Page 70 of Fall I Want
Zane
Islide the black T-shirt over my body and wait for Autumn to recompose herself and join me in the bedroom. Eventually, she emerges, and it’s cute seeing those clothes on her. I haven’t seen them since the last time I was here, and there is no way they’d ever fit me again.
The rain still falls heavily outside, and she stands beside me.
“Can we go out there?” she asks.
“Sure,” I tell her, sliding the balcony door open. The cool breeze whips around us.
“Do you still snowboard?”
“Occasionally, but never in the same capacity as I did. It’s why I split my time between New York and Washington. I might trade the last one for Cozy Hollow.” I turn to her and there is fire in her eyes. “Please don’t look at me like that.”
“Okay,” she says, staring out into the darkness. “I won’t. But I think you might be my new hobby. Are you sure you still want to be my friend?”
“I’m following this road that we’re traveling down all the way to the end,” I tell her, hoping she understands exactly what I mean.
A shiver rushes over her and I realize how cold it is. It has to be in the forties. “We can go back inside.”
She leads the way, smelling so damn sweet. “That’s where the magic happens?”
“It’s where dreams turn into reality,” I counter with a wink.
Her cheeks heat and she hiccups again. “Hardy har har with the Mr. Dreamy references. I could’ve predicted your comforter was black. Let me guess, the sheets are red?”
I narrow my eyes at her, walking to the edge of the bed and turning them down. “How’d you know that?”
“Because I’ve been here before with you,” she whispers. “In a dream.”
I cross my arms over my chest as I try to find words. “And what happened?”
She shakes her head. “Let’s just say everyone was completely satisfied in the end.”
Fuck. When Autumn walks past me toward the door, I adjust myself, wishing she would stop looking at me like that. If she only knew she was in control of this entire situation, and where this goes between us. But considering we’re both broken in some sort of way, I’m not sure either of us is ready. Or maybe we could fill the cracks of our hearts with the sunshine the other brings.
There’s too much push and pull. When we take the stairs, my stomach growls. Autumn grabs onto the railing, but I hold my arm around her, steadying her. Once we’re in the kitchen, I open the freezer that was recently stocked full. “Hungry? Want some pizza?”
“God yes,” she says, as I grab a baking stone, turning on the oven. I grab the packages of pepperoni and cheese from the fridge and add extra on top of the frozen pizza.
“I do the same. They never put enough on them,” she tells me, snagging a pepperoni.
“What type of books do you write?”
With a grin, she sprinkles shreds of cheese into her mouth. “I don’t.”
“Oh, come on.”
“Romance, but lately my specialty has been haikus. All love themed. Julie tricked me into doing it, and it’s gotten easier, but she’s also been pushing me to write about Mr. Dreamy.”
My brows rise. “Now, that’s a book I want to read.”
“Pfft,” she says.
“What if I paid you to write it?” I ask.
Her lips part. “You’re not serious.”
I laugh. “I’m dead fucking serious. Think of it as an advance. That’s all a publisher would give you, right?”
