“Evil genius? How?”
“You just went and got me hopelessly addicted to you, right before leaving for a week. I won’t be able to think of anything else the whole time you’re gone.”
She smirked and rolled onto her back. “You were hopelessly addicted to me already.”
He scoffed. “That’s... Well, that’s true, actually.”
She lay there and drank him in. “Thank you. For this. It was... everything.”
He dropped his eyes. “I really am sorry. Next time will be better for you.”
“Hey. Don’t say that. I love you. Turns out I also love having sex with you. I couldn’t have asked for a more incredible first time than that.”
Maybe some measure of her sincerity filtered past his embarrassment, because when she touched his cheek, he tilted his face into her hand and kissed her palm. “I didn’t know this amount of happiness existed. I really didn’t. But next time’ll still be better. I’ll make sure of it.”
“In that case, I might actually pass out.”
He laughed. “God, I’m going to miss you. It’ll be like someone’s carved a hole into me while you’re gone.”
“Me, too.”
His smile wavered, tilting toward sad. “But I wanted to say... I think your dad has a point, Aubs. Youshouldtake this week to think. Make sure you really want to defer. It’s a big decision. I wouldn’t blame you if you changed your mind.”
She tensed. She hated it when he talked like this. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Doubt yourself. Doubt us.”
“I’m just being realistic.”
“Well, me too. And my reality is that I want everything. Call me selfish, but I’m not settling for anything less.”
He swallowed, long and slow. The reflection of the dying fire wavered in his eyes. “Okay. Then I’ll be here, waiting.”
“You won’t change your mind, either?”
“I won’t change my mind ever,” he said, his voice thick.
“Good.” She kissed him. “That reminds me, actually. I have a letter for you.”
Aubrey kept two-thirds of her promise to her father. Part one: she fell asleep by nine, albeit with Nick wrapped around her like a blanket. He didn’t say much after she gave him theletter, just read the words several times with the intensity of a hawk bearing down on a mouse. Then he looked up at her, wonderstruck, and pulled her into a whole-body hug that lasted into sleep. Part two: she pulled into the cabin’s driveway well before ten the next morning, fully rested and more bright-eyed than ever.
Aubrey waltzed right into the cabin without knocking. She felt... new. Freshly forged.
Her dad sat in an easy chair, reading the newspaper. His bushy eyebrows hiked to his hairline. “Morning. You’re here early.”
Aubrey shrugged off his obvious surprise. Nothing could touch her today. Except perhaps the aches in places she’d never had them before, and the fact that this marked one day down, six to go.
To her relief, the week passed easily enough. She moseyed around the shores of the lake, working on her tan and breathlessly reliving every moment of her night with Nick.
God, if it got any better than that, she really would pass out, next time.
In the evenings, she played cards with her parents and stayed up late with her father, who surprised her on the last night by offering her a beer. Her first. Maybe he had ulterior motives, but she chose to see it as a gesture of camaraderie. Like he’d acknowledged her as a full-fledged adult. An equal.
Still, as they lounged in the living room’s worn leather armchairs, their voices lowered so as not to wake her mother, the conversation finally—inevitably—turned to New York.
Aubrey sipped, trying not to wrinkle her nose at the beer’s sourness, and endured her father’s questions. She wrapped her responses in velvet, but nothing could soften the steel at the center.
