by Amelia Wilde
And that shit where she sent me back out again?
It was clearly a test, and I failed it. But Reggie Quinn was never going to chase after me. Like she’d ever show that kind of weakness. Like she’d ever admit that my father’s house means something to her, too. It’s only occurring to me in this moment that it was as much a part of her life as it was mine.
I’ve been running in the wrong direction all along.
“I remember that.” It finally occurs to me that we’re in the middle of a conversation. Gideon’s probably waiting to pounce. “I have to go.”
“Yes. Back to Reckless Falls,” he needles.
“There’s something I have to do first.”
“Don’t let me down, Adam,” Gideon warns, and then he laughs. “I don’t want to come home to a best friend who’s sulking in his penthouse. Don’t wait any longer than necessary. This is the woman of your dreams we’re talking about.”
“How would you know—”
“Everybody else has always been a bet,” he says, and then there’s a low voice in the background. “I’m going to the Bahamas. When I get back, you’d better not be sulking in your penthouse. Godspeed!” He shouts the last word and hangs up on me.
The clock is already ticking.
34
Regina
Clomp, clomp, clomp.
This stupid fucking boot. I’m ready to tear it off and throw it through the fancy plate glass window.
The owners of Indigo would probably fire me on the spot, but right now, I can’t see that as a problem. I can’t see anything worse than this awful, clomping boot that catches on everything as I try to maneuver my way through the tables on my first day back to work.
A well-dressed woman sitting at table five gives a frightened little “eep!” as my stupid boot bumps into the leg of her chair. “I’m so sorry,” I mutter and clomp away as fast as I can to pick up a tray of cocktails from the back bar.
“You got that?” the bartender, a big scary German dude named Felix, asks warily.
“I’ve got it,” I snap, yanking the tray out of his hands and making the stemware ring.
“Careful...”
“I said I’ve got it!”
I snap my head up to glare at him and he practically falls over himself to back away from me with his hands raised, mumbling in German.
Shaking my head, I clomp away from him and rush back to my table. A young child—too young to be in such a fancy place—slips from her chair and runs towards me.
Somehow I execute a fancy, one-footed twirl, dancing out of her way with the tray held aloft, but it’s not enough. I can feel the trickling rain of spilled drinks dribbling down my arm. “Goddammit!” I say aloud, and then freeze.
Everyone at the table stares at me like I’d just defecated on the floor. The mother belatedly snatches her wayward child out of my path and I grimly set down the tray of now half empty drinks.
Out of nowhere, Charlie appears, readily smiling and promising fresh drinks. She nods at one of the other wait staff, and then hustles me out of the way.
“Shit,” I apologize. “I lost my cool.”
Charlie darts a look back at the table. “We’ll comp their drinks, no big deal.” Then she turns back to me, her topknot bobbing like it's just as worried as she is. “Are you okay?”
I swallow down the frustration. My ankle feels fine now, if a little weak, but this morning the doctor told me I’d need another two days in this stupid boot. I’d told Charlie I was fine to come back to work yesterday, confident that I’d have this dumb thing off of me by now. “I feel like a one-woman herd of elephants,” I sigh. “I’m like the loudest thing in here.”
She glances down at my foot and then back up at me. “I noticed you were sort of...stomping,” she says carefully.
“Yeah.”
“But your ankle feels fine?” she prods me. “It’s not hurting you?”
“Why do you ask?”
She shakes her head, pressing her lips together and then smiles brightly. “Listen, Gina. If your ankle isn’t bothering you, then something else is.” Before I can protest, she gestures out to the table, then back to Felix who still looks perturbed. ‘Something is on your mind.”
“I’m fine,” I protest, even as Adam’s warm brown eyes pop into the forefront of my brain.
She cocks her head, sending her topknot bobbing. “If I were speaking as just your friend right now, I’d let you get away with lying to me like that,” she says mildly. “But since I’m currently acting as your boss, I have to tell you that I need you to go home and get your shit together. I need my team running like a well-oiled machine and right now you’re a wrench in the whole thing.”
I open my mouth and then shut it. Hot, embarrassed tears immediately pool in my eyes and I look away, furious with myself for falling apart like this.
But I can’t fucking help it. Ever since Adam left, all I’ve been doing is crying. Just randomly welling up at the most annoying moments.
Like right now.
“I’m fine,” I protest again, wiping away the traitorous tears before they can fall.
Charlie’s face softens and she leans in closer. “Okay, I’m done speaking as your boss right now. Now I’m your friend and I’m worried. What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” I lie, and then sniffle miserably.
She rests her hand on my shoulder. “Gina, everyone here?” She waves to the front-end as a whole. ‘We like you. Felix? He freaking adores you and you just almost bit his head off. We depend on you and when you’re hurting, we hurt too. We want to help. I want to help.”
I step forward and suddenly we are embracing. It’s the first time I’ve ever hugged Charlie, ever accepted a hug from someone who is just my friend. I would never have been able to do this, even a month ago. Something inside of me has changed fundamentally. “Okay,” I sigh. “I’ll go get my shit together.”
Charlie pulls back and I can see that her eyes are gleaming too. Quickly she wipes at them and then laughs. “And if this is about a guy?” she teases, not noticing how I stiffen. “Then just hurry up and tell him how you feel, okay? I mean...honestly...” She glances down at my boot again with a mischievous smile. “Anything to get you to stop stomping around like toddler-Frankenstein having a tantrum.”
I burst out laughing and then wipe away the tears that are now flowing freely. I’m making up for a lifetime of unshed tears pretty damn quickly these days. “Okay,” I say again, nodding.
But as I gather my things, I wonder how exactly I’m supposed to do it. It’s easy for Charlie to say it, oh just tell him how you feel, but it’s a whole other thing to actually make it happen.
I have no idea how to even begin.
I clomp out to my car and sit down, viciously yanking the boot off my foot. I’ve been cleared to drive, so I should be grateful for small favors, I guess. In the five-minute drive home, I’m no closer to a solution. My brain feels like it’s buzzing with a zillion thoughts at once. I pull into to my driveway too fast, sending my car jerking as I shift it into park, then whirl around to slam the door shut. What am I supposed to do, call him? “Hey Adam? I know you have a life and shit, but I love you. So now what?”
Yeah, that wasn’t going to work at all.
My silent house is no help either. My mother cleaned it from top to bottom while she was here, and now it doesn’t even smell like my own place any more. I need to get out of here. I need to clear my head, and the only thing that can do that is a run.
The second I think that everything becomes clear. Fuck the doctor’s admonition. My foot is fine. I head up to my bedroom and yank off my work uniform, pulling on my sports bra with a feeling of new resolve. I need a run more than anything right now. I can take it slow. I can just jog a little, maybe once around the Town Park. Maybe the breeze will somehow blow Adam out of my brain again.
Gingerly, I walk back down the stairs and lace up my running shoes at the bottom. My right ankle is still slightly larger than my lef
t, but I don’t care. I grab my keys and open the front door.
And stop.
For a second I wonder if I’ve conjured him out of thin air. If my need to tell him somehow transcended space time and teleported him to my location.
Because why the fuck was Adam on my front lawn?
His face, which up to this moment was a mask of anxiety, suddenly smoothes out into a laugh. “Are you kidding me?” he asks. “You can’t go for a run!”
“You’re not supposed to be here,” I stammer, still not entirely convinced I’m not hallucinating. “How the fuck are you here?”
His tongue flicks out to wet his lips. “I’m here,” he says. “For you.”
I feel like the earth has opened up underneath me but I’m so fucking happy I can fly free of the chasm. “You came back?” I ask. Just to make sure. Just to hear him say it.
He steps forward and I’m moving to him even before he can say anything. I’m on my tiptoes reaching for him and he instantly scoops me off my shaky ankle and into his arms. “I’m not,” he says, raining kisses down all over my face as I wrap my arms around his neck, “running away. Not anymore.”
And then he’s moving, carrying me over the threshold and up the stairs, two at a time.
35
Adam
It’s like we’re fighting, only this time we’re battling each other to get closer, closer. Every move I make is the best I can do to thrust deeper, to press my lips harder into her skin, to lick her collarbone and taste her.
Fucked-up ankle or not, she meets me with every single move, her dark eyes searing.
“Why did you go?” She breathes the words and then bites down on my shoulder like she can’t stand to hear the answer.
I have to pull back, make sure she’s looking directly into my eyes, which is not an easy fucking feat when all I want to be doing is taking her like I’ve never taken her before. “Because I was an idiot.” There’s no time for anything in this moment but raw honesty, and Reggie’s mouth curves upward just a little. “I knew it was a fucking mistake to leave you.” I can’t stop myself from moving over her, from bending my head to plant kisses along the hollow of her neck. “And once I got back to the city...” She moans a little into my ear. “I knew that I had to—”
“That’s enough,” she says, arching back.
“But I’m not done explaining—”
Then she’s doing something with her hips that makes me forget what I was going to say next. It’s wiped from my mind in a cascade of pleasure.
It’s electric, like a storm raging around the both of us, and we’re in the center, drawing in all of the energy. At some point, deep in the rhythm we’ve settled into, Reggie’s hair elastic snaps, freeing her hair to fall over her shoulders.
I run my fingers through it and to the back of her head, tilting that proud chin backward. It’s a momentary pause, just long enough to lower my lips to hers, slowly, deliciously slowly, and take her bottom lip between my teeth. She sucks in a breath and with a restraint that’s almost torturous leans forward to complete the kiss.
My cock pulses inside of her and I feel her smile against my own lips, and shit, there it is again, a tightening—I have no idea how she’s doing this—that puts just the right amount of pressure there and there.
I’m not doing this without her. Not this time. I tilt my own hips until, with every movement, I’m coming into direct contact with her clit. I know because Reggie squeezes her eyes shut and bites down hard on her lip, cheeks pink, and her legs tremble on either side of my hips.
“Please, Adam...” It’s the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard in the world, Reggie begging for more.
“All you ever had to do was ask.” I let the words slip into her ear and she locks her legs around me, holding on for dear life as the orgasm rocks her back onto the bed. This time, Reggie doesn’t hold back. She cries out, her nails digging into my back.
There’s a moment right before I come when everything freezes. It’s like I’ve died and gone to heaven, looking at her like this, with her hair falling back onto the cushions, her head thrown back with the pleasure, body arching toward me.
I am never leaving her again. I am never leaving her again.
The release that follows is so fucking intense I momentarily go blind. All I can see is a negative image of Reggie’s gorgeous face, her unbelievable body, and then it’s gone, replaced with the sensation of my hands on her skin, of my face pressing into her collarbone. Then her hands are moving over my head. She runs her fingers through my hair, murmuring something I can’t make out. I’m just trying to catch my breath.
Then a peace settles over both of us. There might be more waves coming on the horizon—if they involve orgasms, there had better be tsunamis—but right now we’re rocking gently together like that rickety boat in the middle of Ganagua Lake. Easy. Free.
There’s only a few things left to do.
“I had to take care of some things in the city,” I say into the side of her neck when I’ve recovered myself enough to speak.
“What?”
Reggie’s hands move up and down my back. “You asked me why I left. I had to take care of some things in the city.”
“Mmm,” she says languidly. “Like what? Business?”
“Pleasure, really.”
She laughs a little, and when I pick up my head she’s giving me a look. “What do you mean?”
“It was a stupid mistake to ever walk out of Reckless Falls, and the moment I got back to the city, I—” I shake my head. “You don’t need to know all the details.”
“Oh, I do.”
“Not these. Not now. I’ll tell it to you after—”
“After what?” Reggie’s eyes are sparkling with excitement, and my heart nearly bursts. She’s excited. She’s not dreading what I’m about to say. She trusts me, and I’m going to work for the rest of my life to make sure I deserve that.
“I guess I have something to show you.” She glances downward, toward my cock, with a grin. “Not that. Come on.”
I help her into her clothes. She doesn’t really need the help, but it’s another excuse to run my hands over her curves, and she doesn’t fight me on it. Not this time. Then I throw on my shorts and shirt and take her hand.
“Are you ready?”
“I’m ready for more of that,” she says, and I almost give in, but now that we’re dressed, I want it to be worth it.
“Just give me a few minutes. It won’t take long to get where we’re going.” She purses her lips but lets me lead her out to her front porch. I throw my arm out wide, toward the other side of the street. “Here we are.” There’s a little yellow house there. It’s no New York City penthouse, but I’ve got a team coming in tomorrow to do some hasty renovations. I can live without all the amenities, but I want to have them available for Reggie at a moment’s notice. I want her to have everything I have. Every comfort. Not that any of them mean a thing without her.
“What are you waving at?” Reggie looks up and down the street. “Did you get a new car?”
“No,” I say with a laugh. “That.” I point directly at the yellow house.
“That’s the Millers’ house,” she says slowly, like I am the biggest idiot ever to cast a shadow on her front porch. Maybe I am. I don’t care, as long as she doesn’t want me to leave.
“No. It’s mine.”
Reggie laughs out loud. “What? Stop it, Adam.”
“I bought it because I need temporary housing.”
Her smile is so big she can hardly contain it. “Temporary—you don’t need a little house like that. You can have anyplace you want.”
“I need temporary housing because I’m not going back to the city.” Reggie’s mouth drops open. “At least, not permanently. I’m going to renovate my father’s house. But while that’s being done, I’m going to live right there.”
“There.” She points at the yellow house. “Across the street from me.”
I wrap my arms around her and pu
ll her in close. “I told you I was done running.” A tiny spark of nervousness settles in my gut. “I’m renovating my dad’s house, and when it’s done, we can both move into it together. If you’d like that.”
“Like that?” Reggie’s voice seems choked, and when she raises her head, her eyes are shining. “I would love that.”
“You know what I love?” I can’t help myself.
“What?”
“I love you.”
She throws her arms around me then, holding on tight. “I love you.” Then she steps back, tugging just a little on my waist. “Now...can we go back inside? There are some other...things...I’d like to do.”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
Then I sweep her up into my arms, carry her across the threshold again, and kick the door shut behind us.
It’s good to be home.
Epilogue
Regina
Adam glances up from his desk in the corner of his penthouse. When he sees my full hands, he immediately leaps up. “Is it here?”
I nod and drop the mail on his granite countertops, then snatch up the large white envelope. “I was right to give them this address, then.” I sigh with relief. “I had no idea where we’d actually be when they mailed them out.”
Adam laughs and sidles up behind me. “The pitfalls of being such a jetsetter,” he teases, kissing my shoulder as he slides his hands down my hips and pulls me close. “Never having a permanent address.”
I grin. As the renovations to his father’s house drag on, we’ve fallen into the kind of arrangement that I never would have dreamed would work but actually does really well. Adam spends Thursday through Sunday in Reckless Falls, directing the work on what has become a total overhaul of his father’s place into the perfect weekend retreat. On those days, he’s either at his house or, when I’m there, at mine...in my bed.
Monday through Wednesday though? Those are city days and by far my favorite. I’m getting used to being idle, actually growing to enjoy lying around his penthouse, enjoying the view and poking around in his medicine cabinet. I’m slowly learning to not mistake busy-ness for happiness.