“Holy shit. Holy shit that is alotof secret marathoning.”
“Well, the marathoning didn’t really happen at first. It was mostly just lessons on how to cope with things. You know, like violent competitors throwing you through the air.”
Letty held up a hand. Awhoa hold onkind of hand. “He gave youlessons? What kind of lessons are we talking about here?”
“How to defend myself kind of lessons.”
“So like, punching and kicking.”
“Yep, pretty much.”
“And blocking shit.”
She nodded then braced herself for some kind of disapproval.
It felt like a disapproval kind of moment—but then Letty just sagged. She put a hand to her chest, in a way that said relief pretty clearly. And her words backed that up.
“Oh, thankgod. For a second, I thought we were using metaphors to describe your relationship with a shrink. I was about to call social services and have them lock him up.”
“He’s not a shrink, Letty. Though he worries about that stuff anyway.”
“He worries about what stuff? Crossing an ethical line?”
“Yeah, you could put it like that.”
“But you don’t think he has.”
“God, no. Thereisno line.”
“Are you sure?”
She hesitated, then. Though not because she didn’t know the answer. It was because the answer had been building up inside her ever since she first decided to keep him to herself. It had swelled and grown unwieldy, and now it was here.
It was here, and it was threatening to overwhelm her.
If she wasn’t careful, she was going to gush like a motherfucker.
Though, even when she measured her words, they came out in one long swoon.
“He hasn’t done anything but be an awesome guy. The kind of guy you always hope to find but rarely do outside fantasy. Honestly, after everything that happened, I was deathly sure that guys like that did not exist at all. That my feelings towards men were just a ruin, forever. And then he came along and built those ruins back up, without even trying. He didn’t eventry, Letty,” she said, then had to take a breath. Her heart was trying to race into her mouth. Bottled up feelings were starting to leak out everywhere.
But it was fine—Letty waited. She waited.And when she finally did speak, it was to say the best thing possible. “I think I might have to revise my earlier statement to:I not only love this guy but want to do him so hard,” she said, and Lydia couldn’t help laughing in response.
“You should. Not only is he fundamentally decent, he’s hot asfuck. Oh my god, he’s so hot it’s like looking at the sun if the sun was comprised of a million Oscar Isaacs.”
“That is the greatest description of any human man I have ever heard. I thank the lord our god that we stopped talking in veiled code so I could hear it. Seriously, I think it gave me massive hearts for eyes.”
“You’ve had hearts for eyes since I walked in.”
“Yeah, but those were all for you. You know that, right?”
She nodded. But only because speaking was suddenly hard.
And when words finally came out, they were wavery as fuck.
“Of course I do. Every day, you show me how much you care about my happiness, so I imagine it was pretty cool to see me not only look happy, but like someone possibly experiencing major love feelings.”
“It was. It is. Though, honestly, I’ve tried not to be greedy for it.”
