Page 116 of Friendshipped
“Yes! Just let me take this fowl dress off and I’ll meet you.”
“Sounds good.”
We hold hands as we walk to our porch. Lexi starts to pull away to go into her side of our home and I tug her toward me. I bend in and kiss her on the forehead.
She leans into me with a hug that feels like all the times she hugged me as my friend. But then her hands move along the planes of my abdomen and up my rib cage like she’s mapping my torso for future reference. She snakes one of her hands to my bicep and holds on to me as she brushes a kiss along my jaw. Her other hand fists my shirt as I move my mouth down and kiss her. She shivers and makes a soft moaning noise. I smile through our kiss.
“This dress,” Lexi mumbles against my lips. “Must be burned. I have to get out of it. It’s time to molt.”
I chuckle and reluctantly let her go. I watch as she unlocks her door and disappears inside. I walk through my home, set the boxes of cake down on my entry table, toss my suit jacket and tie on the back of a chair, shuck my shoes and socks, and walk through the laundry room to grab our blanket. Then I lay it in the backyard like I have so many nights before.
Only everything’s different now.
Those are still our stars. That’s still the same moon. But now, Lexi is mine and we have forever to experience nights like this together as a couple.
Lexi comes out wearing a pair of well-worn sweats and her old Hello Kitty shirt. Her hair is down around her shoulders. She still has the makeup from the wedding on her face, but otherwise, she’s the Lexi I grew up with, the one I’ve longed for, and the one who gave me her heart tonight.
Lexi comes to the blanket where I’m reclining on one elbow. She lies down next to me and faces me, moving close so her mouth is mere inches from mine.
She says, “I get to do this.”
“What?”
“Run my hands across your muscles. Kiss you. Hold you. Lie down with you under the stars with my head on your chest.” She pauses, looking at me for permission. “I do, right?”
I laugh. “I’m all yours.”
I lie back and spread my arms wide to emphasize my point. I belong to Lexi. She’s owned my heart for years. In some ways, she’s owned it our whole lives. Now she gets all of me.
“I feel like a kid in a candy shop,” she says with a giggle.
Her eyes are giddy, and I see the mischief in them, but then, even in the dusky light of nighttime, I can tell when her features shift, growing more serious as she leans over me. Her lips find mine and I pull her toward me.
We lie together kissing under our stars—this woman who is my universe. After a bit, we come up for air, her hair wild and my lips humming.
She peers at me through the darkness and says, “Do you know what would make this night perfect?”
“It already is,” I say in a husky voice I barely recognize.
“True.”
She burrows into me, snuggling tight along my side and tucking her head under my chin. She fits against me in a way I’ve only dared to dream she’d do. But now she’s cuddling me as if we’ve always held one another and freely touched to express the magnitude of our feelings for each other.
“What would make this night perfect?” I ask, taking her bait.
“Cake!”
I chuckle as I roll Lexi over onto her back and hover over her. I search her face, and even through the twilight I can see the glimmer in her eyes and the smile overtaking her features.
I lower my head, so my mouth brushes Lexi’s ear and whisper, “Okay, Lex. Let’s make this night perfect.”
Epilogue
Lexi
“Come on! You’re going to make us late,” Laura shouts up to me from my doorway.
Her arms are crossed and she’s staring up my staircase, her face neutral, and her lips drawn in a tight line as I barrel down the steps to meet her in my living room.
