Chapter 43
I feel a pinprick on my hip, almost like the scratch of a needle.
“Looks like someone is finally awake.” I love the sound of Elizabeth’s voice, especially when it’s husky and smooth like it is now. I go to roll over. “No, don’t move. I’m almost done.”
I turn my head on the pillow. “What are you doing?
Elizabeth has a black Sharpie marker cap clenched between her teeth. Her thumb and fingers are busily swiping across my hip as she draws. “You’ll see,” she mumbles.
I take a long moment to look at my girl. Her long, blond hair is down around her shoulders and has a just-woke-up messiness to it. Her green eyes are a paler shade of green than usual because of the morning sunlight filtering through her bedroom window.
“Stop that,” she mumbles. “I can feel your eyes.”
“You’re so beautiful,” I tell her. I hope she never gets tired of hearing me say it, because I’ll never get tired of telling her. “‘She walks in beauty, like the night, of cloudless climes and starry skies; and all that’s best of dark and bright meet in her aspect and her eyes.’”
Those ethereal green orbs dart up to look at me. “Byron?”
“Yeah.
“You amaze me every single day,” she tells me.
Somedays, I amaze myself. I don’t know where that came from. It just popped out. Perhaps a latent memory from tenth-grade English.
Elizabeth leans over my side, her face holding a look of concentration.
I watch as she brings the tip of the black marker to the skin above my hip.
A mischievous grin slowly inches across her gorgeous face, before I feel the subtle scratching sensation again.
She’s drawing on me. My interest is piqued.
I relax into the pillow to let her finish, allowing my mind to drift while I wait.
Mere hours before, we were fooling around in my dad’s garage.
I think we snuck back into Elizabeth’s house shortly after two in the morning, but I can’t be sure because as soon as our heads hit her pillows, we were out.
I don’t think I’ll ever get over the amazement of holding Elizabeth in my arms as we fall asleep. How am I the lucky guy she chose?
Elizabeth scrunches her nose. The way she does it is adorably cute. She caps the marker and flings it over her shoulder, then presses her lips to the side of my mouth. “There. Done. Want to see?”
I sit up. Looking at her handiwork, I see that she’s drawn a staff of music along my hip.
It takes me a second to figure out the melody since I’m looking at it upside down.
I wasn’t the greatest at reading sheet music, no matter how much her dad practiced with me.
Eventually, however, I’m able to decipher the notes.
Liz wrote a section of “Helium” by Sia along the V of my hip
“You marked me last night,” she says, pointing to the hickey on her neck. “So, I’m marking you. I’m claiming you. You’re mine, Ryder, just as I am yours.”
“I have always been yours, Elizabeth,” I tell her and pull her on top of me.
We both almost fall off the bed when Fallon shouts through the locked bedroom door. “It’s noon and I’m bored! Wake up!”
Elizabeth giggles and bites my pectoral. I smack her butt in retaliation. We had made plans to meet up with Fallon and the rest of the guys for lunch at Ruby’s, and then head out to the Fields this evening to watch the races. I wasn’t expecting Fallon to show up here first.
“Hold on!” I yell back, sitting up, and kissing Elizabeth’s laughing mouth.
We quickly dress and I unlock the door. Fallon struts in, looks between the two of us, and grabs Elizabeth by the waist, flinging her over his shoulder.
“Fallon!” she shrieks.
“Sexy time is over, folks.”
He disappears down the hall with her. Hailey is standing in her bedroom doorway, watching them. She looks over at me, a grin plastered across her face.
“You guys are so weird,” she comments, shaking her head. “Good morning, Ryder.”
I walk over to her and give her a hug. For the first time since her return, she doesn’t flinch or step back. “Good morning, Hales. Sorry if we woke you.”
Yawning, she says, “Nah. I was already up. I have to go to group therapy today. Apparently, they don’t take holidays off.” She gives me a small smile, but it soon disappears.
“If you ever need a ride or anything else, you know you can count on me and the guys, right? We’re here for you, Hales. Always.”
Her slight smile returns. “I know you are.” She looks down the hall again. “She’s happy when she’s with you. It’s a different kind of happy than the way she was with Jayson.”
I share my own warm smile with her. She pats me on the arm and steps back inside her bedroom, closing the door.