Lakeland Lovett, she thought to herself, taking care of me AND wooing me.
He squeezed her tight again, and they sat in silence for a moment. When Lake heard her breathing deepen and assumed Georgia had fallen asleep, he began to get up, ready to clean the apartment a bit.
Georgia nestled deeper under the sheets but kept her eyes closed. “Lake?”
“Yeah, Peaches?” He tucked the sheets tight around her legs.
“We have to talk about it… about what happened back then… at some point. Right?”
He sighed and froze, his hands resting on either side of her. “I know we do but not yet, okay? I promise we will… I’ll tell you everything, but I just need a little more time. Can you give me more time… and still let me take care of you?”
“You gave me Leo, Lakeland,” she whispered, perfectly content and cared for. “I can give you more time.”
Georgia slept the day away and late into the night, but in the rare moments between sleep, she took strange comfort in the quiet sounds of Lake’s movement around the apartment. When she woke, the apartment dark and chilly around her, she knew her fever had finally abated, leaving her with a dry throat and an outrageous appetite. She threw off the covers that had nearly swallowed her whole and—oh goodness—they smelled like death. She promised herself she’d wash all the sheets as soon as the sun came up, and now that she finally had control of all her senses, she’d make Lakeland swear never to mention the absolute putrid way her hair had smelled just as bad as the sheets.
She tiptoed past an assuredlydelicioussmelling Lake, asleep on her couch. His legs hung over the edge, and his upper body lay splayed out in what looked like a terribly uncomfortable position.How had he managed all week there?She couldn’t believe that after everything, he’d stayed. Lakeland Lovett was asleep in her living room!
Feeling much more like herself, she celebrated with a tiny, excited wiggle and continued her venture to the kitchen where she promptly chugged three glasses of water and dug into a family-size jar of peanut butter. She was so distracted by her first signs of hunger in days, that she didn’t hear Lakeland until he wrapped the new throw blanket around her shoulders and tugged her close to his chest, embracing her in what could only be described as a snuggle.
“What are you doing up?”
She shoveled another spoonful of peanut butter into her mouth, letting go of any pretense of vanity at that point. “So hungry,” she managed to mumble. “Shower or food were my only options. Peanut butter won. Showering next.”
“How about you finish up here?” He pulled the peanut butter and spoon from her hands and easily evaded her when she chased after them both with raccoon-like reflexes, clawing for the food.
“Calm down. You’re gonna over do it.” He nudged her with a gentle push of his knee to her legs and kept the snack out of reach. “Shoo, you. To the couch. Go.” He waited until she stomped her way over before placing the snack on the coffee table, leaving her in a heap on the couch.
“Tea?” Lake asked as he filled the kettle and then turned on the stove.
“Yes, please,” she answered between bites.
She studied him as he moved around her tiny kitchen, so at home and domesticated. He brought her a banana and toast and eventually two cups of tea, placing them on the table before he settled in on the other side of the plaid couch.
“I love your apartment, by the way. It's so cozy.”
“I can’t believe you’reinmy apartment,” she mused, nestling down with tea in hand. “And, thank you. I like it, too.”
“Do you miss your place in the city?” he asked. “What was it like?”
She smiled to herself. She’d loved her place in Atlanta. Had been proud to live by herself for the first time and decorate exactly how she’d wanted to, without the input of siblings or parents. To have a place she could call just her own.But did she miss it?
“I loved my place. It was about the same size as this one, if you can believe it.”
Lake raised his eyebrow, and Georgia laughed in reply. “I know. This place is tiny, but it feels more like me somehow. I loved the city, but Sugartree is my home. My parents… my siblings… I love being near them. And I love Good Start. It was my first permanent home, so I guess…”
“It's home.”
“Yeah. It’s home.” Georgia looked down at the aged, plaid couch she shared with the hunky man who consumed three fourths of it. She glanced at her sick bed. It was currently disheveled with wretchedly smelly sheets—but was her hideaway where she cozied up to read a book after a long day. She thought about the door she’d insisted on painting mustard yellow, only to regret the choice and replace it with navy blue two weeks later. She loved her tiny kitchen and the fact that you could walk ten large steps from the bed to the cabinet for the family-size jar of peanut butter that waited for her on the old formica countertop. She considered all the tiny touches of the apartment that made it comfortable and familiar and… uniquely hers.
“What about you? Do you miss having your own place? Wait, did you even have your own place?”
“I didn’t, actually.” He pulled a blanket over her lap, took a sip of his own tea, and pulled a leg up underneath himself. “I had roommates… um… in the… “ He sighed and admitted, “I was in a rehab place, a Christian recovery program for young adults, out west for a year after high school.”
Georgia sat stunned. She hadn’t known where he’d gone after graduation and had avoided conversations where Lakeland was merely mentioned all the years after. Lake hadn’t spoken about rehab the night they’d spent talking at the lock-in. She wondered what had changed for him to reveal it now.
Lake scratched his shoulder uncomfortably, his tousled hair and wrinkled University of Georgia tee glorious in the dim light of her living room. “Yeah, so I was there, and then I lived with a couple guys after, volunteering with the teens atRegen…Regeneration… We called itRejuvie.” He half laughed, bathed softly in the lights of her insane Christmas tree, and Georgia pursed her lips in amusement, soaking in this new side of Lake that she was somehow suddenly privy to. That he would open up to her so candidly.
“Anyway,” he continued, “I kept up volunteering while I went through my undergrad.”
