Page 28 of The 7 Rules of Moving On
“I’m having the most intense déjà vu.” Snapping out of whatever daze he’d been in, he asked, “Have I told you how beautiful you are?”
Her skin tingled, but her heart was too heavy to feel it. “I don’t feel beautiful. I feel sad and lost and…old. I feel really, really old.”
“If you’re old, I’m ancient. What are you? Twenty-five?”
“Nine. I’m twenty-nine.”
He pulled a face. “Twenty-nine? Gross.”
When he swam away from her, she couldn’t help but laugh. She also couldn’t help but jump after him, grabbing his shoulder and spinning him back around.
They wound up in each other’s space, both smiling. She let her hands stay on his shoulders.
“How old are you?” she asked.
“Thirty-three.”
Looking up at the lights again, she blinked away the tiny drops of water that had collected on her lashes.
“I’m sorry you didn’t get what you wanted tonight,” he told her. “I’m sorry you lost your job and your man, but it’s going to be okay. I know things seem super shitty right now, but you’re going to get through this. You’re Joni Fucking Mitchell.” He reached up, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear. “You could drink a case of this bullshit and still be on your feet.”
Staring at him, something inside her must have unlocked, sprang free, the heaviness in her chest easing up with every word that poured out of her. “Why are you so perfect? Why do you have to live here?”
“I’m far from perfect. I’m kind of a mess too.”
She watched her hand reach out for him, her fingers sliding into his beard. “I may not have gotten exactly what I wanted tonight, but this is a pretty close second.”
When he cupped her cheek, she tried as hard as she could not to lean into his touch. She was not successful.
“What was it you wanted?” he asked, brushing his thumb along her cheekbone.
It can’t hurt, can it?They’d already done it once, and it had been phenomenal.
“A kiss. One without licking, preferably.”
“Maybe,” he said, moving closer, his parting lips making her heart knock against her ribs, “one of my wingman duties could be—in cases such as this, when you don’t get what you want—providing that service for you. Whatever it is.”
“That would be convenient,” she said, transfixed by the beads of water dripping from his beard, remembering how that beard had tickled her lips.
“It would. I could make sure, as your helper, that you get taken care of.” His voice was as dark as the night, his mouth a hair’s breadth away from hers. “It could be a new rule.”
“I’d need to make another card.”
His lips curved upward. “Janice has a laminator at the boutique in town. I can take you there tomorrow.”
“But tonight?” she breathed, the strap of her bra falling over her shoulder.
Lifting her strap back up, letting his fingers linger on her skin, he asked, “Can I kiss you?”
He could kiss her now, later, forever and ever. “Yes.”
His lips, when they finally met hers, were as soft and hesitant as a feather drifting in the breeze. As much as she wanted to grab him, bury her fingers in his hair and wrap her legs around his waist, she didn’t. When she’d imagined making out with someone tonight, she’d imagined it being sloppy, passionate, all fingernails and teeth and torn clothes. But this was lovely. Being slow with Trig was so lovely.
The only thing softer than his lips on hers was the water caressing her, surrounding her, and then his fingers curling around her neck, tilting her head to the side. When his lips parted, his tongue brushing against hers, she let her fingers slide up his chest, over his shoulders.
She had a feeling if they’d been anywhere but in the pool, her knees would be buckling so hard he’d have to hold her up. How could such a slow, sweet kiss be this good? Even his beard felt good, soft and warm and thick.
His other hand found the small of her back and pulled gently, and now she did let her legs wrap around him, feeling him hard as steel between their underwear. God, she wanted him. She wanted him so badly she was tempted to pull her panties to the side and let him take her right there in the pool. But he broke the kiss, pulling away, his eyes hooded and glazed and making her lightheaded.
