She let out a distressed whimper. When he started undoing the buttons of his shirt, she licked her lips and sat up, pulling off her own shirt. Impatient with how long it took to undo shirt buttons, more so with Abby already topless and undoing the button of her jeans, he got halfway down and pulled off his shirt and undershirt together, his pants falling to his ankles as Abby kicked hers off.
Naked at last, he pushed her farther up the bed, settling himself between her thighs. He locked eyes with her while he nuzzled her pussy, opening her with his fingers. “I can’t wait to make you mine.”
Her hand came down to thread through his hair, a ghost of a smile on her lips. “I’m already yours.”
“And now no one can doubt it.”
Before she could respond, he licked her and eased a finger inside her. She gasped, her eyes closing and her fingers tightening in his hair, tugging on his scalp. Not enough to hurt. Yet. By the time she came, he knew his skin would be stinging, but he didn’t care. He liked it when she became so lost to her own pleasure that she didn’t realize how hard she pulled his hair or how deep her nails dug into his skin.
He set right to work, no slow buildup this time. He wanted her too much to draw it out. Soon her muscles clenched on his fingers, her breathless cries growing louder, her hips moving and bucking on his tongue, until she let out a loud, “Oh!” and her knees came up, his free hand holding her down and the angle of his shoulders the only thing stopping her from clamping around his head. Her fingers yanked on his hair, holding him tight to her center, and he happily obliged, pumping his fingers and sliding his tongue over her clit, sustaining the orgasm until she relaxed, her fingers slipping out of his hair.
Rising over her, he positioned himself at her entrance. Her eyes came open, drugged with pleasure, and she reached for him, pulling his mouth to hers as he entered her in a slow, slick glide. Moaning at the feel of her, he broke the kiss so he could stare down into her face, loving the way she looked all flushed and dazed from one orgasm and building up to another. She gasped with each thrust, her arms and legs wrapped around him, her pussy gripping his cock. This was his favorite place, wrapped up in her like this. Here, everything made sense. Everything was right. All the things that had gone unsaid, now out in the open.
And they had made each other promises. She was his. Soon it would be official.
That thought was enough to send him over the edge, grinding himself against her as he came, capturing her lips in another kiss.
Yes, this was where they both belonged. Together.
EPILOGUE
“I still can’t believe you waited this long to tell me, bitch.” Megan gave Abby another glare as she relinquished Abby’s left hand. She’d been giving Abby a hard time all week, since Abby had finally told her about the engagement.
Abby held up her hands defensively. “You were busy! You’d just gotten back from meeting Chris’s parents, then you were dealing with Matt and his crap.” She shot a look at Hannah. “Sorry, but …”
Hannah chuckled. “No need to apologize to me. I think Megan might want you to grovel, though.”
Her eyes still narrowed, Megan nodded primly and took a sip of wine.
Abby shook her head. “Well, whatever. You were dealing with Matt having his existential crisis and getting ready for your show. I didn’t want to bother you.”
“Bitch, please. You would’ve given me something to take my mind off all my other stress. Matt is a moody bastard when things aren’t going well for him. Good news would’ve been welcome!”
“Sorry.” Abby felt a little guilty. But every time she’d talked to Megan after Spring Break, Megan had needed to vent, and it’d seemed wrong to rub her own happiness in her friend’s face. And then Megan had her show, and Abby hadn’t wanted to steal any of Megan’s well-deserved spotlight. So she’d waited until afterward, which ended up being about a month after Lance had proposed.
Now they were at a wine bar called The Barrel Room in Northlake, a small town just north of Spokane. It had been Megan’s idea. She’d said they needed to have a girls’ night out to celebrate, and that they should go somewhere classy. Hannah and her roommate Elena had come too.
“So have you thought about a date?” Elena asked.
Abby shook her head, sipping her own wine. She’d gotten a sweet white wine, which had been suggested by the cute blond bartender. Megan had urged Elena to flirt with the bartenders when they’d first walked in, since Elena was the only single one there, but it had quickly become obvious that both guys were taken. A petite brunette sat at one end of the bar, and every so often the blond guy would come talk to her and lean across the bar and kiss her. Next to her sat a redhead sporting a small but obvious baby bump. At first it had seemed odd that a pregnant woman was parked at the bar, but the dark-haired bartender with the striking golden eyes obviously belonged with her. He was even more attentive to her than the blond one was to the brunette.
Watching the couples interact fascinated Abby, who didn’t have a frame of reference for what healthy married couples acted like. And the rings on the women’s fingers made her think they were probably married.
Megan clapped her hands together. “I can’t wait to help you plan the wedding. Are you going to have a long engagement and wait until after you graduate? Or do you want to just do it this summer?”
Abby shook her head again. “I don’t know. Lance said something about eloping. My mom won’t come regardless, and I don’t want my brother there, even if I knew where he was these days. I’m glad he took my advice and left. I just wish he hadn’t gotten money from Mom to do it.” She shrugged. “Anyway. Lance’s family will want to be there, and he’d like them there too, so maybe we’ll just do something small this summer, either up here or down there. We haven’t really decided.”
“I’ll start looking into places that would be good,” Megan said. “Even if there are only a few of us, you need a real wedding. I’m not letting you just go to the courthouse. You deserve a beautiful dress and to feel like a princess for a day.”
Conversation drifted to classes and summer plans. Abby resumed watching the couples at the bar, a warm glow filling her from their obvious happiness. Especially when the dark-haired bartender came around behind his wife, his hand on her belly. She could see them in profile looking into each other’s eyes, smiles on their faces.
Giggling drew her attention back to the table. Megan, Hannah, and Elena were crowded together looking at Megan’s phone.
“Oh my god! Your professor brought that up in class?” Hannah blushed, her hand covering her mouth.
Megan nodded, handing her phone to Elena so she could take a closer look. “Yes. We were talking about the role of art in shaping society. This speaks directly to women’s sexuality and encourages a healthy view of women’s desire. It was completely relevant.”
Abby immediately knew what they were talking about. Megan had showed her the series of paintings of male celebrities going down on women. "Oh my god, Megan. You're corrupting Hannah and Elena with those paintings too?"
Megan smirked. "Matt took care of that for Hannah a long time ago. And if Elena is living with Hannah, I doubt she's all that innocent."
Elena burst out laughing. "The titles! Holy shit. 'What's Gilbert Grape Eating.' That's priceless."
Abby and Megan exchanged a look. "Breakfast Hamm and Hey Girl were my favorite. We didn't get the one for Leo."
Hannah snorted. "That's because you probably didn't develop an obsession with Leonardo DiCaprio after seeing The Great Gatsby and watch every movie he's ever been in."
Elena rolled her eyes. "What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a movie from the early nineties that he was in."
"She's familiar with his entire body of work."
Elena muttered, "I wish I was familiar with his body."
Megan threw back her head and laughed. Abby chuckled too, shaking her head. Her phone buzzed in her hand, and she looked down to see a text notification from Lance.
She didn�
�t even realize she was smiling until Hannah nudged her. “Look at that smile. It must be Lance. Sexting you?” There was a wicked gleam in Hannah’s eyes, even as her cheeks flushed from her own comments.
Abby chuckled. “No. He’s just asking how much longer I’m going to be.” She typed back, It might be a while longer. We’re having fun.
The three dots appeared, and he responded. Good. But I miss you.
She sent him back a lips emoji.
He texted her again a couple of minutes later. I can’t wait to be married to you.
Her smile felt like it might split her face.
Me either.
COPING SKILLS
“Hello?"
A sob answered Elena’s greeting, and she pulled the phone away from her face to check the screen. Yes, it was her mother.
“Mamá? What’s wrong?"
Another sob. “Mija. It’s your papi. He had an accident. You need to come home."
CHAPTER ONE
Elena pushed open the door to her new bedroom and stared at the bed. It was her bed, made with her sheets and blankets, only missing the pillow that she’d had with her all summer. Except she hadn’t made it. When she’d gone home in June, she’d left this bed in the apartment she’d shared with her best friend, Hannah. But she and Hannah had been planning to move in to the house with Hannah’s boyfriend Matt because his other two roommates were moving out. They’d packed all her things and moved them while she was in Richland helping her mom pick up the pieces after her dad’s accident. Boxes stood in neat stacks in the corners. She had no idea where anything was.
That call from her mom in June had changed her whole summer. They’d just gotten back from Westport for the trial run of Matt’s new surf travel business. Being there had brought a certain nostalgia with it that had only intensified after her dad’s accident. The first time she’d visited Westport had been a few years ago with her family, and Hannah’s parents had let her come along. That was the summer that Hannah had met Matt.
Elena’s parents had dragged the three teenagers—her, her younger brother, and Hannah—to the attractions in the area. Her dad had made them all climb to the top of the lighthouse one at a time, the old building too narrow to accommodate more than one person at a time. When they drove past it on her most recent trip, she could still feel the burn in her thighs from the memory of that climb. When Chris, one of Matt’s friends, suggested they all climb it, Elena had declined, saying once was enough.
She and Hannah had reminisced about her dad cracking jokes about Hannah being gone all the time once she met Matt. “She’s the perfect guest to bring along,” he’d said. “She’s gone so much it’s like she’s not even here!” He’d teased Hannah when she was with them, making her blush, but hugging her to show it was all in fun, turning his attention on Elena or Tomás, poking fun at the way they ordered seafood or how Elena only drank coffee with lots of cream.
But that was her dad Before.
He didn’t tease and make jokes anymore. After the accident, he didn’t have it in him. He’d hit his head hard on the window when a drunk driver ran a red light and T-boned him. The doctors had kept him in a medically-induced coma for days while they waited for the swelling in his brain to go down.
And when he’d finally woken up, he’d become a different person.
She’d waited, trying to be patient like the doctors and her mother had urged, but as weeks had turned into months and his personality still hadn’t magically changed back, she’d lost hope that he would ever be the papi that she grew up with. Who had danced with her on his shoes when she was tiny and taught her to drive a stick shift when she was sixteen.
Instead of the smiling, athletic man he’d been, he was grumpy and depressed, never smiling or laughing. He sat on the couch watching TV, his face blank, barely responding to anyone or anything. And when she did succeed in getting his attention, he would heave a sigh before turning to her with unconcealed irritation.
At first she’d been hurt, but that had morphed into anger over the last few weeks, mixing together with her guilt, and she carried a stew of overwhelming negative emotions sloshing around inside her.
And now she was back in Spokane, getting ready to start her senior year of college, with a little over a week before classes started.
A soft knock sounded on her door, and she turned to find Hannah poking her head in. “I did my best to label all the boxes and pack things in a way I thought would make sense to you.”
Elena nodded, mute, still feeling like a jackass for not coming back last month to help with moving.
Hannah came all the way into the room and wrapped her arms around Elena. “I’m glad you came back. Even though that’s probably selfish of me, and I’m sure your mom could still use your help. I’m glad you’re here. I was worried you might not finish.”
“Yeah. Thanks.” With her hands touching Hannah’s back, she accepted her friend’s hug, but didn’t fully reciprocate. She didn’t know how to act now, here, after everything. Or what to say.
She was glad to be back. She’d wanted to help pack their apartment. But she knew that she wouldn’t have been able to force herself to go back home to Richland for the last few weeks of summer after getting away. It had been so awful being home. The worst summer ever.
Part of her had worried that she’d get stuck there even past the summer. But there was no way in hell she’d quit before her senior year. Fortunately, her mom wouldn’t hear of it either. Education was important to Paola Martinez. And so she’d returned to Spokane, and Mamá would take Tomás to Pullman to start his freshman year at WSU this weekend.
Hannah pulled back from the hug, examining Elena. “Are you going to be okay here by yourself for a while? Matt has to be at Lance and Abby’s wedding rehearsal in half an hour, and we’re going to the dinner after that. I feel bad leaving you to unpack by yourself like this.”
Mustering up a smile, Elena shook her head. “Don’t feel bad. I’ll be fine. It’ll be nice to have the house to myself for a little while and get used to where everything is.” She glanced over at the stack of boxes, their contents listed in neat block letters in black Sharpie. None of them said kitchen or dishes. “Where’s all my baking stuff?”
“In the kitchen. Here, let me show you where everything is really quick before we go.” Hannah led the way into the kitchen, just down and to the left of Elena’s new bedroom. The other bedroom across from hers was Matt’s office now, since Hannah and Matt shared the master bedroom. And she’d get a bathroom all to herself for the first time ever. At home she shared one with her younger brother. In the dorms they’d had one bathroom at each end of the floor. And she’d shared with Hannah since then.
Elena hadn’t been in the kitchen before, since her dad’s accident had happened the day after Hannah had brought up the idea of moving into Matt’s house after Chris and Megan moved out. There hadn’t been time for her to visit the house like they’d planned, and when Hannah had called to ask if she was okay with moving, she’d given a distracted yes. Now, here they were. The doorway opened into the dining area, complete with a dented and scraped-up wooden table and mismatched chairs. The rest of the kitchen extended from there, the fridge on the right and sink on the left, with the stove straight back, all connected by out-of-date medium brown cabinets and dingy cream countertops. The whole kitchen could use a remodel, but looked clean and functional enough.
Hannah opened the set of cabinets to the right of the stove. “Glass bakewear and your pie plates are all down here.” She opened another cabinet next to that one. “Here are your mixing bowls.” Straightening up, she indicated the utensil holder on the counter. “All big utensils are here. Silverware in that drawer. Your favorite marble rolling pin is on the counter back here on its little stand. Umm …” She looked around tapping a finger to her lips. “Glasses up and to the right of the sink, plates and bowls to the left. Anything I missed?”
Elena shook her head. “I think that covers it. Do you have pie-making
ingredients, or do I need to go to the store?”
With a grin, Hannah opened the little pantry. “I got your favorite canned fillings, plus there are berries in the freezer and Granny Smith apples in the fridge. I just got a couple of packages of your favorite brand of butter when I went to the store the other day, plus flour, cocoa powder, and all the usual things I know you go through on a regular basis. Good enough?”
Her best friend going so far out of her way to make Elena feel welcome lifted her spirits before she even started thinking about what kind of pie she wanted to make. This time she gave Hannah a real hug, squeezing her eyes closed in an attempt to keep the ever-present tears from leaking out. “Thank you. You have no idea how much I need this. I didn’t get to bake as much as I would’ve liked at my parents, both because I was really busy, and because I knew my mom would worry if I made two or three things a day like I wanted to.”
Hannah pulled back with a chuckle. “Well, go crazy. Matt will love you until he starts gaining weight. But he still works out a ton when he’s home, even without helping Chris train for the NFL anymore.”
“Well, I’ll get some disposable pie plates so I can give away some of what I make to other people too. Even with Matt around, there’ll be no way we can all keep up with my baking needs, at least for a little while. It’s been repressed for months and is dying to come out.” She smiled like she was joking, and Hannah smiled too, but she was very serious. She needed the comfortable rhythm of making dough and the predictability of mixing these ingredients to get this specific result to feel more centered again. Her fingers itched to feel the rough grain of her favorite wooden spoon or the smooth metal of her professional-quality whisk.
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