Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
When my phone rings with a FaceTime call from Liss a few days later, I’m half expecting it. Alissa and I have a special form of ESP where we know when the other has done something potentially damning.
Liss thinks it’s limited by geography. I think we have different definitions of damning .
And that kiss with Adam was hot enough to convince me I’d somehow skipped purgatory and gone straight to hell. There’s no way you’re this lustful in heaven.
He doesn’t avoid me after the kiss, not like last time. If anything, he’s around more . He finds unsuspecting ways to touch me—moves around me in the hall by grabbing my waist and rotating my body with his, even though there’s plenty of space to squeeze by. Asks me to grab a sock that falls between the washer and dryer and holds my hips as I retrieve it. “We don’t want a repeat of the living room, do we?” he said. But I did! I do! For television hour last night, the sides of our bodies were fused together, and his lips buzzed against my temple so much my nose tickled with the constant threat of a sneeze. The Wheel of Fortune phrase Can you keep a secret? took on new meaning as Adam crossed his socked feet at the ankles, bumping intentionally into mine, and I’d never heard the name “Thomas Gage” muttered so sexily. Certainly not by the guy on Jeopardy!
One thing I’ve never understood about romance novels is how characters ever think doing it once—kissing, oral, insert other sex act here—will get it out of their system. Oxytocin, nature’s love drug, increases during things like hugging and orgasms. If you want someone out of your system, touching them more is not the way to do it. And getting over someone by getting under someone else doesn’t work either. Oxytocin’s a greedy bitch, but she’s not picky. You’ll just end up having more love drugs in your veins, not less.
Adam is in my veins now.
“Elle!” Liss shouts before her face is completely pixelated, snapping me out of my head and into the present. “Guess what!”
She’s in her shop. The kitchen lights (ideal for social media shots, thanks to my guidance) illuminate her bright-red cheeks and frizzy blonde hair. She is wild and happy.
Lovie and Adam are on the front porch, Lovie working through one of her puzzle books while Adam scrolls on his phone.
All I can think about is him mauling me in the doorway.
I try to turn my attention fully to Liss, but most of my brain cells are stuck on Adam in profile. I shrug. “Just tell me, babe.”
“I got the Cubs guy!” she says excitedly, her body vibrating enough to shake her phone.
“What?” I sit up straighter. I don’t have the slightest idea what she’s talking about; Chicago doesn’t have as many socialites as New York or Los Angeles, but there are a few, most of them tied to sports. “Is this a dating app match? Did you tell me about him already?”
She groans. “Brody Boswell! The third baseman for the Cubs? I texted you about him last week. His fianc é e decided that my cake is the best—”
“Obviously.”
“—and they booked me for their wedding next September! It’s the biggest order I’ve ever had, Elle. And the most famous client. Well, besides you, Queen of Jeopardy! ”
I think of Adam and me curled up on the couch last night. He’d dropped his lips to the skin behind my ear, didn’t say anything, just left his mouth there for a beat too long to be misconstrued as anything other than what it was.
Liss gasps. “You kissed Nurse Adam!”
Her words jolt me back to the present, and as much as I want to avoid it, my face heats. “I told you that already,” I try.
“No, this is different. Like an on-purpose one. Was it good? Where was it? Was there tongue? Can you rate it one to ten for me, please?”
Dakota’s head pops up beside her. “Look into my eyes, Fanning Number One. Tongue is guaranteed on a man like that. But was there biting ?” His eyebrows dance.
“There was …” I close my eyes. There was everything .
The front door alarm chimes, and I nearly drop my phone in my attempt to end the call. “You’re breaking up and the alarm’s going off and the mailman’s here and I havetogobye!”
@ElleontheL : Episode three of Forget Me Not is live! This week I talk about Lovie’s diet and routine now versus when I was a kid. Spoiler: we both still love milkshakes. What’s your guilty pleasure food?
@jollyxholly527: honestly it’s @OliveGarden
@DFWMama6: My nana’s baked spaghetti! I use the same recipe with my littles and they LOVE it!
@Purrrsiankitty8: anything with msg and lots of sodium. so like, ramen noodles?
@Anchorsawaym8: nothing beats my dad’s Superbowl Sundaes
@thatguy3k00: Apparently all your followers are children, just like you.
@NurseAdamIndy: Comfort foods trigger dopamine, the happy chemical. Many people associate comfort foods with positive memories, social connection, and certainty and routine.
@thatguy3k00: Who the fuck are you anyway?
@NurseAdamIndy: A nurse. Named Adam. From Indiana. I thought it was obvious from the username.
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@SweetiesCakesChicago: Chocolate cake
@DMillsBakes: SECONDED!!
@BroBoswell14 : Thirded Can’t wait to have @SweetiesCakesChicago at our wedding next year!
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