Page 43 of Last Chance Love

“Why bring that up?” I asked curiously.

“Eh, I guess all this catching up has got me thinking. And that trip came up,” he said with a shrug. “C’mon, let’s work.”

“Yeah,” I said, and if he noticed my lack of enthusiasm, he probably attributed it to the labor ahead of us. Instead, he had inadvertently dragged up the memory of the last trip the two of us had ever had, a week before I’d left for college. A week that had been so sweet, fiery, and bitter all at the same time. It was a week that stuck with me for years, and even now, I remembered it.

Our last real goodbye.

* * *

The moonlight wasa soft streak of silver across the room, a breeze flapping the thin curtains gently. Laying on the plush bed, my body tangled with his, I stared out of the large glass doors to stare up at what few stars I could see.

“C’mon,” he mumbled, his voice soft, startling me.

“I thought you were asleep,” I admitted, peering down at him. From the hazy look in his eyes, he had been asleep, but he was smiling softly.

“I was, but someone’s thinking woke me up for some reason,” he said, bowing his head to kiss me on the chest. “And then I realized we’ve spent enough time in here all night. I’d kind of like to spend some time outside.”

That made sense. I’d been feeling the same thing. Sitting outside was one of those things we had always done together, where we felt the most comfortable. I couldn’t count the hours over the past few years we’d spent on the back deck of my parents’ house, trying to see what stars were strong enough to make it through the light pollution.

“C’mon,” he repeated, pulling himself out of bed. My eyes lingered on his naked body, feeling a faint tingle of desire inside me. This was our last night together. I would be leaving Austin tomorrow, and our ability to travel to see one another would be…limited. We had taken this last chance to express how much we’d miss one another in the most literal and direct way possible, but even that wasn’t enough to dissolve my desire for him.

If I mentioned it to someone older, they would wave me off, “You’re only eighteen. Of course you’re always horny.” But that was the thing. I wasn’t always horny except around him. I’d known I was into guys from about ten and had the occasional spark of attraction.

All of them failed compared to him, and part of me hoped and was terrified that it would always be that way.

But we had done enough tonight, and the spark was easy to quench as I rose from the bed to follow him outside, taking the blanket with us. I’d rented the house for a week so we could know what it was like to have time away from everyone else, just the two of us. His brothers were staying at a friend’s house, with the parents being paid from Leon’s funds because, of course, he had insisted on that.

This house, though? The trip and all the food and things we did? That was all me. It was my way of finally being able to spoil him the way I’d always wanted, but it was only at our goodbye that he relented to it. I had tried not to go overboard and failed miserably, but we had enjoyed ourselves.

Thankfully, the house wasn’t too big, but it was comfortable, and Leon shook his head when he’d seen the inside. I knew him well enough to know he probably thought it was well beyond anything he could have afforded. That was probably true, but I hadn’t cared. It was comfortable and isolated, and we had it all to ourselves.

Which was why we could step outside onto the back porch without fear of being spotted. The nearest neighbors were the house's owners, who were a couple of miles away. A lovely couple who didn’t ask questions, though the husband had winked when he’d told me I had good taste in places to take my girlfriend.

We dropped onto the outdoor couch and immediately sought one another out to curl around. His body was scorching hot still, but I didn’t care. The night was cool enough that I could wrap us in the blanket, and we could enjoy the stars.

I didn’t know how long we sat there, looking up at a sky you could never see near the city. We had both been in awe of it the first night, and it seemed the magic still hadn’t worn off. We watched the stars flicker and twinkle overhead, and I smiled when I saw a streak of light pass overhead before disappearing out of sight.

“Make a wish,” Leon said, his voice lightly tinged with sarcasm.

“Pessimist,” I said with a little laugh.

“Realist.”

“Same thing.”

I leaned into him, and he wrapped his arms around my shoulders and squeezed. It was a little tight, making my bones feel like they were almost grinding together. Yet I welcomed the feeling, just like I welcomed the dull ache in my arms, or my ass for that matter. They were reminders of him, of the time we had spent together, and now that I was looking down the barrel, I wanted to hold onto all the things that would remind me of him for as long as possible.

“I’m sorry,” I finally said, speaking the two words I had been meaning to speak from the moment I’d told him I was going to school. The look on his face hadn’t been surprise. I suppose he’d always known I wouldn’t stick around, and I had talked about becoming a doctor since I was twelve. No, the look on his face had been resignation, happiness, and almost completely hidden pain.

“Don’t be,” he said, not bothering with the song and dance of asking what I meant. But that made sense, our time together was running out quickly, and there was no point in wasting it on word games.

“I am.”

“Well, then, so am I?”

“Why?”

“Because I can’t follow you.”

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