Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
LEIF
W hen it got too dark to see the football despite the lights in Deb’s backyard, we packed it in and the others headed back inside. Laurel made to follow them, but I grabbed her hand. Smiling, I tugged her toward me.
“Want to stay out here with me for a little bit? It’s not really cold and I feel like I haven’t gotten to talk to you all day.”
“True.” She smiled, her hands coming up for her fingertips to brush against my jaw, my cheeks, and my throat.
I trembled a little bit, my eyelids even sliding shut as I absorbed the sensations. “Shit, Laurel.”
“Yeah, I know,” she breathed, inhaling deeply before she took a step away.
I took her hand again, leading her down to the swing at the back of her mom’s property. “What the hell have we been doing for the last ten years? Why weren’t we together?”
She shrugged, a soft smile on her lips. She looked at me across the short distance between the two swings we were sitting on. “We were both grieving. That’s why. We pushed each other away. We isolated instead of feeling it together.”
“It just feels like we should’ve leaned on each other, I guess,” I admitted, admiring her beautiful face in the dim light remaining in the backyard. “Has there been anyone serious for you since?”
She shook her head, and dizzying relief spiraled through me. “I’ve tried, but my relationships just never seemed to take. You?”
My mind flicked to Rainy and I shrugged. “Never anyone serious enough that I even considered settling down. For the longest time, I didn’t date at all and then, when I started trying, I just couldn’t imagine myself spending even a year with that person, let alone a lifetime.”
She chuckled. “Well, at least that’s something. I’d rather not think about you trying at all, though. It’s weird because I know that we were both completely single, but does it suddenly feel to you like maybe we were together all along and we didn’t even realize it?”
“In my head, I still think of you as my girl,” I admitted, reaching for her hand and wrapping my fingers around it. “I’d really like it if you could come up to Denver sometime soon. Marge, my assistant, is dying to meet you and I’d love for you to see my home, and the firm, and to meet my friends.”
“Marge?”
I chuckled. “She’s in her late sixties, but I think I like that you were just a little bit jealous.”
Her nose wrinkled, but she smiled. “I think I like knowing that you liked that I was jealous. We never really had a reason to be possessive before. Everyone knew who we were to each other and they left us alone.”
“Let’s hope we get back there soon,” I said, and I meant it. When I even tried to think about Laurel with another guy, I felt like there was a monster in my esophagus, doing its best to strangle me. “I may have recently discovered an intensely possessive streak.”
“Same.”
“So, Denver?”
“There’s just no way that’s going to work right now.” She grimaced. “I’d really like to, but with the store and Christmas coming up, I won’t be able to get away again so soon. Asking Grace to watch the store for me for an extended weekend when we’d only be open limited hours is one thing, but I can’t expect her to handle the Christmas rush all by herself.”
“Okay,” I said slowly, realizing that I should’ve probably realized that a store owner wouldn’t be able to take any time off just before the holiday season. “How about I come to Franklin for a couple days, then back here for Christmas?”
“Yes.” She smiled, squeezing my hand. “I like that. I really, really like that. You can come see my shop and my town, and then I could come see you in Denver for New Year’s? The store closes down at the end of December until mid-January anyway. It’s too cold to move in Franklin during that time, much less to go out shopping.”
Something seemed to warm in my chest. “Alright, then we’ve got our immediate plans worked out. We’ll have to see how it goes from mid-January onward to figure out when we’d be able to see each other, but this feels like a solid start.”
“That was actually a lot easier to figure out than I thought it would be,” she said softly. “I know it might get harder, but this is encouraging.”
Before I could respond, Jack yelled to us from the kitchen door. “Come on! Suzie’s house is waiting for us.”
“Oh, yeah.” I felt a grin creep onto my lips. “We’re doing that tonight. Are you ready?”
Excitement flashed in her eyes. She nodded, letting go of my hand to get up before she took it again. “I’m so ready.”
Everyone else was waiting for us in the garage, excitedly piling into Laurel’s dad’s old truck. Deb handed over the keys to Dave, who jumped in behind the wheel, and gave him a stern look. “I’ve kept this thing running perfectly all these years. Don’t bring it back to me all smashed up, okay?”
“You got it.” He grinned at her. “We’ll bring her home safe and sound.”
“Alright, then,” my mom said, chuckling as she watched us all find a seat. “Have fun and try not to get caught, would you?”
“We’ll be fine, Mom,” Jack groaned, sounding like he was thirteen again.
I laughed as Dave started backing out of the garage. As we hit the driveway, I wound my arms around Laurel’s waist. She was sitting on my lap with Mariam beside us and Gemma on Noah’s lap on the other side of the backseat. Jack was riding shotgun with Dave being our getaway driver.
Having Laurel on my lap wasn’t great for my libido, which had already been in overdrive since last night, but I kept my thoughts firmly on tax loopholes and tricks and got through it. We bought twenty-four rolls of toilet paper on our way to the nice part of town where Suzie lived, armed and ready to deliver our collective revenge.
Thankfully, Gemma had managed to find her address somewhere, so at least we knew we had the right house. Lots of giggling and joking later, Dave parked down the block from her place, twisting in his seat to give us a dramatic look.
“Now remember,” he said, making eye contact with Gemma, Mariam, and Laurel each in turn. “I realize that you’re all virgins at this, but the important thing when popping your cherry is to remember to be quiet.”
“Said no one ever,” Jack muttered.
Everyone burst out laughing again and Dave playfully scolded him. “I was talking about their pranking virginity. Do you think any of these girls know the first thing about pulling a prank?”
Jack glanced at them in the rearview mirror, blowing out a loud breath and pretending to be disappointed. “It’s always so hard when they grow up to be rebels.”
More howling laughter rang out, but then I opened the door beside me, shushing them. “Let’s get this done, people. Dave is right, though. Try not to wake all the neighbors, okay?”
Helping Laurel out first, I took her hand and we waited for the others to follow before we crept toward Suzie’s house. Jack and Noah carried the toilet paper, but while Jack led the charge, I noticed Noah sticking close to Gemma’s side.
I hadn’t seen them so much as brush their fingers together, but there were lots of flirty smiles and looks being exchanged. Trust Gemma to fall for a national pop sensation.
Whatever was going on between them, it sure looked like there was mutual interest in abundance. It’s going to be kind of interesting to see where this goes.
The guy was cool, but he was young. Like, not even legal to drink yet, young. On the other hand, the rest of us were almost a decade older and here we were, on our way to TP our former class president’s house.
Maybe age really is a matter of the mind.
When we reached Suzie’s yard, I took point, quickly and quietly directing everybody into groups. Grabbing a few rolls of toilet paper each, we proceeded to toss the rolls over her house as fast as we could without making too much noise, but there was still a lot of laughter going around.
At one point, the lights came on and we froze, but no one came out. I breathed a sigh of relief, murmuring to Laurel under my breath. “It must be on a sensor. I don’t think anyone is awake.”
She flashed me an exhilarated grin as she nodded. “This is so awesome. So very childish, but so awesome. Why haven’t I done this before?”
“There’s only one Suzie in your world and you’d never do it to an innocent person?” I suggested jokingly.
She snorted, trying to hold back her laughter. “Gosh, I really am a goodie-goodie, aren’t I? It’s not like we’re causing any damage.”
“Except to the people who need to clean all this up,” I said. “It’s going to take them all day tomorrow.”
Her brow furrowed, her teeth sinking into her cheek. “All day? Really?”
“Hey, relax.” I laughed and pulled her closer. Giving her an exasperated look, I dropped a kiss on her forehead. “It’s Suzie , remember? That’s who’s going to be cleaning this up. She’s caused you enough grief to deserve spending a couple hours cleaning up someone else’s mess, right?”
Laurel inhaled deeply but then smiled. “Fair enough. It’s just karma. Do you feel like more pie? I feel like more pie.”
I laughed. “My answer to that is always going to be yes.”
After a great time, we ended up at a diner across town, eating pie, and talking, and laughing some more. Noah sat with his arm on the back of the booth, not touching Gemma’s shoulders where she sat next to him, but looking like he was considering doing the move that would involve lowering his arm until it would be draped around her.
Jack laughed with him and Dave while the girls chatted about how much fun the holiday had been. Personally, I was just watching them, shocked at how alive I felt. At almost thirty, I felt like a boy again. Sure, the prank must’ve had a little bit to do with it, but it was mostly Laurel.
Is this what real love looks like? I think so.
Shoving the thought out of my head to ponder later, I dove into the conversation with the guys, weighing the pros and cons of using single or twin-ply toilet paper when wrapping a house. At about three a.m., I dropped everyone off, saving the best—Laurel—for last.
I killed the engine after parking in front of her mom’s garage, turning in my seat to look at her. “That was really fun. You guys might be onto something with this list of yours. I might just put together a risky bucket list of my own after this weekend.”
“Yeah?” She smiled, unbuckling her seatbelt and leaning forward a little. “What would you put on it?”
“Mostly you.” I reached for her, pulling her closer and sealing my lips over hers. She tasted like apple pie and cider, her lips soft but hungry on mine.
As her tongue swept into my mouth, my jeans got a little tighter and I groaned. “Are you sure you don’t want to get a hotel?”
“Oh, I do, but let’s just wait until we’re at my place” she murmured against my lips before she sighed. “Then we can pick up where we left off and we can spend hours exploring each other the way we want to.”
“I’m down. I just don’t want to wait that long.”
She kissed me again, smiling against my mouth before she broke away. “All great things are worth waiting for, Leif.”
“If you say so,” I muttered my agreement, reluctantly letting her go and watching her climb out of the truck.
I told her I would drop it back here tomorrow, and my fingers tightened around the steering wheel as I watched her go. She paused at the front door, turning to smile and blow me a kiss before she disappeared inside.
Just that one thing, that one simple movement of her smiling and blowing me that kiss, made my heart race like it was going to implode. A whirling sensation started deep in my gut, rising to my chest like a quiet, natural pull of my body to hers.
I felt full. Happy. Light.
Stronger and yet somehow, completely weak in the fucking knees. All because of a smile and a kiss sent through the air.
I’d thought I knew what love was. I even used to think that I’d had it a couple times after her, but I’d been dead wrong.
This was love. I was sure of it—and she was the only person who had ever made me feel this way.