Page 101 of One More Time
‘Right this way,’ Jacob said, taking off down the hall.
She followed Jacob, the suited giant, and his muscles.
By the time Jacob stopped at a door, Lucy was overcome by a sensation that was alarmingly similar to the one and only time she’d done ’shrooms in college. She felt woozy and like her bones were made of jelly.
Jacob knocked on the door before Lucy could stop him. To collect herself. To take a breath.
Lucy heard the lock click open and half expected to see another brawny bodyguard. Instead, it was Nicky.
Shock was the only thing she could read from his expression. Shock and maybe a little confusion. He was scruffy, like he hadn’t shaved in a couple of days. The black T-shirt she’d worn in Vegas hung off his strong shoulders and highlighted the brash color of his tattooed arms.
Nicky nodded to the men behind her.
Jacob and the giant shuffled off.
Lucy dropped the handle of her suitcase and rubbed her hands roughly on her pants.
She blurted, ‘I fucked up.’Notthe words she had rehearsed in her head over the Atlantic. Still, she held his gaze, willing him to understand.
Nicky opened the door completely, stood aside to let her pass. Lucy was briefly spellbound by the amber and lavender show of sunset over the Mediterranean through the suite’s windows, then by Nicky who was rolling her suitcase into the room and shutting the door.
Lucy tried, ‘I was scared. I was closed off. I was … I was pot committed. Do you know what that means?’
Nicky nodded.
‘My career is the only thing I’ve ever really invested in, I think. Other than Chloe. A lifeline. A crutch, maybe? Safe and steady. Being on campus, with its permanence and its rules. The seasons and semesters. It was where I was happiest.Was. Past tense. Because now, I know I am happiest when I’m with you. That I will be the happiest I have ever been withyou. Wherever that is.’
Nicky stepped closer, further into the room, but remained terrifyingly silent. He leaned his back against the white-paneled walls of the living area and looked at his feet.
She blubbered, ‘I was scared. I was stuck. I think …’ Lucy was floundering. Lost. ‘I think that night at the beach was pivotal for me, too. But instead of making me free, it might have … it might have made me careful. Too careful. I’m not saying it’s your fault. I’m only saying, I couldn’t leap. I trained myself not to.’
Nicky was still studying the carpet. She was screwing this up.
‘I quit my job,’ she said.
At that, Nicky looked up.
She pressed on, ‘I set a match to nearly every professional bridge I’ve ever built.’ She chewed at her lip, racking her brain for any scrap of evidence that might keep him looking at her. ‘I, um, got a real estate agent. She’s putting my house on the market on Monday. I sold my car. For one dollar to the grad students that live next door to me. They’re from Cameroon. They have a baby named Marthe who still has that delicious new baby smell.’
What the fuck was she saying? Why didn’t she know what the fuck to say? She had been giving lectures for most of her adult life. She knew how to speak!Where is that Badass Bitch when I need her?
She went on, ‘I emptied my cupboards and returned my cable boxes. I flew here on a one-way ticket. No return.’ Lucy thought her heart was going to crack open. She pressed her fingers to her tired eyes and felt two-day-old mascara crumbling beneath them.
Lucy said, ‘I love you, Nicky.’ She stared into those loden green eyes of his and repeated, ‘I love you in a way that is terrifying and shocking and like nothing I’ve ever felt before.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I’m leaping now. Upside down and backwards probably, judging by the look on your face. But I’m doing it. I came here because I love you and I don’t want to spend thenexttwenty-eight years regretting you. If you … if you still want me.’
Nicky took three great strides toward her. He wrapped his arms under hers and around her back, lifting her feet from the ground. When his mouth came to hers, Lucy finally exhaled. He breathed her in and swallowed her down, kissing her so hard that her body went limp under the weight of her relief and gratitude.
His grip around her tightened. ‘I’ve got you, Lou,’ he said. ‘I love you. I’ve got you.’
He steadied his gaze on hers. ‘Now we’re even, okay? I disappeared once. You disappeared once. Even. But that’s it. Next time you feel like running, you talk to me.’
‘I won’t run,’ Lucy insisted.
‘It might not be that simple. I hope it is, but just promise me that we can do this together.’
‘I promise.’
Nicky lifted Lucy up and carried her into a nearby bedroom. He placed her gently on the crisp white linens and began undressing her. First her shoes. Then her socks. The rumpled cardigan she’d put on in Ohio.
