When that thought sprang up, I didn’t try to argue with it.
I was sure my mother had thought the same thing about my stepfather, and I might be walking into the same trap.
But even after all I’d seen, Nico was the only person who’d ever made me think I might be able to trust him. I wasn’t sure if I did yet, but the possibility was there.
And I would miss him when I was gone.
“Be good, Champ,” I said.
The dog barked, and I closed the sliding glass door, the need to see Nico overwhelming me.
He was in the back, the place I presumed was his office, and I went to it, not allowing myself to slow down enough to think.
I didn’t even knock on the door, and found him standing over his desk, a notebook on the top, two pieces of paper in either hand.
He put the papers down quickly and closed the notebook.
“What is it?” he asked.
I didn’t answer. Instead I took two steps forward, and he moved toward me and met me in the middle of the floor.
I stared into his dark eyes, searching, looking for something.
Except I didn’t know what.
I just knew that meeting Nico had changed me and changed my life.
That leaving him would change me again.
I moved on instinct, reaching out to run my fingers against his strong jaw.
It shook under my touch, and he stared at me, confused.
I wasn’t.
I didn’t know what would happen tomorrow, didn’t know what I felt about what had happened in the days before, but knew that in this moment, Nico and me, together, was all that mattered.
I stretched up tall and kissed him with everything I had.
Then settled on my feet, my eyes locked with his.
“Nico, make love to me please,” I whispered.
It felt so freeing, and also scary to say those words, but when he looked back at me, his eyes bright, I knew that they were right.
Nico didn’t say anything. He just led me to his room, to his bed, and when he entered me, I knew I’d found my home.
TWENTY-TWO
Nico
“I have never seena waffle with any of that on it,” I said to Hope as we left the restaurant one afternoon.
I’d clearly hit on something with waffles; she loved them, and we’d become regulars here.
“That’s because you’ve never lived,” she said, a smile playing on her lips.
“If bacon, apples, and caramel drizzle is life…” I said, looking at her skeptically.