“Yes sir,” I reply. “If there’s anything we can do for either of you or Liz, let us know.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that. You boys seem to care about Elizabeth very much. I can’t tell you how happy we are that she has some friends there with her.”
“We would do anything for Liz,” Julien tells him.
Daniel aims the camera at his face. He looks enough like Liz’s dad for me to have no question that they were distant cousins. “I know you boys must have so many questions. I hope that when I come visit next week, we can all sit down and talk. I sincerely apologize regarding how things went after we moved Elizabeth here. If we knew about you boys then, we would have made sure to contact all of you to let you know where she was and how she was doing.”
“You took care of Liz and kept her safe. We will never be able to thank you enough for that,” I say. Liz places her hand on my shoulder, and it doesn’t escape my notice that she’s been acting more comfortable around me after we had our talk.
“How was the first day of classes?” Drew asks her. Liz stands up and walks away to step out onto the balcony to finish their conversation.
“They seem nice,” Elijah voices.
“We’re going to have a lot to talk about when Daniel gets here. Do you think we should invite the families as well? We can only hold off Mom and Dad for so long. I’m surprised they haven’t already shown up at our doorstep demanding to see her.” Julien twirls his fork in the pasta but doesn’t eat it.
“We can ask, but it may be too much for Liz. Perhaps Thanksgiving? It sounded like she was staying here and not going back to Seattle. Might be a good time to take her back home with us.”
“You know I would love for that to happen,” my brother replies.
“Then we’ll make it happen,” I promise him.
“How was the run this morning?” Elijah inquires, leaning over to steal a cherry tomato from Julien’s salad.
“Liz did it, all ten miles.”
“You’re shitting me,” Elijah says shocked, and very much impressed.
My girl was never athletic, but I can see the changes in her body, changes that can only happen when someone exercises regularly. How different would her body feel now compared to a year ago? Before, she was soft, lithe, and slender. I should know. My hands have mapped, touched, and caressed every inch of her naked, smooth, pale skin. Now her body is more curvy and filled out with lean muscles that can only develop from hours of exercise and weight training. Just thinking about her pinned underneath me, those green eyes boring into mine as I push inside her tight, wet warmth has me harder than steel. Thankfully, I’m sitting down on the floor at the coffee table which hides the predicament I’m in.
Julien’s laughing now. “I said she did them, but that girl wasn’t happy about it. I had to resort to bribes to get her to finish the last several miles. I’m in it for another round of bad karaoke and a crappy Hallmark movie.”
“Are you two running again tomorrow?”
“That’s the plan. I hope you don’t mind.” I see disappointment cross Elijah’s face even though he tells Julien’s he understands.
We hear the balcony door slide open and Liz’s melodic voice as she says, “Talk to you both on Thursday.” She sits back down and notices none of us have touched our plates.
“You guys didn’t have to wait for me.”
“You’re worth waiting for,” I mumble as I take a huge bite of food. Liz pretends she doesn’t hear me, but I see her cheeks redden.
“How was your first day?” I ask her because I hadn’t seen her at all until I met up with her and Julien after their organic chem class.
“It was really good, actually. I got roped into a Wednesday evening study group, but the girl, Meredith, who suggested it is pretty cool. She’s like this tiny little bundle of energy. Julien, speaking of study groups. Want to study together for chem? It’s just a lot of reading this week, but we can quiz each other with questions.”
“I need to check my training schedule for soccer. The team’s meeting tomorrow afternoon so I’ll know better how much free time I have this semester.”
“I can’t wait to see you play.”
“I’ll make sure to reserve an extra ticket for you to sit with E, Jay, and Ry. They have special seating reserved for family members and close friends. Our first home match is in a month.”
“I want to ask Ryder if I can go back out to the track again. It was so much fun. He taught me how to drift. Maybe you guys can come next time.”
“When Ry told us, I think my mouth dropped to the floor. He showed us one of the videos he took with his phone from inside the car.”
“I thought it was badass,” I compliment her.
It really was. There must be so much more to Liz than I ever knew, and I thought I knew everything about her. These latent qualities that are peeking out have me more intrigued and I would love nothing more than to peel back more of her hidden layers, learn more about the girl I have loved most of my life but who is clearly still a mystery to me. Apparently, Liz has a bit of a bad girl side. It shouldn’t surprise me. She loved watching the races at the Fields, loved that adrenaline rush. She also really liked it when our sex was rough and dirty. Jesus, now I’m hard again. I focus on eating my food so I don’t embarrass myself.
