Chapter Seventeen
Chase
I stared down at Erica, who was lying in bed next to me. Her body rose and fell in soft motions as she slept peacefully. Last night had been the most perfect night of my life, but now in the light of day, I had no real idea what was happening.
We had both just found out we had known who the other was all these years, said promised words, and made love like we had no other care in the world, but what did this mean? Did Erica want to be with me the way I wanted to be with her? I hoped she did.
I wanted to put a ring on that finger years ago, and technically it was just waiting in the nightstand next to where her head rested. She had no idea how I had been saving and saving, living in this apartment so that one day we could have a house together, and she already had one. I loved that she had a home, though. She’s worked hard in a world that wasn’t always forgiving and had done beyond well for herself. Now I just wanted to be a part of every success she had from here on out.
But would we move in together? Start dating like our pasts hadn’t happened? Would she want to meet my family? We had joked about me meeting her mother, but it was something I wanted to do sooner rather than later. I wanted to be in every aspect of her life, but I had no idea where she really wanted me.
Behind her, in front of her, or right beside her.
She stirred next to me, rolling over and laying an arm across my chest.
“Mmmm.” She cooed and snuggled closer into my side. I wrapped an arm around her middle and pulled her closer, kissing the top of her head. As I did this, all the questions I had been thinking and every doubt that could possibly come into mind vanished. My sweet peaches was in my arms and I was never going to let her go. Whatever we decided to do, I would make sure it was what she wanted.
“Good morning,” I whispered into her hair, my lips brushing against the top of her head. She smiled into my side and moved her head to look up at me. Her eyes shone with a sense of fulfillment.
“Good morning.” The smile on her face was bright, making my heart melt. She looked so genuinely happy. “What do you have planned today?”
“I was thinking this.”
I threw the blanket over our heads and proceeded to tickle her, my fingers tickling her sides and running up the bare skin of her waist.
“Stop it!” Erica screamed and she jumped out of bed, her naked body standing before me. She didn’t try to cover herself as she huffed and propped her hands on her waist. My eyes lingered to the valley of her breasts and then down to her sex where soft brown curls contrasted against her pale skin. I loved the way she looked like this, like she was meant to be just mine. “That wasn’t very nice.”
She stuck her tongue out at me, an innocent gesture that had my cock growing hard again.
“You put that away before I put it to good use.” I crawled out of bed and then stalked over to her. “Let’s shower and then go for a hike.”
It would give us time to talk, be outdoors, and just in general be somewhere we both loved. After becoming closer over the years, we had started to frequent Stone Mountain. It was by far my favorite outing we always went on. We challenged each other with sprints up and down the mountain. We took our time, took in the sights, and just basked in being together. This was the moment, though, that I was able to do all that and more. Like hold her in my arms, have her fingers intertwined with mine and then kiss her at the top of the mountain.
I felt a little jolt in my heart. From now on every single thing we did, even if we had already done it, would be new and that excited me. It was like hitting a refresh button, one I hadn’t known was going to come at this point in time in my life.
“I like the sound of that, but I’ll need to go home first to get changed.” She walked away from me to the bathroom and started the shower. I watched her from where the adjoining door opened to the mirror as she looked through the cabinets to grab a towel and inspected what kind of body wash and shampoo I had. It felt so domestic and I smiled to myself and followed her into the bathroom.
We showered, dressed, her in a pair of my gym shorts and a shirt, and made our way to her house where she changed in no time, and then we were off to the mountain. Except for when she ran into her house, there had been no time since we had left mine that I wasn’t holding her hand or bringing it up to my lips to kiss it.
“Ride up or ride down?” Erica asked as she looked out the window. Her thumb laid circles on my hand and then squeezed it once.
“Let’s ride down. It’s nice out right now, and I would prefer to not walk down when it’s blazing hot out.” I pulled into the national park, being waved in with my season pass, and drove down to the bottom of the mountain where the hiking trail started.
We walked along the trail slowly, each taking in the surroundings, and it wasn’t until we were almost halfway up that Erica pulled me to the side where a bench was and sat us both down. She pulled me down onto the same side of the bench with her, her hand resting on my leg, but her eyes wouldn’t meet mine.
“Let’s talk.” She started up and my heart that had been soaring earlier, dropped to the pit of my stomach.
“Talk.” The word drew out of my mouth. She looked up at me now and I knew she could see the confusion on my face. Girls only said they wanted to talk when bad things were going to happen. I had been walking on cloud nine for hours, and now the questions I’d had from this morning were creeping back in.
“It’s not bad.” She laughed at me, but it only eased me slightly. Her hand drew shapes on my leg, the area becoming numb. She might be saying it wasn’t something bad, but it was most definitely a serious conversation about to happen.
I had no idea what Erica was thinking, but damn, she was about to tell me.
“What did you want to talk about, peaches?”
Maybe if I used her nickname, it would soften the blow.
Her eyes softened before she started talking.
