“Give me just a second.”She held up a gloved finger toward me before turning to Emmett.“Thank you so much for dropping those petitions off.”
“Of course.I’ll pick you up tomorrow for the party?”
My stomach twisted, and I grit my teeth.
“See you then.”
He waved goodbye to me, pet Furgie, and took easy strides toward his pickup truck parked in Alicia’s driveway.
She unlocked her door with the keys she pulled from her coat pocket.Rushing inside, Furgie shook off the cold and snow just inside the threshold.Alicia narrowed her eyes at the dog.“Gee, thanks, Furg.”
I had enough good humor to muster half a smile, but there was no denying that I was in knots.Retreating to my apartment couldn’t happen soon enough.At least seeing her and Emmett was enough to quiet two of the three voices in my head.It whispered a quiet guidance that I was finally ready to listen to.
It was time that I let go of all the baggage I carried around for her.The angst that sat heavy in my chest.The longing, like a magnet under my skin, urging me to hold her.The love that would have to find somewhere else to go.
“I have your shirt,” she said over her shoulder as she kicked her boots off and headed for the laundry by the side door.“I washed it.”
On the counter and table sat stacks of paper stapled together.On each page were line after line of signatures.“Are these the petitions you have all over town?”
I heard the dryer door slam.“Yeah,” she said.With automatic movements she folded the garment as she walked toward me.“Now, I have the great task of checking them to be sure that we don’t have any duplicate signatures, and there will be.But at least I’ll know how close I am to getting an emergency vote.”
“Do you think you’ll have enough?”
She gave a lopsided shrug.“That depends on how many duplicates there are.”
I wanted to offer to help, not because I was a good person fighting for the cause, but because I wanted to be around her.But there was that voice.
Let her live her life.
When I lifted my eyes to her face, she stood there chewing her lower lip.Her eyes darted from the papers, to me, to the refrigerator.But she didn’t seem to have any intention of giving me my shirt with how she worked it between her fingers—pinching and rolling the fabric gently.
Her cheeks burned a soft pink before she asked, “Do you—would you like to hang out with me while I do it?”
A smile tightened the muscles of my cheeks—I only barely swallowed it back.Energy coursed through me, and I tried to reason with myself that it wasn’t exactly the declaration of love I’d like to hear.But it was something.It was an excuse to stay.To hear her laugh.To watch her work.To be near her.
The place she took up in my chest grew too big again.I wanted to tilt her chin up, draw her eyes up to mine.Instead, I unzipped my coat.“That depends, what’s the chip situation?”
The smile I’d been fighting spread across her face and finally she looked up at me.“Well in hand.Also, I have cupcakes.”
“You’re a way better host than I am.”
She nodded.“I grabbed them hoping you’d hang out.”
My stomach dropped out of my body as if I had stepped off a cliff.My pupils might as well have become heart shaped.I was a total sucker for her, an absolute sap.And all it took was her thinking about me even a little bit.
“Let me change out of these scrubs, and I’ll be right back.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Alicia
Checkingthesignaturestooklonger than normal, though it was also less boring.Remi had offered to help, but I turned him down.I shouldn’t have; it would have gone faster, but then he’d probably go back to his place.There wouldn’t be any excuse for him to stay with me.He turned onArcherbecause he knew I had seen it before and it wouldn’t be too distracting, but he was the real distraction in the room.At some point, Furgie had crawled onto his lap and was snoring gently into the crook of his elbow as he stroked the soft hair on top of her head.
It was so goddamn cute.I could have died just from the sight of it.
“Done,” I finally said setting my pen down on the coffee table.I lifted my arms over my head and stretched back against the sofa groaning.Even though my eyes were closed I could have sworn that he was watching me.The caress of his gaze lingered on the slope of my neck and over the curves of my breasts.I was definitely imagining things.I’d been imagining things for a while ...and my vibrator just couldn’t do the trick.I got off, of course, and it helped with the constant ...yearning—was that what this was?God, I yearned.
I needed to feel someone else’s body on mine.It was almost compulsive, this reflex to reach out and touch.And the more time that passed, I was becoming less certain that just anyone would be able to quiet the insistent noise in my head.
