Page 50 of Too Close To Call

She pops one hip and grins. “So, what did you bring me?”

I laugh and throw my legs over the side of the bed. “Chicken parm.”

She pumps her good fist in the air. “Yes! My favorite.”

I follow her to the closet, pausing long enough for a kiss, and then pull on a clean pair of sweats and a t-shirt. “Come on. You can watch me reheat your food.”

“NowthatI can do,” she says as she awkwardly twists her hair up on top of her head with only three good fingers on one hand and secures it with an elastic from her wrist.

As her food heats in the oven, I grab some bread and make a quick butter and garlic rub and pop it in the air fryer for a few minutes. I also pull together a simple salad of lettuce, tomatoes, olives, and pepperoncini.

When the oven timer dings, I plate the dish and set it in front of her, along with the salad, toast, and a glass of wine.

She closes her eyes and inhales. “Wow. This smells incredible.”

The look of pleasure that washes over her face makes my cock twitch, but I ignore him. Over the next hour, I enjoy talking about our day, Daisy and her antics during her vacation, and when Tori’s finished, we clean up the kitchen together and decide to take our drinks outside to the deck.

“I met a strange little girl today on the beach,” Tori says

“Really? There’s usually nobody on the beach here since it’s private. What did she want?”

“She wanted to play with Daisy, but then she told me these horribly frightening stories about the beach being haunted.”

I take a sip from the cold beer in my hand. “That’s weird. What’s her name? She must have been a tourist.”

“That’s what I thought, but she wasn’t with anyone. Frankly, she disappeared so quickly I doubted the whole thing happened.”

I’ve never seen anyone on this stretch of beach that wasn’t family or had a reason to be here. Our private beach is far enough away from the public beaches that we never get accidental visitors.

“Did you enjoy your lunch with the girls?”

Tori snickers and raises the wine glass to her lips. “I did, but you didn’t have to call in the cavalry. I would have been fine by myself.”

I hated having to leave her. “I know you would have, but you had fun with them, didn’t you?”

“They’re great. I could see us being good friends. They want to get together again before… I leave.”

I take a drink of my beer, ignoring the mention of her leaving. It’s going to happen and I can’t let it matter. “Hmm, that would be nice. Maybe we can have them all over for a going-away party. Will you be leaving on Friday or Saturday?”

I think I’m doing good being casual about her imminent departure until she doesn’t answer. I glance over and see tears pooling in her eyes. She blinks and smiles, but not without a trembling lower lip. “Yes. I’ll leave on Saturday. Ryan is bringing Daisy to my house around three that afternoon.”

I take her hand and link my fingers through hers as the awkward silence between us thickens. I know what she says she wants, but I’m not sure I can give it to her. Do I even want to take that risk?

“Do me a favor?” she asks.

“Sure.” My voice is higher than normal, both curious and terrified of what she might ask me for.

She reaches up and touches my cheek with her fingers. “For the rest of my stay, can we leave everything in the past and simply be Case and Tori?”

I’m not sure that’s possible, but I know what she’s asking. “Do you mean like we used to be?”

She nods. “It was never this hard for us being with each other before. I don’t expect anything you aren’t willing to give, but can we remember just the good times and live in the moment?”

Our eyes meet and we’re both remembering those happy years. Before the wreck and everything around us blew up. Five days of heaven with Tori. I touch her cheek and she closes her eyes.

“Okay. I can do that, I whisper.”

Since I’m holding her good hand, I pull until she’s sitting in my lap. I never used to allow her to sit anywhere else. She tosses her head back and laughs.

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