Chapter 18
Levi
The truck’s lights make the backwoods road glow with a harshness that collides with the warm feelings spreading through me.
Tab’s tinkling laughter sinks its way into my flesh like tender hooks, the same anchoring sensation as when I play football.
This moment, here with her, settles me. I can’t imagine looking over to my passenger seat and not seeing her.
Or not picking up the phone and talking to her.
In the same way that my hands feel empty when they’re not carrying a football.
The sport is my life’s purpose, and now, so is she.
“I don’t want to go home,” Tab says, sighing.
I know what she means. Home doesn’t have her yet. It has an empty apartment and quiet rooms.
“Lucky for you, I already thought about that.”
“Oh yeah?”
I grin, hoping the waitress earlier was right. Out here, there aren’t premium hotels with room service, but I don’t think Tab is that kind of girl anyway. Not that we wouldn’t enjoy it, but she’s also not the kind of girl who would throw a fit if that isn’t where we ended up.
I turn down a road, notated by a small, oblong sign barely noticeable among the dense trees.
“Not that I don’t trust you,” Tab says, staring out at the remote woods around us, “but do you know where you’re going?”
“I always know where I’m going.”
“Even in backwoods Tennessee?”
Luckily, the woods clear up ahead, revealing a rustic cabin with a faded Office sign hanging out front. It swings in the wind as my truck tires grind against the gravel.
“Where are we?”
I grin. “A tiny house campground.”
“Wait, are you serious?” She moves in her seat, leaning over the dash, gaze scanning the area around us while I pull up to the office.
“Let me go rent one.”
“Oh my gosh! I’m going with you.” She opens the truck door before I fully park, and I have to hurry to catch up with her.
“I take it this interests you?”
“I watch the tiny house shows all the time. I used to dream about doing it, but I like living in the city and being close to everything. They’re so cute, though.”
Without thinking, I grab Tab’s hand and squeeze. She peers down and then back up, staring ahead with a smile on her face. She doesn’t make a move to remove my hand from hers. Win.
We meet a middle-aged couple in the office, its rustic interior matching its exterior. The same raw beams are the walls, but these were worked and stained, leaving a smooth, polished finish.
Tab picks out our tiny house for the night out of the two remaining, then we check out the little store, grabbing some overnight necessities like toothpaste and toothbrushes, a couple of snacks.
After bidding the couple a goodnight, we head back out to the truck, and I follow the map they gave us with our rental circled. The truck’s tires kick stones out of the way as we make our way down the winding road.
“There she is!”
“She?” I question.
“Anything you can describe as pretty is a girl,” Tab tells me. “Therefore, she is pretty.”
Spotlighted in the truck’s headlights is an adorable tiny house with dark-blue shiplap and white trim.
Tab grabs our bags before I can jump from the truck.
I have to hurry to catch up with her. She’s already scaling the small set of stairs that lead to a deck with only enough room for one chair.
I peer around, spotting a few fires going at the other tiny house camps.
We won’t be able to do that tonight, but it reminds me of camping with my buddies back home.
Driving down some back road. Following it until it ends abruptly and breaking out the tent right there.
It’s amazing all the things you can hear out there in the middle of nowhere without the pollution from people or things.
I hold the keycard up to the reader, and it beeps. Tab opens the door and makes a tiny sound of excitement. A single lamp in the corner lights the country-chic living room as we walk in and shut the door behind us.
Farther in, we hit the kitchen on the left side with a short bar on the right, two stools pulled up to it. A bit farther, there’s the door to the bedroom, and to the right, the bathroom.
“It’s adorable,” Tab proclaims. She sets our bag down in the sink since it’s just a pedestal with no countertop space on either side. When she turns toward me, she’s still smiling. “So, superstar…”
“So, gorgeous…”
She rolls her eyes. “One, I didn’t know you could sing like that.”
“Are you kidding me? I didn’t know you could sing.”
“Please,” she starts. “They loved you. You probably could have held a concert up there for them, and they would’ve been fine not hearing anyone else for the rest of the night.”
“Believe it or not, I was in musical theater in school.”
Tab’s eyes widen. “Really?”
I laugh. “No, but I kind of always wanted to be. I wish I had, actually.”
“Not me.”
“No?”
“Nope, then some theater geek would have stolen you from me, I know it.”
“Why do I feel like there’s an insult in there?”
She grins. “Because you, Levi Soucy, are a popular geek. As in, if you weren’t playing football, I’m pretty sure you would’ve been cracking jokes about yourself at the outcast table.”
“I am…surprisingly okay with that.”
“Spoken like someone who was always popular.”
“Are you telling me you were a social pariah or something?”
“Not exactly, but I wasn’t a football star.”
I grin at her. “Good. Someone would have scooped you up a long time ago, right out from underneath me.”
She chuckles, and I pull her in close. “I win.”
“Huh?”
“Remember when you bet me that I wouldn’t worm my way into your heart?”
“I don’t think I put it exactly like that. I’m not into using gross creepy crawlies in my bets.”
“Either way, you can concede now. I won.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying you’re so into me, Rapunzel. Don’t deny it.”
“You’re so—”
I stop her, sealing our lips, kissing her retort right out of her. I don’t want to joke about this. Well, I guess I started it, but I want her to know, for real, that I’m obsessed with her.
I cup her face, pulling away gently. “And I’m so into you, Tab. I won’t deny it. I don’t want to. And I don’t want to keep it from anyone else anymore either.”
Her blue eyes stare right into mine. “You surprised me, Levi. I was expecting a distraction from my real life, but what I found was so much more.” She grips my shirt at my hips. “You really do like me, don’t you?”
I press my forehead to hers. “More than anything.”
She takes a deep breath. “I’m ready to tell people.”
I scoop her up and throw her on the bed. She laughs, bouncing before coming to a rest.
“I told Raeann already,” she confesses.
“You did?”
She nods, smiling. “For the record, she was fine with it. Happy, even.”
“How could she not be? I’m awesome.”
I slide in next to her, leaning on my elbow while she rolls to her side. “When we make love tonight, I want to see all of you.”
“Levi…”
I swallow. “I saw you that night, Tab. I saw where your clothes had melted to you. How your hair looked blackish gray, not this beautiful brown. There was barely an inch of visible skin except for your eyes. They were so lost. I just want to see you for myself. To tell myself that you’re okay.
“Seeing you like that changed me. I’d been living my life like…
I don’t know. Like I had no care in the world.
Like I could die happy playing football and hanging out with women who only wanted a couple things from me, and the longer I kept going like that, the more I didn’t realize that I had so much more to offer others.
I didn’t realize I had lost myself until I saw how things could change on a dime. ”
Tab bites her lip. “I guess I didn’t think about how it would impact others.”
“Nor should you have.”
She tugs at my shirt. “Not like that. I’m trying to say I get it. It makes complete sense that witnessing that would change your outlook. I don’t want you to be grossed out though.”
“Tab, babe, it’s you. How could I be grossed out?”
Tab starts to undress with shaking fingers. Her outer layer first, leaving the long-sleeved shirt she always has on now. Then her shoes and jeans. She pauses, peering at me.
“It’s okay,” I tell her.
She lifts her shirt, her torso displaying first, then her bra, then it’s up and over her head, revealing a line of bandages on her left arm.
I lift the shirt from her and throw it over my shoulder before she can put it back on. I run my fingertips along the bandages. “Does it hurt?”
“Sometimes,” she says.
“Right now?”
She shakes her head. “Right now, I’m nervous.”
I take her other hand and kiss her knuckles. “It’s just me.”
Her brows furrow for a moment, almost as if she’s thinking about it, but then she nods.
She tugs at the edges of her bandages until they start to come up.
Then she keeps going, revealing the raw skin, pink and dimpled.
I trace featherlight touches around the edges.
“It looks better than the last time I saw it.”
She presses her lips together, but a chuckle comes unbidden. “Leave it to you to get me to laugh at a time like this.”
“What does the doctor say?”
“That it’ll look better than this, but never as good as my normal skin. I’ll probably need at least a couple more surgeries. Most likely more.”
“I wish you were more confident about it. I don’t see something gross or unattractive. I see another piece of evidence of how amazing you are. Strong. Brave.”
“I don’t see myself like that. Sometimes I’m just grateful to be alive.”
I grab her hand. “I’m adding indestructible to the list.”
“You’re sweet.”
“If you’re okay with it, I want to take this journey with you, Tab. I want to remind you who you are when things get bad. After every surgery. After someone stares at you. When you’re sad, I want to be there.”
A small grin lifts her lips, and my stomach flutters like I’m fifteen again and about to have my first kiss.
I close her bandage back up, securing the tape. She lifts from the bed, unclasping her bra from the back, then peeling it away before dropping it off the side of the bed.
Her round breasts and pink nipples are painting worthy. Too bad I don’t have a lick of talent in that department.
“It’s your time to catch up, superstar.”
I strip down until I match her, bare for bare. I move forward to kiss her, then drop my head to her ribs. “I don’t have a condom.”
Peeking up, she runs her hands through my hair. “I’m on birth control.”
“The team checks us regularly, and I’m good.”
“I’ve never been checked, but pretty sure I’m good. No slut tendencies here.” She presses her lips together to keep from laughing.
I move over her. “You’re going to pay for that.”
She spreads her legs, and I slip between them. She runs her hands over my pecs and torso, her touch burning a need inside me. Then her hands drift lower, grabbing my ass.
“You’re killing me.” I bear all my weight on my left hand while gripping my dick, using the head to rub circles over Tab’s clit. Her lids flutter, her lips pressing together to conceal her moans.
Soon, her hips move with mine, her mouth dropping open, her pleasure filling the room.
“You are so fucking beautiful.”
“Levi.”
I don’t give her what she wants. I keep circling and circling until her cries ramp up. She squirms, but I’m relentless. She’s so gorgeous like this. Free, untethered.
She throws her head back, letting out a cry, and I thrust inside her, bracing myself while she spasms around me.
I grit my teeth. “Holy shit, Tab.”
Using every ounce of willpower I have to not lose it right now, a deep groan emanates from my chest.
Finally, when she’s finished, I start slow strokes, taking my time, enjoying her. I press my forehead against hers. I can’t say I’ve ever made love to someone, but this feels like that. My mouth is dry. I can feel my heart pounding in my ears. My muscles flex in measured thrusts.
Tab cups my face. “So we’re clear, you’re now my boyfriend?”
“For now, but I like the husband title better.”
“Don’t be crazy.”
I shake my head. “I’m more grounded than I’ve ever been.”
“You sound like Micah with Raeann.”
“Get used to it.” I groan. Going slow is a sort of torture, pleasure mounting with each stroke. “Oh, baby. I’m coming soon.”
She lifts up into me, spurring me on. I let loose, burying myself inside her, cum shooting from my tip until I’m spent.
Collapsing on top of her, I lose all strength as she embraces me, moving her hands into the hair at the nape of my neck. “That was perfect.”
All I can muster is a short sound of acknowledgment that is more like a moan, but she’s absolutely right. That was perfect. She’s perfect, and I’m… I feel like I’m becoming the person I’m supposed to be.