“We don’t have a choice,” Shay said. “Unless you have a bag hidden away in the folds of your dress?”
Rosie wrung her hands together. “I don’t.”
“And I left my purse in the car. Do you want a piece,” Shay toed a substantial chunk of it closer to the gap beneath the fencing, “as a memento?”
Rosie wrinkled her nose as if the idea was abhorrent, then she widened her eyes. “I guess it’d remind me of the first time you told me you loved me… But it could also remind me of the day I dropped my mom in a lake.”
Shay grinned. “Win-win?”
Rosie laughed then bit her bottom lip to stop. She knelt down, tucking her dress beneath her so it didn’t drag in the remaining person-dust among the urn’s shards. She selected a relatively small piece, popped it into her pocket and straightened.She nodded toward the pile. “I don’t think I can do it. Will you do it for me?”
Shay caressed Rosie’s cheek. “I’ll do anything for you,” she said before making short work of kicking the evidence of their transgression into the water, leaving only a smear of gray dust in the cracks of the old wooden planks. They moved away from the debris, further down the pier. No more declarations needed to be made over the not-corpse of a dead woman who hadn’t deserved someone as amazing as Rosie in her life.
Shay took Rosie’s hands and pulled her close, inhaling the scent of her sweet skin. She claimed another passionate kiss, her hunger for the taste of Rosie’s lips overriding any other thought in her head. Rosie’s sigh and the way her body softened against Shay fueled her desire further, and she tightened her embrace, simultaneously thrilled and overwhelmed by her own near-desperation to be as close to Rosie as physically possible.
When she pulled back only a little so that their lips were still touching, the look in Rosie’s eyes seared into her memory. Shay wanted to capture her expression, so that she could bring it to mind any time they were apart, any time she needed to feel wanted and desired. The emotion held within Rosie’s gaze was so incredibly pure and unguarded, so limitless and singularly focused that it was like Rosie was tapping directly into Shay’s heart and asking for all of it to be mirrored and reciprocated.
“What now?”
“You’re going to have to teach me how to be a girlfriend,” Shay whispered.
Rosie slipped her hand under Shay’s locs and kissed her hard. “I think you’ve been doing a pretty good impression of that for the past couple of weeks.”
“Mm, you’ve been making me do a lot of things I’ve never done before.”
Rosie pinched Shay’s butt. “Makingyou?”
“Uh-huh.Makingme, like you put me under a spell. I knew what I was doing, but I just couldn’t stop myself.” Shay cuppedRosie’s cheek and drew her in for another kiss. “I have a feeling it’s just going to keep happening.” She kissed her again, and Rosie responded with a tender intensity, a blend of softness and force that poured gasoline on the simmering fire between them.
Shay pulled away and let out a deep sigh. People around them came into focus, as if she’d forgotten where they were. “We should probably?—”
“Go back to my place and make love until we fall asleep in each other’s arms, exhausted and sated but still desperate for more?”
Shay laughed. “That sounds absolutely perfect but,” she nodded to the lake, “you’ve got a memorial wake to host.”
Rosie stepped away from Shay and looked out across the water, her expression contemplative. “Goodbye, Mom,” she said quietly and then she took Shay’s hand. “So I get to do this anytime I want now, right?”
Shay looked at their entwined hands, the contrast of their skin and the perfect way they fit together. “You tell me. You’re the teacher.”
Rosie wiggled her eyebrows. “I could totally abuse this power you’re giving me.”
Shay grasped Rosie’s hand tighter. “I’m good with that.”
They headed back down the pier, and Rosie settled into an unusual quietness.
“Are you thinking about your mom?” Shay asked when they got in the car.
Rosie nodded. “I was thinking that closure would come after I scattered her ashes, but I don’t feel any different. And I don’t think that has anything to do with not doing it in the right place or,” she gave a wry smile, “with quite the right level of care and respect.”
Shay turned in her seat to look at her. “I probably haven’t helped with that. I was so desperate to tell you that I loved you. I should’ve waited until tomorrow, but I’ve got to go back to the hospital again tonight, and I just couldn’t wait. I’m sorry.”
Rosie squeezed Shay’s thigh and shook her head. “Don’t be.There could never have been a wrong time for you to tell me how you feel. And today might even be the best day for it. I’ve been in love with you since Mexico, but I’d decided not to tell you because I didn’t think you could ever feel the same.”
“I get that,” Shay said and wrinkled her nose. “I put up a lot of walls, and I was pretty specific about my rule.”
Rosie laughed. “You really were. What changed your mind?”
“Mexico changed everything for me too. It just took me a while to accept it.” Shay started the engine and headed out of the parking lot. “You wouldn’t believe it, but it was a couple of conversations with Aaron and my daddy that made me realize that I’d found something precious without looking for it.”
