Page 91 of Burn for You

She nods as much as she can while I’ve still got hold of herhead.I know she knows what I mean, even though neither of us has spoken about it out loud.

“Good.” I pull her face to mine. It takes her a second to comprehend what’s happening, but it doesn’t take long for her mouth to open to me. I kiss her slow, our tongues gently exploring as I tangle my hands in her hair. It’s different this time. It’s not frantic and needy. It’s comforting and soft, it’s exploratory and affectionate. It’s me sealing the promises I just spoke, and it’s her accepting them.

She pulls back to look at me, and I hope my eyes convey everything that I feel in this moment, everything that I feel in every moment with her.

I trail my finger down the bridge of her nose. It must tickle because she scrunches her little nose up. I chuckle, dropping my hand to rest on the top of her thigh.

She raises her own and lets her fingers trace over the lines of my face. “I hope that one day I can, too.”

“You’re only twenty-five. It’s okay if you don’t have it all sorted out yet.”

She closes her eyes. “Sometimes it feels like the walls are caving in. Like the pressure is too much.”

I frown. “The pressure from who?”

“The world. I don’t know. I mean, our best friends are getting married, and what are we doing? I have no idea what I want in life, if I want to be a bartender forever, or if I want to be an accountant, or a potter.”

“A potter?”

She shakes her head and opens her eyes. “I don’t know. That’s the thing, I don’t know anything. Maybe I should get a cat to keep me company. But I don’t know the first thing about how to look after a cat. Like should you really let them outside, or should you keep them inside and just have one of those cat jungles around your house?”

A small smile creeps up my face as she rambles. I can’t help it.She’s adorable. Her eyes meet mine, and that’s when I notice the shine in them.

“I don’t know if I want to be alone forever.”

“Oh, baby.” I pull her back into me, and she melts into my arms, letting my body take some of the weight from her.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt the way I do when I have May wrapped up in my arms. Feeling like the entire world could be crashing down around us, but it wouldn’t even matter. I don’t know if I would even notice, not with all of my attention on the precious girl whose breathing has slowed against my chest.

I never had a chance at pretending these feelings away, and that might be to my detriment, because in this moment, I realize that she has the power to break my heart.

chapter thirty-three

MAY

I pourmyself a generous glass of pinot gris as I wait for the bath to fill up. I dumped an outrageous amount of bubble bath into the water, so I’m half expecting the room to be overrun by some form of a bubble monster by the time I get back.

I swipe my book off the coffee table and make my way back to the bathroom, and when I step inside, it’s like heaven. Baths are so underrated.

I’ve got the room lit by candlelight, the bubble bath has enveloped the room in the smell of pomegranate and something floral, and the steam floating off the surface of the water means it’s the perfect temperature. Hot enough to scald all the dead skin cells off my body without boiling me alive.

I slip my robe off and poke a toe under the surface.

“Shit!” I hiss.

My toes are always the worst.Just do it, May. Don’t be a wimp. Just sit your ass in the tub and you’ll be fine.

I dunk my whole body in the water. “Ooh!” I make a cacophony of stupid noises as my body gets used to the heat of the water.

“Ahh,” I sigh as I finally settle. Finally, some peace and quiet. I feel like I’ve been running a rat race lately, and I can’t even keeptrack of my emotions. I just need some time for myself to get my head straight. Forget about everything else but the warm water around me, and my current read.

I reach over the edge of the tub and pick up my book. Flipping it to where my bookmark sits and settling into a comfy position.

I’ve got to be less than 20 words in when my phone starts to ring. Who could be calling me right now? No one calls me.

I sigh and reach over to flip my phone over to see that my mom is Face Timing me.

Huh. I haven’t heard from her in months. I swipe to answer.

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