Page 38 of The Next Of Us
The buzzing drowned out the sound of his approach until he stood in the doorway of our bedroom.“Did you order something for $632.00?”
Looking up, credit card statement in hand, he promptly burst out laughing.“What on earth are you doing now?”
I sat with my back braced against our headboard, knees pressed to the side, make-up mirror propped between my toes.
I held my new at-home laser hair removal device in the air for his perusal.“Everybody’s doing it, and I’m a jungle!I haven’t been for a wax in way too long, and I’m sick of shaving.I’m surprised you can even find it!”
His brow furrowed as he walked closer.“You’ve got quite the set-up.”
I snorted.“Well, I can’t see past all the curves you claim to love so much.”
“I do love them,” he murmured, eyes warm on my face.“Want me to help you?Although,” his eyes dropped to my lady bits, “there doesn’t appear to be anything to take off.”
“You have to shave it all off before using the laser.”
He dragged his eyes away from my sex and grinned up at me.“It’s pretty.”
“Pretty,” I snorted.“It looks like it’s been stretched on the rack, drowned, and hung out to dry.”
He laughed.“Like beef jerky.But sweeter.”
I shook my head, my smile as wide as my splayed legs.There was no dignity left.“You’re incorrigible.”
“You love me.”
“I do,” I replied earnestly, making sure he heard me.I got that he was going through something, but I still didn’t understand how it had such a huge effect on him.Especially when a simple conversation cleared things up.“I really do.”
He held out his hand for the device.“Lie back.Tell me what to do.”
As weird as this new stage of life was, I couldn’t deny having him help was infinitely easier.And his sweetness turned my heart to mush.
“Nadine…this doesn’t hurt, does it?I don’t want to hurt you.”
“No.It’s good.Best one on the market.”
Winking at me, he replied, “Hence the $632.00.”
I rolled my eyes.“Get back to work.”
“You’ve got a longer one here you missed,” he murmured.“Do I shave it first?”
“I missed one?”
“Well, I see a couple that have grown back.”
“Let me see.”I lifted my head off the pillow and bent myself into a pretzel trying to see past my boobs and my stomach.“Oh my God,” I spat.“I’m too late.They’re gray.Laser won’t remove the gray ones, Aaron!”
“So what?I like them.”
I narrowed my eyes.“No.You don’t,” I snapped.
“I do!”He protested, laughing.“It’s celebratory.Like tinsel.”Turning off the laser, he tossed the device down on the bed beside me and moved to his knees between my thighs.With his hands braced against the mattress on either side of my head, he hovered over me and smiled into my eyes.
I snorted in disbelief but couldn’t stop myself from smiling back.This man had made me smile thousands upon thousands of times over the decades we’d loved each other.
It hit me like a Mack truck.For years, he’d been my rock.Then he had six bad months, and I threatened him with a separation.
I closed my eyes against the painful truth.
