by Meika Usher
“What are you doing?” I asked, watching as she yanked the shirt over her head, revealing her plain black tank top. “Birdie, I really don’t think now’s the time for this. I think we have a lot to talk about before we—”
“So, I did a thing,” she continued as if I hadn’t spoken at all. As if she were afraid if she stopped, she’d forget what she was saying. “And I didn’t do it for you. I didn’t do it for anyone. I did it for me. Because I needed to prove that I left that girl behind. That what people expect, or don’t expect, of me just...doesn’t fucking matter.” She stopped to take a breath. “But...I want to show you, because you’re the only person who will understand what it means.”
And then she pulled her tank top off and tossed it to the floor.
Parts of me—persistent, pervy parts—wanted to focus on her creamy skin and the way the black lace of her bra hugged her breasts. But the parts of me that knew this moment was important prevailed. Birdie turned ever-so-slightly and lifted her arms, and that was when I saw it.
A tattoo.
A tiny cluster of lines and curves and shapes I couldn’t quite make out from here, nestled just below her left breast.
“Birdie,” I started, stepping closer. The shapes and lines came into focus then. Two tiny stick figures, hand in hand, and a crooked little heart hovering over them. I blinked, recognition flashing through me. “You—”
“You left your mark on me, Nate,” she said, her voice soft, and a little shaky as I took in the haphazard stick figure couple I’d drawn on her all those days ago, now permanently etched into her skin. “You’re the first person to leave your mark on me. Even if this doesn’t work out, you will always be the first.” She paused, a soft smile curving her lips. “I guess we have that in common, huh?”
Her words shot straight through my chest, cracking it open and exposing the tenderest parts. And then the mere six feet of space that separated us felt like a thousand miles. Miles I couldn’t cross fast enough.
In three steps, I had pulled her against me. lowering my mouth to hers. She wrapped her arms around me and clung tight as she kissed me back, urgency and need surging from her and through me, knocking my universe off its axis, then snapping it into place like it’d never been before.
When we parted, I brushed her hair away from her face and kissed her cheeks, her nose, her chin. Then, I took a hesitant step back so that I could see her tattoo.
“How bad did it hurt?” I asked, taking in the fresh black ink against her soft, smooth skin.
“Like a bitch,” she replied. “I don’t know why people let me do this to them.”
I laughed and straightened, kissing her again. My heart slowed to a steady rhythm for the first time in days. Weeks. Years.
“You know?” Birdie said as she pulled back to look me in the eye. Her lips, still damp from our kiss, curved in a mischievous smile. “I was thinking on my way over. About the virgin thing.”
Out of habit, I winced. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She moved away, linking our fingers together.
“And what, exactly, were you thinking?” I pulled her back to me, not liking even an inch of space between us.
“I was thinking,” she murmured, giving me one of those beneath-the-lashes looks. “That I kinda like that I’m the only one you’ve been with.”
I pushed her bangs away from her face and tilted her chin up to look into her eyes. “Why’s that?”
“Well,” she said. “I’m kinda territorial. And if I’m gonna spend my foreseeable future loving one dude, I like knowing I’m the only girl he’s made love to.” She paused, a disgusted sneer curling her lip. “I’m never saying that again.”
I laughed and pulled her closer. “That’s probably for the best,” I said. Then, searching her eyes, I added, “Love, huh?”
She smiled and shrugged, an intriguing blend of shyness and certainty on her face. “Well, yeah.”
There went that universe snapping into place feeling again. “I like the sound of that,” I murmured, dipping my head for a kiss.
“Hold on.” She stepped away, brow furrowed, eyes narrowed. “You were kidding about the orgy, right?”
I pulled her back, laughing again. “Yes, I was kidding. Now, would you just let me kiss—”
Birdie didn’t wait for me to finish. She leaned into me, pushing her fingers through my hair as her lips found mine. Her fingertips dug into my shoulders as she clung to me, kissing me with a fire equal to the flames rushing through my blood.
But it was more than that. Below the fire, a calm, cool river flowed, ready to soothe us both when we needed respite from the flames.
Not that I ever wanted respite.
Together, we stumbled backward, landing on the couch, where we devolved into a tangle of hands and limbs and mouths, desperate and eager for each other. And when we became one, when I delved deep inside her, when she cradled my face in her hands and looked me in the eye, for the first time, it was like coming home.
After, we lay there, heartbeat against heartbeat, and I closed my eyes, savoring the moment. Snapshotting its perfection for future reference.
“Hey,” Birdie said suddenly, resting her chin on my chest.
I opened my eyes and pushed her hair away from her face. “Yeah?”
“Remember the snacks you offered me earlier?”
A laugh rumbled through me. “You really are an Oliver, aren’t you?”
“Hey, you knew what this was,” she shot back, tilting her chin up defiantly.
“I did.” I dropped a quick kiss on her lips before untangling myself from her. Standing, I pulled her up from the couch and steered her toward the kitchen. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Then, minutes later, I added another first to my list: Birdie Oliver, standing naked in my kitchen, eating leftover fried chicken straight from the bucket.
Watching her, I couldn’t help the smile on my face. This was only the beginning. So many weird, wonderful firsts awaited us.
And I looked forward to every single one.
THE END
EPILOGUE: BIRDIE
FOUR MONTHS LATER
“No, Ma, it’s not a wedding.” Nate glanced my way, a hopeless expression on his face. “Well, yeah. Right. Uh-huh. I know, but—”
Pressing his lips together, he waited for his mother to finish speaking.
I hid my smile and pulled into a parking spot in front of a large blue house in Hope Falls. Mrs. Kim really wasn’t grasping the concept of this event that was keeping Nate and me away from Aidan’s birthday dinner. And, to be honest, I couldn’t quite grasp it, either. It wasn’t a wedding, but a gathering of Cat and Jude’s closest friends and family, here to witness them pledge their love to one another.
Sure sounded like a wedding to me.
“Yep. Yeah,” Nate was saying as I put the car in park and turned the engine off. “Hold on.”
He held the phone out to me, a smirk twisting his lips. “She wants to talk to you.”
I took the phone, shooting him a confused look. “Hey, Mrs. Kim,” I said when I put it up to my ear. “What’s up?”
“Explain it to me,” she said almost before I had the question out. “You’re at a wedding, but it’s not a wedding?”
I suppressed a smile and caught Nate watching me, amusement on his face. “Exactly,” I replied, watching as a baby-wearing Jack walked toward the house with his no-longer-pregnant wife. I’d have to get some baby snuggles in later. I could not resist Baby Molly with her big blue eyes. “My brother is having an engagement ceremony.”
“But not a wedding.”
“No, not a wedding.” Beside me, Nate leaned his elbow against the door and watched with interest. Maybe he thought I wouldn’t be able to explain it any clearer than he had. Challenge accepted. “Cat, my brother’s fiancée, doesn’t want to get married. But she wanted the party, you know? She wanted to celebrate their relationship. Thus...an engagement ceremony.”
“But they’re not g
etting married.”
“No, no.” I looked away from Nate to keep from laughing. “They’re not getting married.”
A long pause followed, and I pulled the phone away to see if she hung up. Nope. Still there. When I put it back to my ear, a long, resigned sigh came through the speaker. “Promise me,” she said gravely. “Promise me you two won’t do that to me. We will get a real wedding, right?”
Resting my head against the window, I let my eyes find Nate again. The early afternoon sun filled the car with golden light, highlighting his face perfectly. My heart swelled and I reached across the distance to lay my hand on his. Six months ago, his mother’s words would have scared the hell out of me. Would have sent me running, far and fast. Now? Now, they just filled me with so much hope, so much anticipation.
So much peace.
“I promise,” I said to Mrs. Kim, giving Nate’s hand a squeeze.
“Good,” she replied brusquely. “Now go. Enjoy your fake wedding.”
I laughed. “We will.”
She hung up and I handed the phone back to Nate. He took it, brows furrowed. “You promise what?”
I shrugged and pushed my car door open. “That’s between your mother and me.” Then, I climbed out and rounded the car to pull his door open.
“I don’t know how I feel about you making secret promises to my mother,” he said as he joined me on the curb. “No, wait. Yes, I do. It fucking terrifies me.”
Laughing, I looped my arm through his. “Would you relax?” I said as we started toward the house. “I love you. Your mom loves you. Neither of us has anything but good intentions.”
He remained skeptical as we entered the house, immediately greeted by Sunny, who looked thoroughly uncomfortable in her baby pink bridesmaid dress.
“Ugh,” she said, raking her gaze over me. “How does this look good on you?”
I smoothed my hands over my own pink dress and shrugged. “I think the real question here is, why does Cat have bridesmaids when she’s not a bride?”
“Don’t question the crazy,” Sunny replied, pulling me away from Nate. “Never question the crazy. Now, come on, Cat’s waiting for us.”
As Birdie dragged me away, I threw a backward glance at Nate, who’d just been joined by my father. “See you on the other side,” he said with a good luck with that grin.
I smiled back and let my sister drag me up the stairs, where the not-bridal-party was getting ready for the not-wedding.
But when I walked into the room, my first thought was that Cat definitely looked like a real bride. Her dress was [COLOR] and there were no signs of tiaras or veils, but she had the blushing bride thing down.
Okay, I thought for the first time since this whole ceremony became a thing that was happening. I get it now.
“Don’t just stand there,” Cat said, the beatific smile evaporating from her face. “People are waiting!”
DESPITE ITS ODDBALL premise, the ceremony was lovely. Cat cried. Jude cried. Everyone cried.
Yeah, even me.
It was the moment Cat’s mom and stepdad delivered her to Jude that did me in. That moment did us all in.
Now, as we emerged from the house to a backyard filled with twinkling lights and the sound of Lake Michigan in the background, I looked up at Nate. “You know?” I said as I linked my arm through his. “As weird as this whole engagement ceremony business was, that was actually really beautiful.”
He looked over, his face lit by the setting sun. “Yeah, it was.”
I cocked a brow, taking in the smile he was giving me. “If you say something cheesy like, but not as beautiful as you, I might just have to—”
He interrupted me with a kiss. A soft kiss that sent my heart spinning into cartwheels and my head fighting to catch up. When we parted, his lips were still tilted in a smile. “I won’t say it,” he said, tracing a thumb over my chin. “It’s true, but I won’t say it.”
Despite my cheese-aversion, I laughed and kissed him again. I had never inspired such gooeyness in a person before. I kinda liked it.
“Thank you,” I said back. “I appreciate the sentiment. I don’t care what Sunny says, I look like a bottle of Pepto Bis—”
“This is bullshit.”
We turned to find Sunny standing before us, arms crossed and a proverbial storm cloud over her head. So, in other words, regular ole Sunny.
“What’s up?” I asked, resting my head on Nate’s shoulder.
Ben joined her, a blend of amusement and fear on his face. When Sunny continued to stand there and seethe, he answered my question. “She wants a spring wedding.”
A growl ripped forth from Sunny’s throat. “If it weren’t so goddamn pretty,” she muttered, stomping past us into the house. “I even liked the pink. I hate pink!”
Ben tried like hell to kill the grin on his face and failed so hard. “Can you believe it,” he said as he went after her. “A damn spring wedding. After everything.” Shaking his head, he followed her inside.
The moment they were out of earshot, I turned to Nate, laughter bubbling up inside my chest. One look at his equally baffled and bemused face and I lost it. Nate joined in, shoving his glasses atop his head to put a hand over his face. After a damn near apocalyptic battle over flowers and dresses and color schemes, wouldn’t it figure that my stubborn-ass sister would come to the dark side?
“Well,” Nate said once he regained his composure. “You wanna be my date to next year’s spring wedding?”
I looked at him, in his rumpled suit and even more rumpled hair, and his mom’s words replayed in my mind. We will get a real wedding, right?
And then I could see it—walking down the aisle with Nate waiting at the end.
Of course, Mrs. Kim would never allow such wrinkles in her boy’s wedding suit. I, however, would take him just as he was.
You know. A few years from now. When we’d worked out our kinks and I’d decided whether I could deal with Nate’s weird method for loading the dishwasher, or the bedroom floor being perpetually littered with dirty, comic book themed socks.
Spoiler alert, I thought as he caught me staring and grinned. Pretty sure I could.
Note from the Author
Thank you SO MUCH for hanging out with Nate & Birdie! I hope you enjoyed reading their story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Here’s a little secret: this book was never supposed to happen. In fact, I had an entirely different story planned out for our sweet, sweet Nate. But, as it turns out, Birdie was just the girl he needed!
I’ve got two more books lined up for the How You Get the Girl series, so keep your eyes out for those! They’re going to feature a few more familiar faces—including a couple of guys we met in the Breakaway series who deserve their happy ever afters!
If you enjoyed this book (or even if you didn’t), I’d love it if you stopped by your preferred retailer and left me a review. Oh, and if you’re looking for a fun place to hang out online, swing by my reader group on Facebook. It’s always a good time!
Thanks again for reading!
Acknowledgements
I absolutely, 1000%, mean it when I say this book would not exist if it weren’t for my writer friends. Specifically, my Yes Do babes: Christina Mitchell, Erin King, & Liz Zerkel. The three of you read this book chapter by chapter, helping me make it better, helping me keep my sanity, as I wrote & released it for my readers on Radish. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
And speaking of Radish: I am constantly in awe of the enthusiasm & support I’ve gotten from everyone there. I am forever thankful for everyone who has clicked on one of my stories, who has stuck with me, & who has inspired me to write stories I didn’t plan to write in the first place!
The rest of my writing crew—Louise, Alyssa, & Victoria—thank you for the endless coffee shop dates, the inspiring pep talks, & the verbal ass-kickings. I love you all!
My mom, who reads every book I write & is ALWAYS surprised by the HEA. I love you. Thank you for being my biggest fan <3
About the Author
MEIKA USHER IS A MICHIGAN romance author, a puppy mama, and a lover of all things pizza. When she’s not writing snarky, sexy love stories, she can be found binge-watching Supernatural (she’s a Dean girl), memorizing all the song lyrics ever (it's her superpower), or planning to see the world, one country at a time (Estonia is next on her list). She writes love stories about characters who aren't afraid to get a little silly. Because, after all, love is a funny thing.
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