50
Sebastian
“SO, YOU’RE LEAVINGsoon?” Hillary asked. “I hope I wasn’t the one who chased you off.” Laughing, she leaned her head against Nathan’s shoulder.
“On the contrary. Knowing you’re here to take care of this fucker, I finally feel free to spread my wings.”
She and Nathan cracked up.
“He’s in love,” Nathan said with a sappy-mocking tone.
“I’m happy for you,” Hillary said. “That Ruby woman Nathan told me about?”
“Yeah. Her.” My heart lurched at the simple fact that I could finally say it out loud, to anyone, to the whole world.
“I know one person who would be disappointed,” Hillary said.
“She’ll get over it,” Nathan said, winking at me. “Alison developed a little crush on you.”
“Sorry.” I smiled.
“Not a lot to pack once you move,” Nathan commented, looking around my apartment. “Furniture, two framed posters, and your clothes, is pretty much all you’ve accumulated. And the plants.”
“I’ll leave the plants to you, if you want them. The rest stays. Except this poster, wherever I go, it goes.” I pointed at the one Ruby got me for my twenty-nineth birthday.
“When’s the move?” Hillary asked.
“I’m waiting for final confirmation. They’re still pushing papers around.”
“You’d think NASA would have some smart technology to do that by now,” she said, leaning forward to pick up her mug from my coffee table. Even then, she didn’t release Nathan’s hand.
“You’d think,” I agreed, impatient to be holding Ruby’s hand in mine.
A few days later, I landed in San Francisco again and drove a rental to Coral Bay. I was Ruby’s plus-one for the wedding in two days.
I parked in the forecourt and grabbed my bag, but I didn’t make it far. Before I reached her cottage, Ruby called my name, and I turned to watch her moving down the path from the main building at a near run. Her dress—light green, simple—flared at her thighs. We stopped an inch apart, like a force field had snapped on between us.
“Hi,” she said, a little out of breath.
“Hi.” My chest eased at the sight of her.
“I was with the catering, checking everything.”
I nodded.
For half a second, we just stood there, then she caught my shirt in both hands, and I dropped my bag. The kiss was instant—rough with need, recognition, and heat, no warm-up. She tasted like the wine they were probably testing for the reception.
I backed her against the cedar siding at the cottage’s entrance. She tugged me inside, keys fumbling, door, lock, another kiss, the kind that wrecked and put everything back together. The feel of her under my hands, her breath, the sound she made when I pressed exactly right.
“Two nights,” she said, laughing into my mouth as she stumbled us toward the bed. “We have two nights and then wedding chaos.”
“Then we should get a head start.”
We did. Fast the first time, because we missed each other too much to be patient. Then slower, because we wanted to savor every second.
We shifted onto our sides, facing each other, her leg hooking over my hip as I slid deeper inside her. Our hands cupped each other’s faces, foreheads almost touching, eyes locked, breath mingling in the narrow space between us. It was unhurried and languid at first, but the intensity built as we drew closer. Ruby bit her lower lip, and I could tell she was on the edge.
“I love you,” I whispered, closing the space to kiss her.
