Chapter 15 — Wanted Most #4
"Everything is a debate if you're brave," Shay called.
"See?" Kiki said, and kept walking.
Reese was the last to leave the dock. She paused near the steps, glanced at Eden's hand in mine, and smiled.
Then she gave us space.
The house noise drifted across the yard. Water slapped softly against the hull. Eden stood beside me in my shirt, damp hair down, bare legs shining in the late light, and for the first time all day she looked nervous without trying to hide it.
She was still touching me. Not dramatically. Not enough for anyone at the house to call out. Her hip against mine. Her bare thigh brushing my leg. Her hand curled around my wrist with her thumb moving over the inside where my pulse kept betraying me.
"Casino Night," she said.
"Yeah."
"It's at my parents' place. You already know that."
"I do."
"My mother will notice everything. My father will pretend not to notice anything until it becomes impossible, and then he'll notice all at once, which is worse."
"Sounds like a system."
Her smile flickered. "A terrible one."
She turned toward me, still holding my hand.
"I want you there with me," she said. "Not as Lake House Luke who knows everyone and can talk to my dad about cards and baseball and whatever else men discuss while avoiding feelings."
"Mostly grill temperatures."
"Exactly. Not that." Her fingers tightened. "With me. As mine, even if we can't call it that out loud."
"I'll be there."
She nodded like she'd expected the answer, but the relief in her eyes told the truth.
"There's a dress," she said.
I went still.
Eden noticed, and her mouth curved just enough to be dangerous.
"You haven't even seen it."
"I heard the word dress in your voice."
"Smart man." She stepped closer. "I bought it before I knew if I'd be brave enough to ask. It's black. Not subtle. My mother will call it elegant because it cost too much. Shay will call it a weapon because Shay understands fashion on a spiritual level."
"And what will I call it?"
"A problem."
The word moved through me.
She rested her free hand on my chest, right over my heartbeat.
"When you see me in it," she said, and the playfulness thinned until only truth was left, "at my parents' house, around my family, with everyone watching how close I stand to you, I'm not sure I can behave."
I didn't answer too quickly.
She needed me to understand the size of it.
"I know that sounds like a joke," she said.
"It isn't. I might smile when I say it because I smile when I'm terrified and don't want anyone to know.
But I'm telling you now because I meant what I said on the float.
I don't know if I can keep my hands off you.
I don't know if I can look at you like Family Friend Luke.
I don't know if I can stand across a room from you and not cross it. "
The late sun caught in her eyes, green and gold and wide open.
"I don't want to wreck anything," she said. "But I don't want to stand beside you and pretend I don't love you either."
My chest hurt in the best way.
I reached for her face, thumb brushing her cheek. "Wear the dress."
She searched my face.
"Luke."
"Wear it anyway."
"You understand what I'm warning you about?"
"Yes."
"And you're still telling me to wear it?"
"I'm telling you I want to see you. The real you. The one who's done standing at the edge." I leaned closer, keeping my voice low. "We'll be careful where we have to be careful. But I'm not asking you to make yourself smaller for me."
Her lips parted. For one second, all the Archer control dropped away.
Then she kissed me.
Not like the float. Not wild, not grinding, not a fuse burning down.
This kiss was softer and somehow more dangerous because it had the whole next chapter inside it.
Her hand pressed flat to my chest. Mine slid to her waist over my shirt.
She rose onto her toes and held the kiss long enough that the house noise faded behind us.
When she pulled back, her smile was small and real.
"That was a very enabling answer."
"I try."
"You should be careful. I take encouragement badly."
"I've noticed."
"No, you haven't." Her fingers curled in my shirt. "Not yet."
That hit hard enough that I forgot what air was for.
Eden's smile warmed, but the warning stayed in her eyes.
"Come on," she said, taking my hand again. "If we stay out here, Shay will come looking for us with binoculars and a theory."
"Only one theory?"
"She's tired from rope violence."
We walked up the dock hand in hand. My boat rocked behind us. The lake went gold. The house glowed through the trees, loud and full and no longer mine in the old way.
At the top of the steps, Eden paused.
She looked back at the water, then at me.
"I'm not last anymore," she said quietly.
"No."
"But I'm not done waiting."
"No."
Her hand tightened around mine.
"Good," she said. "Because when I stop waiting, I want it to ruin me a little."
Then she led me into the house, still wearing my shirt, still holding my hand, with Casino Night burning ahead of us and every promise we'd refused to finish on that float waiting for its turn.