“By giving you the opportunity to use your vastly superior but slightly concerning button-mashing skills.”
“Mm-hmm.” I glared for another second, then reached out to stroke his beard, silky soft under my fingertips—but still rough enough to leave pink marks on my skin, as I recalled all too clearly. “You’re lucky I like you.”
“Was that so hard to admit?” he whispered, covering my hand with his own and nuzzling his cheek into my palm.
“Yes,” I whispered back.
His eyes looked black in the dark interior of the car, but I saw them sweeping across my features. After a long moment, he nodded, kissed my palm, and released my hand.
“We’ll work on that. Can you direct me to your place, or should I put your address in my phone?”
“I can direct you,” I replied, but his words were still bouncing around inside my brain.
We’ll work on that.
Like it was a given he would be by my side to do just that. Like he didn’t mind my idiosyncrasies, like this was the start of something real and true. Like somehow, together, we could make our way forward.
It sounded like a promise, like a lover’s vow, and damn, I liked that.
Iignoredeveryoneofmy cousin’s curious looks the next morning when she picked me up, but I knew I wasn’t fooling either of us.
“I’m sorry again about the crowd,” she said, “but I’m glad Milo was able to make it.”
“You’re just glad he’s a gentleman and offered to drive me home.”
Her immediate grin was confirmation enough. “I don’t believe in questioning serendipity, and you shouldn’t, either.”
Though I rolled my eyes, she had a point. After the best night of my life, I’d let my upbringing cast its ugly shadows over what happened between me and Milo, let that imagined shame frighten me away from a night of sheer joy.
Never again.
That’s what I’d started telling myself even before I left home at eighteen. Never again would I let someone else’s beliefs destroy my happiness.
It hadn’t been easy, shedding that skin, melting into a messy pile of goo inside a chrysalis as I fought my way into independence so I could emerge as something new, something stronger. Addie had been at my side through all of it—the therapysessions, the late night crying jags, the tentative emergence of a bolder Eden who moved through the world with confidence and poise. An Eden who embraced her sexuality, who wore what she wanted, who didn’t have to hide herself away from constant criticism for fear of being locked in her room as punishment for her imagined misdeeds.
The fact that I’d let that new me slip away in a moment of panic at the hotel room still grated on me, but now I had the chance to fix things. I had the chance to seize hold of what I’d found with Milo, even if I had almost thrown it away because of everything my parents had embedded deep into my psyche before I knew any better.
I drew a deep breath, washing every trace of them from my mind, and smiled at my cousin. “You’re right. I’m certainly not complaining.”
That smile lingered until we pulled up around the corner from Garden of Delights where I’d parked the day before, and I noticed my car looked weird.
“What the hell?” Addie muttered angrily, throwing the gear shift into park and jumping out of the driver’s seat to stalk toward my SUV.
“Son of a motherless goat,” I whispered as I hurried over to inspect the car.
Every single tire was completely flat. Aside from the flappy, deflated rubber, the rest of it looked unharmed, but even if I’d wanted to change a tire in my work clothes, I only had one spare.
Maybe fate wasn’t actually on my side after all.
Chapter Eleven
Milo
Thenightbefore,Idrove Eden to her apartment at the far end of town, walked her to her door, spent a heavenly few minutes kissing her, and barely—just barely—managed to bid her goodnight before things got too heated. With hazy eyes, she murmured the words back to me and I had to fight the urge to tug her back into my arms.
This was a marathon, not a sprint.
It was slightly more difficult to keep myself distracted on Saturday, since that was the day Rafael worked the store alone unless we had a special event on the calendar, and Dueling Dragons was closed on Sundays. At home with Jiji, I was all too free to let thoughts of Eden occupy my mind.
