“Apparently our chemistry is so strong it can fool even a professional.”
Elijah chuckled beside me.
I raised my eyebrows at him. “Do you disagree?”
“Not at all.” He had that teasing glint in his eye. He was probably thinking about our chemistry.
“Wait, wait, wait,youactually went to this therapist as one of the strangers?” Raya asked.
I gestured between Elijah and me with my wineglass. “We were the strangers.”
“Oh my god,” she said. “That doesn’t seem like something you would do.”
“Wait, start over,” our friend Russel said, joining us at the firepit. “I only caught the end.”
I told the story again and he laughed. “Surprising.”
Raya was studying Elijah as she sipped her wine, like she was trying to figure him out, then her gaze shifted to me. “I don’t want you to leave tomorrow.”
I scrunched my nose. “I know. I don’t want to either. But I don’t think I’ll be there much longer. My mom is finally more mobile. She’ll probably kick me out soon. She’s barely tolerating me as it is.”
“How soon?” Elijah asked softly from next to me.
“I don’t know,” I said just as quietly back. But in that moment, staring at his vulnerable expression, I knew no matter how far away from him I was, I wanted to make it work. We could figure something out. A visiting schedule, a way for him to pay his dad back and stop working at the boxing gym sooner, a way for him to monetize what he really loved. We could do that. I knew we could.
Maybe he felt the same, because he reached out for my hand and pulled me over onto his lap. I willingly went.
CHAPTER 39
It wasn’t a delivery morning, so I didn’t have to wake up early, but my eyes popped open anyway at six thirty. Elijah’s arm rested heavily across my stomach. I smiled at the weight of it, and then the smile slipped off my face. We were leaving today. I didn’t want to. He looked peaceful next to me. I wanted him to be a regular in my bed.
“Are you watching me sleep?” he asked, his voice scratchy.
“Maybe,” I said, tracing his jaw with my finger. His scruff had grown longer than he normally let it, and it scratched me.
We could do long distance for a little while. He could come on the weekends. I could go to him sometimes, maybe on the slow days during the week.
“Do you always wake up this early?” he asked. “You never sleep in?”
“My body hates me.”
“Your body is perfect,” he said.
“You’re right, it’s my brain that actually hates me.”
He placed a kiss on my forehead. His lips were sleep-warmand soft. His arm moved from my waist to my head, where he cocooned me against his chest. I nuzzled into him.
“You can just stay in my bed forever,” I said. “Be here when I need you.”
He chuckled. “You want me to live in your bed?”
“I’ll feed you,” I said. “And I’ll allow you to get up and use the bathroom when you need to and bathe.”
“How gracious of you,” he said, a smile in his voice.
“It really is.”
He squeezed my side. I grabbed his ass.
