Page 19 of Always There For You

“You know…”

Hadley turned, shifting until she could look at Amelia in the thick dark of the room. “You okay?”

“I should be asking you that.”

“You have been. My turn.”

“I’m okay.” She looked away. “That’s a lie. I’m scared.” She sucked in a deep breath, steadied her voice and her hands, and said, “Cause if I tell you I know you love me and I love you, too, what the hell happens after that?”

Chapter seven

Oh.

That’s what that felt like.

To hear those words. To feel her hands on my face. Her scent everywhere; the prickly pear lotion on her skin, the way the sheets smelled like her. The sheets I have my face pressed into while I stare my best friend in the eyes during a storm. After she just said, “I love you.”

Hadley had played this scene out before, many times, in her imagination. Mostly when she was feeling a certain lonely kind of way after leaving Amelia and flying off to another place, another country. In one version, she got up the nerve to tell Amelia during a candlelit dinner in a garden, as night settled around them and the air grew humid and fragrant. In another, she was reading while Amelia napped, while the fire popped and crackled. Amelia would sit up, blink sleepily at her, and then they’d kiss. No words, just a kiss. The kiss.

And now, with Amelia so close and warm, Hadley heard those words, that confession, and reacted. Because her gut and her soul and every little nerve in her body knew Amelia was her first, best, only love. And because she wanted it; she wanted it so badly it sang in her body. A perfect melody.

The first brush of her lips against Amelia’s made her shiver. In some strange way, they were just lips. But then her brain caught up with reality and Hadley knew. These were Amelia’s lips and they were in Amelia’s bed, buried under blankets while a storm raged and the house rattled and she felt that tug in her chest, in her belly.

“I love you,” Hadley whispered, barely able to keep the tears in check. “I’ve always loved you. Ames…”

Amelia cut her off with another kiss, this one sending shivers through her body. Shit, where should I put my hands? Here, on Amelia’s shoulder. No, no. I have to touch her face, get my fingertips under that sharp jaw where freckles hide in the dark hollows.

The moment she touched Amelia’s face, it felt like the room froze. Amelia gasped, the sound a rustle in the darkness. “Ames?”

“I’m good. I’m good.” Amelia’s fingers ran through Hadley’s hair, gentle but present. Like she could have ignored the touch, as keyed up as she was right now. “I’ve wanted to do that for so long. Hadley.” Amelia’s forehead was pressed into hers, their lips so close and yet it felt like miles. “Hadley. Shit. Shit.”

Sourness spiked the joy coursing through her. “You don’t regret -”

“No. Absolutely not. Never.” The sourness left her belly and Hadley was floating once more. “Hadley. I love you. I always have.” Amelia’s touch on her cheek was so sweet, so soft.

“I thought….gods. Ames.”

“You thought what?”

Her next words were choked, both with emotion and laughter. “I thought something had shifted recently. You’ve been…flirty. The office?”

“Hmmm, yeah.” Amelia laughed and the velvet darkness of that sound slipped right through Hadley. It made her flushed, that sound. “I don’t know what came over me.”

“I do!” She shoved playfully at Amelia’s shoulder, but followed it up with a kiss. Brief, intense. Her tongue in Amelia’s mouth, coaxing soft noises out of her. Running her hand down Amelia’s arm. Linking their fingers together. “I do,” she repeated, quieter now. “The other side of you. The Amelia I know that’s a powder keg with the world’s longest fuse.”

“That’s me, huh?” Amelia’s kiss to her mouth just missed, catching the corner of Hadley’s lips. “You are the only person who really knows that side. Because I’m safe with you.”

“Always.” Her throat was closing up again, swelled with the tsunami of feelings and understandings.

“Still worried about the storm?” Amelia’s hand was on her hip now. Oh gods.

“No.” The lightning outside had dimmed but rain pummeled the roof. The rain she could deal with. “But it’s still going. And I want to hear you say it again.”

“Hmmm, I bet.”

“Tease.”

Amelia kissed her once more and Hadley melted. “I love you,” Amelia whispered against her mouth. “So much.”

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