“And orgasms, apparently.”
“Jennifer Jean…”
“What?!”Jen laughed.“It’s good. You deserve to be happy, Lo. Really.”
“Thank you,” Lauren muttered, rubbing a hand over her forehead. “I, uh, should probably go, though. I need to make a picnic lunch for the guests.”
“Sounds good,”Jen said.“Have fun. Have lots of orgasms, and I will see you at La Guardia when you get back.”
“Right,” Lauren said, a small smile quirking her lips. “Thanks. Take care of my boy for me, okay?”
“Will do. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Yeah…bye,” Lauren murmured, her eyes glued to Grey as she disconnected the call. Grey looked up and smiled at her, and she sighed as she pushed herself to her feet, purposefully trying and failing to ignore the feeling of unease that swept through her when she thought about returning to New York.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
LAUREN WAS IN the middle of preparing their lunch when Grey returned to theVeritasfrom delivering the Muellers’ picnic to the beach, and she hovered in the doorway to the salon to watch her work. Ever since Lauren wandered into the galley after talking on the phone, there had been a distance in her eyes that gave Grey pause. Lauren had joked and smiled while prepping the Muellers’ lunch, but it was clear that something was weighing on her mind.
Grey smiled when Lauren looked up to see her loitering on the threshold, and gave a small wave as she ambled into the salon to sit at one of the barstools facing the galley. “Lunch is delivered,” she reported. “Kim wanted me to tell you that a plain ol’ turkey sandwich would have been fine, but that the turkey melts looked great. And the boys were especially excited about the cookies you stashed in the bottom of the basket.”
“Well, you know, I promised Reid that we would make more later, so I kinda had to empty out the cookie jar to make room,” Lauren said with a smile that did not quite reach her eyes as she transferred their sandwiches from the grill pan onto plates she had already laid out on the counter.
Grey nodded as she watched Lauren cut the sandwiches into triangles. “Yeah. I figured as much. Thanks.” She took the plate Lauren nudged toward her. “Looks delicious.”
“It’s nothing special.” Lauren brushed off the compliment with a wave of her hand as she pulled a couple bottles of water from the fridge.
“Doesn’t mean it won’t be good.” Grey took the water Lauren held out to her. She twisted the top off as Lauren rounded the peninsula to sit in the empty chair on her right, and she arched a brow questioningly as she turned to look at her. “Is everything okay? You’ve seemed a little off ever since you got off the phone.”
Surprised that Grey had picked up on her mood, Lauren shook her head. “Yeah. No. Everything’s fine. My cat is just a punk and decided to brawl with my friend’s neighbor’s dog.”
“Is he okay?”
“He’s fine.” Lauren rolled her eyes and picked up her sandwich. “The dog bit him on the paw and I guess it was bleeding pretty bad, so my friend Jen who is watching him for me freaked out and was going to rush him to the vet. I told her to just watch him and see how he acts, because he probably doesn’t need to go in. He’s a jerk, but he’s tough.”
“Sounds like it. What’s his name?”
“Jenks.” Lauren smiled at the way Grey shook her head and chuckled under her breath. “What?”
“With that name, I would be disappointed if he wasn’t a total punk.”
“I’m impressed you know where I got it from. Not a lot of people do.”
Grey shrugged, her smile dimming as a memory of Emily, eyes twinkling with playful amusement as she threatened to withhold sex until Grey read those seven battered paperbacks flashed across her mind. Emily had sworn off the series at that point, but she still made Grey read and suffer through it all with her. “Emily made me read them.”
Lauren’s smile faltered at the mention of Emily. They had avoided talking about her ever since the night they had first kissed,and she was unsure how to respond. “Oh. Did…” She cleared her throat softly. “Did you like them?”
“I did, until it became obvious that the author was never going to give Ivy a happy ending,” Grey said. She rolled her eyes, because this was a conversation she had had many times over with Emily, and it never failed to leave her feeling frustrated and annoyed. “I mean, it would be one thing if they weren’t so perfect for each other. They made the damn bells ring, ya know? I just, sometimes I really want to find the lady who writes the books and smack her upside the head.”
“Yeah, well, if you ever do decide to do that, lemme know. I’ll go with you. I wanna get a shot in too,” Lauren said as she took a bite of her sandwich. She chewed thoughtfully as she watched Grey out of the corner of her eye, wary of doing or saying something that might upset her.
“Deal.” Grey sighed and studied her sandwich with far more intensity than a simple turkey and bacon melt required. She had been doing well just focusing on Lauren, but now that she was thinking about Emily, it was hard to stop. The memories were not as painful as they had once been, but they were there. Warm. Bittersweet. Making her breath feel light and her heart ache. “I miss her.”
Lauren smiled sadly as she set her sandwich down and pulled Grey into her arms. “I know, sweetie,” she whispered as Grey leaned into her. She closed her eyes at the feeling of Grey’s face burrowing into her neck, and sighed as she held her tight. “It’s okay.”
“I’m sorry.”
Lauren pressed her lips to Grey’s cheek and smoothed a hand over her back. “Don’t be. It’s okay, Grey,” she repeated gently. “Do you want to talk about it?”
