Page 60 of Life

“In more ways than one,” he remarks flatly.

I take another bite, chew, and then wash it away with a long drink of water. “There’s good and evil to all things. Yin and yang. My friend Bree taught me that.”

“Bree’s the one you were talking to on the phone earlier?”

I nod. “Yeah, she’s with Phil, my friend you met last night. Hugely pregnant andmuy mal humorabout it. Grumpy,” I add, even though he seems to understand everything I say in Spanish.

“You were on the phone with her a long time. Before that, in the shower… Uh, I heard you crying in there. It took everything in me to give you the space you needed.” His nostrils flare, and he looks down.

My shoulders fall as if they have a mind of their own. “This situation.” I gesture between the two of us. “It’s strange. I mean, I was just in a relationship with your brother.”

“True. And?” He encourages me to continue talking. Apparently he wants to hash this out now.

I take a quick breath and find the energy within me to let it out. Eli covers my hand with his, a comforting gesture that instantly fills me with strength and a sense of love and compassion.

“You can always be honest with me. As a matter of fact, I demand it. No lies or half-truths between us.”

I swallow and nod. “Last night was beyond amazing,fantástico, better than I would have thought possible. I was open and free with you in a way I didn’t know I could be with a man. It was…”

“Refreshing, mind-bending, erotic, and addicting.”

“Si, all of that.” I smile. “But…”

“But you’re worried about what people will think?” His tone is low, his gaze filled with understanding.

I shrug. “Sometimes it’s that. Other times, it’s Tommy.”

“Tommy’s dead,” Eli says with finality.

Tears prick against my eyes. “Yes, but he was the man I was going to be with, maybe forever,” I whisper.

Eli shakes his head. “No. I can’t believe that. Not after what we had last night, this morning.”

“That’s physical. Just sex.”

His eyes narrow into burning points of anger. “Don’t lie to me. You felt the shift between us. What we have together between the sheets and out is far more than just sex.” He stands up, crumbles his plate in half, and tosses it in the garbage can near us.

“Eli, please don’t be mad. I’m trying to be honest.” I set my unfinished meal to the side and look out over the beach and ocean beyond. The waves crash in angry slaps against the sand, mimicking the raging storm brewing in my head.

My side warms as he sits next to me on the bench, facing the opposite direction so we’re facing each other. I close my eyes, relishing his presence—his real-life presence. One of his hands curls around the nape of my neck. He grips the roots of my hair and turns my head to face him.

“I’ll never be mad when you’re honest with me. Frustrated, irritated, uncertain, yeah. But never angry. You are entitled to how you feel, but Spicy, it’s my job to obliterate those feelings and show you reality.”

“Which is?” I’m no longer sure what’s up and down.

“Thomas was never going to be your forever, babe. At some point down the road, we would have met and the sparks would fly. No matter when in time I laid my eyes on this face, this body, heard you speak to me with your sharp tongue and your cute bursts of Spanish mixed in with English, would I have ever not moved heaven and earth to make you mine?”

My heart beats hard in my chest, and the truth in his green eyes makes my stomach flutter. The need to kiss him and seal this moment is all-consuming. From the tips of my tingling fingers to the prick of pain at the roots of my hair where he hasn’t let me go, I’m connected to this man.

“Babe, it was only a matter of time before our souls met, and that would be it.”

“It?” I whisper, moving my head closer to his, licking my lips, preparing for his kiss.

“Life.”

I close my eyes and rub my lips against his. He returns my soft kiss with one of his own. “And why life?” I ask against the moisture of his beautiful mouth.

“Because if we’re not together, we’re not truly living. We’re just going through the motions.”

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