Page 37 of Heart Strings
“I’ve been a real bitch lately,” she says, regret in her voice.
I stay quiet, waiting for her to continue.
She huffs playfully. “Don’t rush to argue with me, now.”
“There’s no use fighting someone who’s always right.”
She splashes me and I yelp when the cold water hits my face. “Gah! You witch!”
Lo grins widely. My cheeks hurt from doing the same. God, I love her sense of humor.
“Come here,” I say, pulling her closer. Her arm is freezing under my hand. I should get her out of this water soon. “I was just waiting for you to go on, you know. Why do you say that about yourself?”
“Because I’ve been treating you like crap. Aidan, I’m sorry.”
Our foreheads press together. Lo is close enough to kiss. All I have to do is give in to the gravitational pull between us.
I lower my voice. “This hasn’t been easy for me, either. I’m afraid I don’t know how to talk to you anymore and I never know if I’m making it worse between us.”
“You’re not.”
Earlier today, in this very creek, she’d said it was a bad idea for us to kiss. But I want to soothe away every worry in her heart. Warm her in my arms.
“Remember what I said about your name when we met?” I ask.
The memory softens her features. “ ‘Oh, Cielo? That means “heaven” in Spanish, right?’ ” she says in a horrible mimic of my accent. Not that I can do an American one well.
“Then you told me that you’re actually a hellacious bitch.”
“Figured it was only fair to warn you. The name really doesn’t suit me.”
“Yes, it does.” She’s radiant and untouchable. She is heavenly to me. “I’ve missed you,” I admit, cupping her jaw.
Our mouths are so close I can sense the warmth. Cielo’sabsence has been like a phantom limb. When I got terribly lost while visiting Brussels or wanted feedback on lyrics in progress…my instinct was to call Lo. “But it feels inadequate to say. It’s not enough.”
Her eyes lock onto mine. “I missed you, too.”
She needs to know that I want to rekindle what we once had. She needs to hear that I’m sorry.
“Lo, I have to tell you—”
Something catches her attention. “Hang on, you’ve got a leaf on your neck.” Lo reaches to brush it off then recoils in horror. “Oh, hell no.”
“What?” On its own accord, my hand rises to touch whatever it is, because I can’t feel anything.
“Don’t!”
“You’re freaking me out. What is on me?”
Something sends her into a full-body gag, and she flails her arms like she’s trying to shake something off.
“It’s a fecking leech, isn’t it?”
“I know I have to be detached about things like this on the job, but right now my skin is crawling.” It’s not often you get to see something rattle Lo, but she doesn’t deal with anything that creeps or slithers.
“Okay. I can handle this,” she says, pulling herself together. “We need to break the suction first. If you just rip it off, the mouth pieces could get stuck in the wound and cause an infection.”
The thought of pieces of leech being caught in my neck makes me go green. “Go on, then.”
