Chapter 18 #3
Finn groaned. “Seriously? Don’t we already do that shit forty-plus hours a week?”
“This will be fun, and it’s demo. You love to smash things.”
“Yeah, I do. I’ll come by. What time is safe to not see anything that’ll scar me for life?”
“Any time after noon. We like to sleep in.”
“Aww,” Finn said, dabbing dramatically at his eyes. “My widdle boy is all married and shit.”
Riley rolled his eyes. “Whatever. See you tomorrow?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be there. Tell Nicholas she’s going to have to feed me if she wants my free labor.”
“I’m sure she’ll be fine with that. Hey, we need to make a plan to do something for Dad before the wedding.”
“I’ll send a text to the others to save the night before and figure out where we should have it.”
“Sounds good. Have a good night.”
“You, too, although we both know you will.”
Riley flashed him the bird on the way out the door.
What did it say about him that he couldn’t imagine life without Finn smack in the middle of it?
Other than his first two years of college, they’d never lived more than an hour from each other and had lived together for years.
Their lives were extremely intertwined, not that he’d ever given much thought to that. It had just worked out that way.
At the thought of Finn leaving Gansett, Riley began to better understand the odd feeling of separation that Nikki had described when she talked about leaving Jordan to pursue her own goals.
As he drove toward Eastward Look, he couldn’t wait to see Nikki, to kiss her, to talk to her about Finn, to make love to her.
Every night this week, she’d met him at the door, he’d lifted her into his arms and carried her straight to bed.
Sometimes they didn’t resurface until the morning, when he would wake up starving and realize he’d missed dinner and never even noticed.
It was utter madness.
The only thing marring what had been an otherwise spectacular week was Nikki’s growing concern over the fact that neither she nor her grandmother had heard a word from Jordan, despite frequent attempts to reach her.
When the truck fishtailed on Sunflower Road, he realized he’d been speeding and slowed down lest an accident keep him from her any longer than he’d already been away. Workdays had never seemed longer than they did lately with her waiting for him.
While he worked, she made great progress in cleaning out the kitchen and had finalized the design plans with Sydney after they visited the Chesterfield to meet Lizzie James and tour the recently completed renovations.
Nikki had come away bubbling with praise for what Lizzie and her husband, Jared, had done to the estate and full of ideas for things she’d like to do at Eastward Look.
Sydney was taking care of ordering the new cabinets and appliances, while Riley was working through Mac’s channels to procure the building supplies. It was all moving forward. Now, if he could only keep his hands off her long enough to get it done.
He turned into the driveway, saw the light she’d left on for him, and his heart lurched.
Rubbing the aching spot on his chest, he still couldn’t believe the way he felt about her.
If this was the feeling that had his cousins acting moonstruck over their spouses, he finally got why they all seemed to have lost their minds in recent years.
It was a feeling he would do almost anything to hold on to.
He got out of the truck and jogged to the stairs, the last obstacle in a very long day of obstacles that had kept him from her. The excitement that came from knowing they had three nights and two full days together reminded him of being a kid on Christmas morning, only this was way, way better.
She’d told him days ago to quit knocking on the door.
He punched in the code and stepped into the foyer. “Nik?”
“Coming!” she called from upstairs.
After leaving his coat and boots in the foyer, he stopped short at the sight of her coming down the stairs, her face flushed with excitement, her eyes bright and her smile warming him all the way through.
He held out his arms, and she took the leap from the third stair straight into his embrace, wrapping herself around him in a tight hug that put all her best parts into contact with his best parts. Riley walked them straight upstairs.
“Wait,” she said, laughing as she kissed his face. “I have things to show you.”
“I’ve waited all damned day. You can show me later.
” He’d never behaved this way with any other woman.
In the past, civilized sex had usually happened at the end of a date that included dinner, drinks, maybe a movie or dancing.
It had never been about the raw need that Nikki aroused in him.
Back then, sex had been a satisfying physical release.
With her, it was all that and more than he could ever put into words.
“You’ve cast some sort of spell on me. I’m never like this. ”
“Like what?”
“Afraid I’m going to die if I’m not inside you within the next five seconds.”
“We can’t have that,” she said, faking alarm.
“No, we really can’t.”