Page 140 of Mother Parker
I kissed him again, and he kissed me back. We stayed there, locked in each other’s lips for minutes—or was it hours—before we let go again.
This was exactly the kind of feeling I’d been chasing all my life, and I’d finally caught it. Why would I ever let it go?
This kind of positive codependence, this intoxicating addiction to another, this harmony between loving and being loved that I’d craved for so long.
“Do you think Enzo heard all that?” he asked, referring to his new employee, a pretty young man, who was a jokester through and through. He’d already learned the ropes and could manage the shop in our absence.
Not that we could be absent for long when the shop was busier than ever. Especially with Christmas and all the festivals going on around the island.
“I’d be surprised if the entire island didn’t hear us,” I told him.
His cheeks turned red, and he hid his face in his hands.
I watched him as if I could pretend I had a choice in the matter. My gaze naturally gravitated toward him, whether I liked it or not.
But I didn’t care. I could watch him forever.
“How…how do you feel about marriage?” I asked.
Normally I’d be afraid to ask it. I was before, but I wasn’t in that moment, with him trapped in my arms.
“That better not be how you’re proposing to me, Mr. Dorothy,” he said.
“Of course not. I just want to know how you feel about it.”
“I’d love to get married. One day. But we’ve been through a helluva a lot already. Maybe let’s take the rest of this nice and easy.”
I squeezed him against me and inhaled the scent of his hair, the smell of sex in the air.
“Nice and easy sounds good to me. As long as you’re not going anywhere.”
“I’m not. Are you?”
I shook my head. “I’m staying right here until you get sick of me.”
“Not possible.” He smiled.
I looked around us, the bright-blue sky through the skylight, and bit my lip.
“So am I staying here? Do you want me to move out?”
Now that Rat Man and the rest were in prison awaiting trial, there was no reason for me to be here. I didn’t need to protect him from anyone.
But I didn’t want to go.
I knew it was stupid. We’d literally just gotten together, and moving in with a guy just a few weeks in was crazy even if we were in love, but I couldn’t picture waking up without him. I didn’t want to.
“I like you here with me. Unless you want to go,” he said.
I cupped his face and let out a huff.
“Never gonna happen,” I told him.
He was it for me. I knew it with every fiber of my body.
So if he wanted me here, I wasn’t going anywhere.
EPILOGUE
