Page 47 of The Sky Between Us

“Thank you,” I said quietly, not taking my eyes off Sky. “What happened to the cheesecake?”

“Well… it did this big plop when she tried to put the strawberry jelly on the top. It just disappeared into the mess of cheese,” Sky explained between laughs, his tiny hands showing me the movements.

A grin ate at my face as I loved learning more about her and watching her interact with Sky. I wished Camilla, my sister, and I had a relationship like this. It was genuine and easy. I could tell they deeply loved each other despite the bickering.

Hazel returned holding two deep ice cream glasses full of biscuits, cream cheese and strawberries, and placed one in front of Sky. “For the record it was the recipe’s fault. It said to add gelatin in the middle and on the gelatin, it said add water so it became too liquidly like…”

“Like a soup,” her brother offered, diving into it. “It’s good, just…”

“If you say soup one more time,” she gave him a meaningful look, causing him to mimic zipping his mouth as he grinned.

A laughter burst out of me and I got a handful of her dirty looks too.

“It looks delicious, baby,” I complimented the cheese… cake.

“Want to try?” she offered me the other cup with a smirk. “Or are you sticking to the lava cake?”

She knew my distaste for milk and dark chocolate as she hated white chocolate. Hence, we never argued about who ate which dessert. As Hazel once remarked she always wanted to date a guy who didn’t eat her chocolate. Well, that was me. I checked all the boxes.

“Surprise me,” I leaned closer. Without missing a beat Hazel scooped up a bit of crushed biscuits, the white cheese and some half fallen apart strawberry jam or whatever that was and offered it to me. Opening my mouth, I allowed her to feed me like a baby, despite being on a family dinner. There was something intimate about us sharing this moment together, forgetting about everyone else. As if it was only her and I in this world.

Hazel maneuvered the spoon in my mouth and I closed my lips around it, tasting the amazing mixture of ingredients. The taste was perfect. The cheese was just sweet enough, the biscuits were melting in my mouth and the weird looking strawberries tasted like heaven.

“Mhm…” I muttered, swallowing the bite. “Delicious.”

She tilted her head, disbelief glimmering in her eyes. “Are you only saying it because you have to?”

“No,” I laughed. “It really tastes good. It doesn’t look too appealing, so don’t post it on Instagram, but the taste is 10/10. Right Sky?”

“Light,” he mumbled, mouth full. “I want more.”

With a grin I winked at her. “Can I take the rest?”

“Yes, and I’ll eat the lava cake,” she matched my grin and we both turned to our respective desserts.

This was us. Completely messed up and twisted. We did everything upside down, from eating desserts to dating. Yet it worked. And we were perfect.

By the time we cleaned up the table and I helped Hazel wash the dishes, the clock was hitting eight o’clock. Coach went to finish up some practice drills he was going to throw at us in the upcoming days, Elena was shouting at Sky to go to bed, and Hazel stood at the end of the staircase with an unreadable expression listening to her mother throwing out ultimatum after ultimatum.

“Hey baby.”

Stepping up behind her, I wrapped my arms around her shoulders. Her back pressed into my chest and we molded into one. My chest tightened as my heart pumped more blood. But all that blood went straight South into my little brain. It was a long day and all I wanted to do was wrap myself around her and fall asleep with her scent lingering around me.

“Hey,” she greeted me back quietly, tilting her head and looking up at me. Her arms snaked around my neck and hugged me closer. Twisting my arms from under her, I dropped them a bit further to hug her at her waist and smiled.

“Ready to go?”

Hazel’s lips pulled into a secretive little half smile, making me ache for those beautiful lips. “I didn’t even show you my room. But even without that you got pretty turned on…”

“Funny,” I narrowed my eyes at her. “As much as I’d love to see it, I'm not sure we should be left without parental supervision in your childhood home. You know, there are underage kids around us.”

She shook her head and turned in my embrace, facing me eye to eye, chest to chest. Our breathing synchronized and our heartbeat played the same rhythm. Everything fell into place. Until she opened her mouth.

“We need to talk. And I want to do it here so you can leave whenever you are done with the conversation I want to have.”

My heart stopped beating, my body went rigid and all air disappeared from my lungs. My own body gave up on me when I most needed it.

Mind racing, brows furrowed. I stared at her. Everything was going well, her parents, us… yes, we didn’t have sex, nor did I get to go down on her, but I could wait. Especially after experiencing several times how skilled her tongue was. I knew what I was getting into and I was all in. But clearly, I misread the signs and her. No wonder I gave her the Ice Queen nickname. I just seem to have forgotten about it all.

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