Page 101 of Best Laid Plans

Nova laughed, a sound I had missed dearly. "This looks amazing, Anson."

We talked as we ate, the rhythmic sound of the waves providing a soothing backdrop.

"This was so much fun," she claimed as she sat back on the blanket, facing the water.

"Thank you for giving me a chance to make it fun."

She smiled sweetly at me, and my heart raced.

I cleared up the remnants of our picnic, filled her glass and mine with champagne, and sat next to her.

"How are we getting home?" she asked as she took her glass of bubbly.

"We'll drive." I clinked my glass against hers.

"Anson?"

"Yeah, Sugar."

"I'm afraid of getting hurt."

"I know. Me too."

"I never hurt you."

I wrapped my free arm around her, and kissed the side of her head. "You're not capable of hurting anyone. I'm afraid now, as I was then, of losing you. Lost you anyway because I was a moron. Won't make that mistake again."

She leaned into me, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"You really think there's a chance after all that's happened that we can have a healthy and normal relationship?" she mused.

I chuckled. "I don't know about normal, Sugar, 'cause that definition is dubious as fuck. Healthy? Yes."

"When you say you want a chance, what is it you want?" She looked at me and I couldn't resist it, I brushed my lips against hers. She tasted of champagne and sea air, of hope and future happiness.

"We date. We become a couple. We learn from each other."

She nodded and breathed out. "We'll fight."

"Yes." We both were passionate people, so hell, yeah, we'd fight. "And we'll have excellent make up sex."

She laughed then. "Do men really think about sex all the time?"

"Not all the time. We sometimes sleep and dream about sex," I joked. "Sugar, here’s the bald truth. I want you desperately, and my cock is sick of my hand."

She drank some champagne. "I've had sex since us."

"I know." I had zero fucking right to be upset about that, and I wasn't. We were apart for seven years. It would've been a fucking shame if she'd been celibate all that time.

"Not good sex…just…I tried," she faltered. "Do you know that you and I had sex only that one time?"

"Yeah, Sugar, I'm aware."

"How do you know we'll have good sex now?"

"Because we love each other."

She buried her face in my chest then. I put my champagne glass on the blanket, and held her close as her shoulders shook. I felt her tears against my linen shirt, and my eyes filled in response.

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