Page 41 of The One Who Got Away
I snickered and followed her up the stairs. When she shot a smile over her shoulder, I felt the zing right down to the soles of my feet.
Life with this woman would never be boring.
And when she pulled me inside her room, my breath caught. There were printed drawings tacked up all around her computer. She wrapped herself around my arm. “Look familiar?”
I frowned. “Is that Indigo Valley?”
“Kinda.” She pulled out her phone and showed me the picture I sent her recently. “Inspired me to draw the opening sequence for my game. You’re always inspiring me.”
“I love you and that amazing brain.” I leaned in to look at all the drawings. “These are amazing.”
Her smile was so brilliant my chest hurt. “Remind me of that when I hate the game in the messy middle.”
“I can do that.”
“And now...” she pulled me away from her desk to the frilly bed. “I would like to introduce you to my lemon chiffon bed.”
I laughed. “It is...frothy.”
“We are going to send this comforter into the great beyond, but first...” She flipped it back and pushed me onto her bed. “First, I’m going to make love to the man I fantasized about in this very bed.”
“Is that right?”
She knelt on the mattress and swung a leg over me. “Yes. No boy--or man--has ever been up here.”
“So, I get to be first?” I stroked up her hip and under her sweater.
“First and last, buddy.”
“I like the sound of that.” I rose up to meet her lips.
And when her warm mouth met mine, I knew there would be no more roaming.
She was my home.
Period.
Epilogue
Eloise
Nerves fizzedunder my skin as I got out of the car. The driveway and street were a maze of cars, trucks, and even a motorcycle. It was Sunday dinner at the Murdocks.
My first official one.
Never one to come empty handed, I grabbed my cooler. I’d texted Gus to meet me outside.
Where the heck was he?
“You can do this,” I whispered. “It’s no big deal. You know all of them. Piece of cake.” Or in this case, a piece of chocolate mousse pie.
The door opened and instead of Gus, Joe Murdock stood on the porch with his imposing shoulders and weathered face. Was that a bit of foreshadowing to what I had to look forward to?
Gus was a bit shorter than the other men in his family, but he definitely had the same bone structure of his dad.
“Hi, Mr. Murdock.”
He came down the stairs in his easy, loose-limbed way. He took the cooler from me. “No need for formalities, Little E.”
