was an oversized paisley bow in the corner. I lifted the wrapped gift and brought it to the makeshift desk Jensen used. I set it on the top and slowly unpinned the bow, setting it aside. I looked for the tape on the brown paper and he growled.
“Cut it open already.”
“I’m savoring it.”
“Savor it faster.”
I laughed and ripped back the heavy-duty craft paper with a gasp. It was us .
A very detailed painting of us standing on the walkway near Crescent Cove at the end of the night we had taken our first walk together. The water sparkled in the sun and the distant church had fiery stained-glass windows with a single blue bird in the center.
And seated by my feet was Sheba looking up at me as she often does.
My eyes filled with tears. It was a such a normal scene to anyone else who would look at it. But I knew it was the first moment for us as more than two people experiencing a shared trauma.
It was the real us.
My wild curls and his flyaway black hair. And he was looking down at me as if I was the most precious thing he’d ever seen.
When I turned around, he was doing the same.
He was looking at me as if he couldn’t bear to look away.
I ran to him and threw my arms around him. He caught me tight, and the words flew out. No hesitation necessary.
“I love you, Jensen.”
He lifted me off my toes and crushed my mouth with his.
“Can I take you home, Lyric?”
“Yes.”
Tomorrow would be soon enough to see the rest of the illustrations.
Right now, I wanted to celebrate us .