Page 53 of Stoker's Serenity

He laughed a little and nodded. “Uh, yeah.”

“I met so many people, and I don’t usually people so hard, so I sort of lost track. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s cool, you were kind of having a day, it looked like.”

“Something like that,” she murmured, blushing furiously.

“It’s okay,” I soothed as Rory popped out my kitchen door, skipping down the steps into my garage.

“Hey, she made it!”

“I certainly did,” she said, laughing.

“Alright, break time is almost up,” I said. “Let me get Serenity set in the kitchen and I’ll be back out.”

“Take your time,” Rory said with a wink, and shot Gideon a teasing look.

I ushered Serenity into the house past Rory, and her shoulders eased slightly as soon as the garage door shut behind us.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. There’s always a certain amount of tension meeting new people. It’s me, not your friends, I promise you.”

I set her overnight bag on the floor and the grocery bag on the crappy seventies dining room table and took her hand, reeling her in against my body.

“You do your thing, Orchid. I’ll get through band practice and we’ll have a low-key rest of the night, if you’d like.”

“Sounds good,” she said softly.

“Thought you might like that,” I murmured, and closed the gap between our lips. I kissed her softly, and it was everything I’d been craving since I’d had to leave her on Tuesday morning.

“I missed you,” she murmured, and her voice was uncertain as to how the confession would be received.

“I missed you too, baby.”

“You better get back out there,” she whispered. “I wouldn’t want to keep them waiting.”

“Naw, Gideon’s being an asshole,” I told her. “He can totally wait.”

“God, just the thought of inconveniencing another person in the slightest gives me such a screaming case of anxiety, I don’t know how you do it.”

I laughed softly and told her the truth, “I can be an asshole, too. Two can play at that game.”

“Ah,” she made a sound of understanding, and I pecked another kiss on her lips before stepping back.

“Make yourself at home.”

“I will,” she promised, and I went back out into the garage.

I was just so stoked to have her here. God, I’d missed her, and now I had her for the entire weekend.

Fuck, yeah.

17

Serenity…

I let out a breath nice and slow and braced for the onslaught of sound from the garage. I wasn’t disappointed. It was loud. At the same time, the vibration of it was some kind of soothing. I got into my purse at my hip, and I pulled the headphones out of the little pocket I kept them in and plugged them into my phone.

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