“I think I’d like it if you kissed me under this one,” I whisper.
Her lips quirk upward as she leans down, and just when I open my mouth in the most desperate way, hoping she’s going to take me up on the suggestion, she kisses my cheek.
“IOU, right?” she whispers in my ear.
A trembling breath leaves me. My chest sinks. And when she straightens over me, I open my eyes to hers.
“Right,” I breathe, lost in the swirling abyss of her dilated gaze.
“Ahem,” someone says nearby, clearing their throat.
I turn as I recognize the voice, and heat slaps my cheeks when I see Darcy standing by the door smirking.
“Am I interrupting?” they ask, head tilting.
I pull away from Gemma, chuckling and shaking my head at Darcy. “Just taking in this shit,” I say, approaching them. “Gemma says she’s seen a sky like this at Joshua Tree. Don’t you go up there a lot?”
“Ah, okay. Hell yeah,” Darcy says, stepping into the room. They hold their hand out to Gemma upon reaching us. “Darcy.”
Gemma smiles. “Gemma,” she says, taking Darcy’s hand. “Sorry about yesterday. Work gets a little…hecticsometimes. These four always seem to have trouble following them,” she adds with a nod at me.
“I don’t even know that trouble entirely defines the shit we have around us,” I say.
Gemma raises her brows in agreement. “Still, I hate that I had to blow you off. Any time I get to learn more about her, meet the people who make up her whole…” She looks over at me, and the fuzzies swarming not only my stomach but my head have me planting my feet firmly on the ground so that I don’t collapse into her arms—and the way her eyes skitter over me doesn’t help.
“Well, I want to know whatever she’ll give me,” Gemma adds.
Darcy is beaming at her in a way that I’ve never seen Darcy beam.
And I just want to kiss Gemma until my soul leaves my body and all that’s left is a decrepit pile of bones and dust and blood willing to sacrifice everything to be reunited.
“So… should I come back later and let you two finish whatever was happening here, or…” Darcy teases, beginning to back away from us.
“Oh, shut up,” I say as I take a step back from Gemma. “Did you say you were bringing food? I’m fucking starving.”
I exchange one more look with Gemma over my shoulder before sinking in step with Darcy, and the smile she peers at me with grabs my heart and pulls it out of my chest.
I think she’s still holding it when we settle at one of the picnic tables outside to eat.
I lose track of everything sitting between them. I lose myself in the laughter and the way Gemma continues to watch me. I fall deep into the discussions of life and the beyond. And after a while, it hits me that I haven’t thought about the previous night in hours.
Hours since I heard his voice changer in my ear.
Hours since I felt the devastation that phone call did to me.
Hours since I thought I would need a drink to get through the day.
The realization mellows me out, and I’m stuck staring at Gemma when her phone eventually rings.
“Oh shit,” she says, peering down at the name across the screen. “Work wife. I’ll be right back.” She stands and shows me Kade’s contact photo, and I nod.
“Okay.”
I watch Gemma press the phone to her ear and step away from us, one arm hugging over her chest. She’s talking so low, I can’t hear any of it. Darcy says something—standing to clean up the table, I realize—and I join them, numbly going through the motions as the voice from the phone call last night fills my mind.
I’ll make sure you remember it this time.
I’ll make sure we finish.
