“You don’t know?”
She shoots me a glare so fake it’s hilarious. “Aren’t you the one who’s always considering the options?”
“Well, yeah, but I figured you had a plan. You usually do have a plan.” Katie, as long as I’ve known her, has had a plan for everything. She picked out her entire first year of college courses before we even left for our summer orientations. She planned to major in finance, and she got her degree, and now...
Now I assumed there was more of a plan.
“I have applications in,” she admits. “I gave them a start date of mid-October. I’ve...I’ve even had a few interviews.”
“Where at?”
“Firms in the city,” Katie says. “Multiple cities, actually. New York. Seattle. Chicago. I figured I’d see what came of it all, and then decide based on the offers.”
“You’ve got offers?”
She has not once, not once, mentioned this, in all our time on the docks.
“A few.” It’s a whisper so quiet it could float away on the breeze.
I tighten my grip around her shoulders, pulling her close. “Are you going to tell me where, or is it a big secret?”
“One in New York. One in Seattle. And one in LA.”
Cold dread, like a disgusting winter breeze, sneaks between the sofa and my back and settles in. I can feel that same cold on my breath, in my lungs, freezing everything out. Two of those places are across the country.
And why should it make a difference? We’re not dating. She’s said it a million times, and it’s the sensible thing to think and the sensible thing to say. We’re not dating. We’re only going to be here for a matter of weeks and then it’s time for me to commit to this life or find another one. That half of me that loves the breeze and the sound of slow traffic and the water—that half of me knows where he belongs.
“And you’re going to be here,” she says. “No matter where I go.”
She says it like that’s what she needs to be true, and in a horrible sickening instant I know where this is all going to end up.
I’ve known it all along.
There’s no avoiding it, is there? No. So the only thing to do is be in this moment.
“Are you warm?”
“Yes.” Katie raises her head off my arm. “I’m a little hot. I was thinking of taking off the robe.”
I know as well as she does that she’s not wearing anything underneath.
I clear my throat, all that cold dread burned to a crisp. “Could you do me a favor, as one friend to another?”
“What’s that?”
“Stand up when you do it.”
12
Katie
“Huck, no. I thought we decided—”
The rain loves us. The rain has heard our pleas and answered. When it rains, we can’t take the boats out—we can’t let people out on the water in any of the watercraft. Liabilities, and all that. The moment the first droplets fell, Huck pulled me into the boathouse by the hand, and now…
Well.
He put both of my hands on the check-in counter, stepped up behind me, and kissed the back of my neck. He’s still kissing the small square that’s normally covered by my ponytail. It’s shocking, how much of an effect his kiss has. I can feel myself, damp between the legs. I’m going to ruin my shorts if I’m not careful.
“Sorry, what was that?”
He pauses, but I want him to kiss me again. I want more of it, and I can’t help it.
“We decided that last time was the last time.”
The last time, after I undid the belt of my bathrobe and let it fall open, then let it slide to the floor, revealing all of me. Then I reached up and uncoiled the second towel from my hair, letting it fall in all its wet glory down over my shoulders. I watched him get hard. Maybe he thought I was the only one putting on a show, but trust me, I was not.
His breath is hot against the back of my neck. “If you want to stop, say the word.”
I heard the way he didn’t answer when I asked him where he’d be. That pause was enough to know that Huck might waffle, he might consider all the options, but he’s never going to leave Bliss. Why would he? Honestly, given the chance, I’d join my family business in a heartbeat. Only I don’t have a family business to join. If I want that, I’ll have to start one for myself, and I won’t be starting one in my career as a financial adviser for a Fortune 500 company. They’re all Fortune 500 companies. They all want me. And I want it to be summer at Bliss forever.
“No,” I breathe, giving in again. “The third time could be the charm.”
“God, yes,” Huck groans. “If it works this time, we’ll both be free.”
Because last time—in his house, with the bathrobe, which sounds like the setup for a game of Clue—was meant to get this all out our of systems so we can stand to look at each other until we’re away. So we can focus on our jobs, and not the fact that all we want to do is hang out with each other.
That’s all I want to do, anyway. I was perfectly happy with four hours of Netflix after our last naked hang sesh.
I could do that with him forever. Especially if he orders pizza, which Huck is always willing to do.
He resumes kissing my neck, and I resume fucking falling for it, just like every other time.
Huck kisses around to the front of my neck and pulls me close, his hands working at the button clasp at the front of my jeans. Today was the first day we had cool enough weather to wear jeans on the docks, and it scares the shit out of me. Honestly, it does, because it means the time is getting away from me. September is slipping away, and it’ll be October, and then this…this will be over, whatever this is.
“Promise me,” I say, my voice ragged. “Promise me you’ll still talk to me when I’m at my job.”
I feel the way his muscles tense and freeze, the way his body goes still, and then way he starts moving again so smoothly I almost could have imagined it. “Of course I’ll talk to you.”
“I don’t want it to be like college again.”
“I don’t want it to be like that, either. You know what I do want it to be like?”
“What?”
“The other day at my place. Only better. Only…” He tugs my pants down over my hips, kneeling so I can step out of them. Then he does the same to my panties. And I am painfully aware that there are no curtains on the windows of the boathouse, that anyone could see, and it makes my nipples peak and harden. Huck stands up behind me and glides his hand around to the front of me, stroking two confident fingers between my still-spread legs. “Yeah. Like that.”
“Like what?”
“Even wetter. Keep your hands on the desk.”
“What—what are you, the boss of me?” I have to force the joke out on a breathy whisper because every single sense is pinpointed on my nipples, on my clit.
“Right now I am. Like it?”
“Fucking…love…it.”
“So filthy.”
I rock back against him, because I can’t do anything else. I don’t want to do anything else. There’s the slide of metal on metal and then it’s flesh on flesh, his hardness against my opening, and I bend forward to let Huck have his way with me up against the reception desk. The moment he thrusts in, the moment he hits home, the air goes out of my lungs and the next breath is sweet and pure and so rich, so, so rich, I could eat it for breakfast.
His fingertips circle my clit, a slow, lazy rhythm as he pumps faster, thrusts harder—oh, oh, oh fuck.
“That’s it,” he coaxes. “Come for me. Let it all out.”
I do. I do, I do, I do.
13
Huck
“It didn’t work. It’s still in my system. Do you think I should see a doctor?” I say all of this as quickly as possible when Katie opens the door to her little rented house. “This is not your childhood home, by the way.”
Her eyebrows fly up to her hairline. “Did you go to my old house? What are you doing here?”
“I asked first.”<
br />
She laughs. “I do not think you need to go to the doctor, but what are you doing? You could have called, like a regular person.”
“I think you mean I could have texted, like a regular person. Are you going to let me in?”
Katie opens the door with a flourish, and I step inside and wait for her to close it behind us before I round on her, scooping her up in my arms and pressing her back against the door and kissing her, because that’s what I’ve wanted to do since I opened my eyes this morning and I’m not waiting another second.
She murmurs something against my lips, but I ignore it until I’m done tasting her. For the moment. I set her back on her feet. “What was that?’
“I said, if you keep kissing me like that, we might accidentally ruin our friendship.”
“Total bull,” I tell her. “This was supposed to be about honesty, anyway, and having a nice hang sesh before you leave for Seattle. Or LA. Or wherever you’re going.” I say it casually, like saying it casually will make it feel causal, even though it does not feel causal. Having Katie on the other side of the country feels like being plunged back into the dark ages. It’s bullshit, but it’s inevitable. “And honestly,” I press on, “I missed you, and I came over. But I think I have a terrible disease.”
She puts a hand on my chest. “You don’t have to pretend to be afflicted in order to come see me.”
“I’m sick with it.” I clasp a hand over hers. “It torments me.”
“Is it that bad?” Her voice is filled with concern that would seem very nearly genuine if her eyes weren’t dancing. “What can I do to make it better?”
“There’s nothing can be done,” I moan, because she’s starting to break, she’s starting to lose it, and I love it when she laughs. I can’t help myself. I love it.
I love…
No.
My mind shies away from admitting it even in the privacy of my brain. I did not come back to Bliss to fall in love like a fucking fool. I came here to have a good time. I came here, I realize in a rush, to get it out of my system.
“Nothing?” cries Katie, and my heart thud-thuds in recognition of a very, very old game we’re playing. Only it has new rules. “Nothing at all? Please, tell me, Huck. Is there anything I can do to save you?”
I tip my head back and stare blankly at the ceiling. “You can get naked, Katie Lennon,” I say on a rattling wheeze. “You can get naked, and bring me back from the verge of death.”
She loses it then, absolutely loses it, snorting with laughter. “Oh my god, that voice is so unsexy. It’s awful. Don’t do that. I’ll do anything to make it stop.” Katie leans in close, pressing a kiss to my exposed collarbone. I reach up and yank my shirt back.
“That seemed to help.” I keep my eyes fixed on the ceiling. “Do it again.”
She does it again, and the feeling arcs down over the front of my lips and sends a jolt of pleasure straight between my legs.
“You’re a true friend,” I wheeze.
Katie laughs again, but I hear the hesitation in her voices—I hear that microsecond of silence before the sound, and it winds my mind clean around it and twists it off in a knot that’s going to be impossible to unravel. She wants to be friends. That’s all she wants. She can’t stop saying it. Yet when I bring it up.
“Let’s get this off of you,” she says, with all the authority of a nurse on duty. “It may be the only thing that saves your life.”
Just like that, we’re back in the game.
“The light,” I croak. “The light…” Teeth dig into the front of my chest. Teeth. “You bit me!”
Katie straightens up, looking at me with a dead serious expression. “I did what I had to do to get you to stop doing that fucking voice.” She reaches for her top with the same focused expression. “I hope this seals the deal.”
She doesn’t have a bra on underneath.
In effect, Katie has just unleashed the most perfect breasts ever to grace the planet on my eyes.
“I swear I will never do the voice again,” I promise. “I swear it on my mother’s life, and on these two nipples here in front of me.”
“Huck?”
“Yeah?”
“Shut up and fuck me.”
I back up a step, wrenching my hand away using every last bit of my self-control. “I’m only here to try to red myself of this vicious obsession.”
“Do you think I don’t have the same one?” Katie bites her lip. This is part of the game, too, this supercharged game that seems like it could turn deadly. Not literally deadly, but…heartbreak lingers on the border. That’s all I’m saying. “Why do you think I opened the door to you?” She pounces on me then, climbing up and kissing me, wild and free and without abandon. “We don’t have much time,” she whispers into my ear.
“Who’s the creepy one now?”
“Me.”
“Can you stop being creepy long enough to make out?”
She brings her lips to mine, nips my bottom lip between her teeth, and almost makes me come early. “Message received.”
Katie points upstairs. “Bedroom.”
I don’t walk. I run.
14
Katie
Huck sleeps in my bed with total abandon, arms thrown over his head, sheet pulled down to his hips.
It’s a sight to behold.
I mean, he really does have a perfect body. It’s stunningly, stupidly perfect, and watching him sleep makes me feel a lot of feelings.
My feet are already disconnected from the ground from the sex. I’m already floating high above the earth’s surface, looking down on Ruby Bay and wondering what I’ve been doing with my life. My stomach hums with the anticipation of it all. What happens now? What happens later?
He stirs, his eyes opening to slits, and then he rolls over on his left side. His breathing stays deep and even.
Still asleep.
I turn and pad out of the room, pulling on a robe as I go. I can’t get caught staring at him again.
From the middle of the stairs, I hear my phone buzz against the kitchen counter. That thing is loud, and the last thing I want to do is wake a peacefully sleeping man. I jump down two at a time and sprint into the kitchen, snatching it up before it can ring a thing time.
“Hello?”
“Did I catch you in the middle of having sex?” It’s Libby.
“Jesus.” I take a deep breath and let it out. “No. You caught me…” I don’t know how to finish the sentence. “You caught me at the perfect time. Aren’t you on your honeymoon?”
“Yes, but I couldn’t sleep.”
“So you thought you’d wake me up? Very considerate.” I trail into the living room and fall into the sofa. “What’s going on?”
“Europe is great,” Libby says. “So much to do, so much to see…”
“Tell me about it.”
“No, I’d rather hear about you. I’m dying to know what became of Huck Bliss.”
“Seriously? From your honeymoon?” I shake my head, though I know she can’t see it. Outside my living room window, a street lamp flickers on and off. On. Off. On. Off.
“Hell yes. I know you’ve always had a thing for him.”
“I have not. It’s just easy for us to get along, because we—”
“Because you have a thing for him. Has work been awkward? Or is it fine?”
“It’s…” It’s awkward in the best way. It’s awkward because I barely need an alarm to wake up, I’m so excited to get to the docks and see him. It’s awkward because, at the end of the day, all I want is to make plans with him. I’ve never gotten sick of those plans. Not once. “Honestly, it’s really good.” My throat closes in and my lungs stop taking in air. Oh, no. Oh no.
“Katie, are you crying? What happened?”
“I’m only crying because it’s so good.” I take a big, shuddering breath and fail completely at coming down. “You know. You know how he is.”
“I do,” she agrees. “So…Katie, what’s the deal? What’s
the problem?”
“We slept together. We…kept sleeping together. And I really like it. And I really like him. I…more than like him. And there’s nothing I can do about it.” I clap my hand over my mouth and sob silently so she can’t hear.
And he can’t hear.
“What are you talking about? There’s plenty to do. Date. Stay in Ruby Bay. Who cares?”
“I have three offers. I have to take one of them. That was the plan. I didn’t get a pointless degree just to…just to…”
“Fall in love?”
“I can’t fall in love with him, Libs. What if it goes sour? Then I’ve lost my best friend.”
“I thought I was your best friend,” she says haughtily, in a British accent, and it makes me laugh as hard as I was crying.
When I get myself under control again, Libby sighs. “Is he there right now?”
I wait a beat.
“So, yes.”
“Yes. He’s sleeping in my bed.”
“How the tables have turned,” she says. “From one bed, to the other. From one side of town, to the other. From—”
“I get it. I do.”
“So snarky.”
“That’s the me you know and love.”
“Speaking of love…” There’s a rustling on the other end of the line, and a sleepy male voice rumbling in the background. “I should shut up and let my husband sleep. And you should go upstairs and ask Huck to be your boyfriend. Just do it, Katie. Nike.”
“Just do it, huh?” I watch the streetlight turn on, then off, then back on again. “Is it really that simple?”
“Of course it is. Okay. Love you. Bye.” She makes a terrible kissing noise into the phone and hangs up.
Oh, Libby. I want to believe her—that it is that simple, and that I have nothing to lose. But I can’t.
15
Huck
Charlie runs on the beach, down one stretch, then back in the other direction. He gets so far that he looks fake—a little animatronic robot of a person—and then, just when I think he’ll go out of sight, he comes back. I probably look the same to him, out on my kayak.
Love on You: A Bliss Brothers Novel Page 6