Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Owen
Faye and I can’t stop looking at each other as we walk through the dark house. The only light in the kitchen apart from the moon is from the blue numbers on the microwave display, but even in the faint neon light, she looks spectacular.
She stops and leans on the granite island, watching me while biting her bottom lip. Lips that I just kissed. Lips that I’ll be obsessing over for the rest of my life. “I want a snack,” she says, looking at my mouth.
“Okay,” I say as I head to the giant fridge and open it. “I could make you a grilled cheese?”
She shakes her head.
“There are some sandwiches left over in here,” I say, turning back to the fridge. “Pesto and eggplant?”
She shakes her head again.
My heart pounds as she pushes off the counter and comes walking over, looking like a panther stalking her prey with the way she’s moving toward me.
“That’s not the kind of snack I’m hungry for.”
She rises on her toes, grabs my shirt, and pulls my mouth to hers. I gladly oblige, leaning down and kissing her soft, tasty mouth. “Mmmmm,” she moans. “That’s better.”
I kiss her again and then turn to the fridge. “What about some fruit and yogurt?” I ask, determined to satiate her appetite. “Carrots and hummus?”
She just laughs and kisses me again.
“I’m fine now,” she says, closing the fridge. She leans her back against the door and looks up at me with her gorgeous hazel eyes. When she bats those long lashes, I nearly forget every fact I have ever learned.
I wish I could know what she was thinking. It will be the greatest mystery of my life to be around this amazing woman and not know what is going on inside her brain. But I guess that’s part of the fun of being around her. She’ll continuously surprise me. She’ll always keep me on my toes.
“Want to hear a song that reminds me of you?” she asks, surprising me again.
“There’s a song that reminds you of me?”
She smiles as she pulls out her phone and searches for it.
“It’s called The Scientist by Coldplay,” she says, hitting play and setting her phone on the counter. “I always think of you when I hear it, but to be fair, you’re the only scientist I know.”
I smile as the simple, soft, unhurried piano melody fills the dark kitchen. The notes are repeating, sparse and deliberate, like the steady beating of a heart. It’s beautiful. And romantic. I smile at the thought of her thinking of me whenever she hears it.
I reach for her. She’s already coming toward me and we meet somewhere in the middle, sliding into each other’s embrace like we’re the most perfect, natural union in nature.
We’re like sand and water on the shore of a beach, we’re like palm trees and the warm breeze, the moon and the stars—existing independently, yet so much better together.
A man begins singing in the song, his voice intimate and raw.
I look into Faye’s eyes and realize I’ve never been so happy to be alive. I’ve never actually felt like I’ve been a part of this world. I’ve always felt more like an outsider. Like an observer. Like someone who’s working at the party of life and never invited to it.
She makes me feel like I belong here. Like I have a place here. Like I’m exactly where I should be.
Every hug I’ve ever had in my life felt awkward. Every handshake. Every physical interaction, really. But this right here, holding Faye in my arms as we sway around the kitchen to the sad, beautiful, romantic song… This just feels so inexplicably, unconditionally, and thoroughly right.
It’s like I was born to hold her. Like we were meant to do this.
I’ve never experienced anything like this before. Suddenly, hundreds of songs and movies about love finally make sense. Things finally click into place.
When the last note fades, she lifts her head from my shoulder and looks at me.
For a moment neither of us speaks.
There is nothing that needs to be said.
She reaches up, caresses my face, and then she takes my hand and turns toward the hallway.
“Come on,” she says quietly.
I grab her phone and follow her through the dark house.
Past the giant windows where the lake is sparkling with silver rays of light from the moon.
Past the rooms where everyone is sleeping, unaware.
Down the stairs, which creak under our weight.
To our room.
To our bed.
To the place where last night she was resting her head on my lap and I didn’t know what to do.
I still don’t know what to do, but I feel less lost now.
Faye is with me and I can’t feel lost with her by my side.
“Look at him,” Faye whispers when we step into the room and see Newton passed out on the bed.
I hold her as we watch him for a long moment, his ribs rising and falling slowly, sleeping soundly like he knows he’s safe here with us.
“We’re going to need that bed,” Faye says, grinning up at me.
I don’t know what she has planned, but whatever it is, I’m in.
Newton never wakes up as I walk over, slide my arms under him, and lift him up. I carry him to the couch and gently place him down. He settles in with a contented moan.
“The bed is all ours,” I say, turning to her.
She is stunning, standing in the silvery light of the moon, looking more alluring than a woman has any business being. With her eyes on me, she slowly removes her shirt, pulling it over her head and dropping it on the floor.
I swallow hard as my hungry eyes roam over her. She just stares at me with her beautiful glossy eyes, hair tousled, her mouth looking so damn kissable that it makes my body throb with need.
I’ve never wanted anyone like I want her.
I want her so badly it hurts.
“Have you ever done this before?” she whispers.
I shake my head.
It’s a shameful secret I’ve carried for years and never said out loud to anyone. I brace for something harsh—a laugh, a step back, a reassessment.
She doesn’t laugh.
She doesn’t step back.
She just looks at me with those hazel eyes, warm and steady, and something in her face goes soft in a way that makes me feel seen rather than exposed.
She steps forward, takes my hand, and guides me to the bed.
I feel my body begin to tremble. I start to have anxious thoughts. I feel myself beginning to pull back.
“Hey,” she says quietly, sitting on the edge of the bed and pulling me down with her. She puts her hands on my face. “I got you.”
I swallow hard and nod.
I know she does.
I trust her completely.
She kisses me again and I’m right back here with her, the trembles gone, the heavy need returning.
Faye is unexpectedly, sublimely, perfectly gentle with me.
Afterward, she curls against me and pulls my arm around her as Newton rearranges himself on the couch. The cool night breeze is blowing in through the windows, cooling off our heated skin as the bright moon hangs in the sky.
“Owen?” Faye says softly, almost asleep.
“Yes?”
“You’re a fast learner.”
I stare at the stars with a smile on my face.
“I’m aware.”
She laughs once, quietly, and falls asleep soon after.
I don’t want to fall asleep just yet.
I fight off sleep as long as I can, just holding my girl and smiling in the dark until I can’t hold my heavy eyelids open any longer and I drift off with her.