She sighed. “Sure, I’d love to do that,” she said, taking her turn to climb down the ladder. Her eyes searched the well-trodden grass for the last unopened box. “What I don’t want to do is have an Etsy store making custom ceramic models of people’s pets, while running seven other side hustles to make ends meet, and still never having the time to make something just because I want to make it.”
“Huh.” He took that in. “I can’t imagine not wanting to do only one thing. All I’ve ever wanted to be is an architect.”
“Why are we doing all of this, then?” she asked, hacking at the long cardboard box with her utility knife.
“When I got the inheritance, I was hoping it would become more of a passive-income thing, so I’d have the freedom to leave my government job and start my own architecture firm. And being an innkeeper of a lakeside resort designed by one of my heroes sounded like the dream way of accomplishing that. It sounded like a fantasy.”
She grunted, still prying open the thick cardboard. “The Shore Thing must’ve been a real disappointment.”
“It was. But Forest’s Bridge. Now that’s a silver lining. That’s what’s making this whole mess worthwhile. Is France your Forest’s Bridge?”
“What?”
“You said that’s what you wanted to do with the money. What are you going to do there? Go to museums? Drink wine?”
She breathed, feeling unexpectedly exposed. “You ask a lot of questions,” she observed. Hauling the narrow ridged pieces out the final box, she hoisted them skyward. “Can you grab these?” He freed her hands, allowing her to climb back up, the ladder trembling under her feet.
“France is less my silver lining and more the realization of my big ‘what if?’ Bree and I had made plans to move there together forever ago. But the summer before we were supposed to go, I started getting migraines. I was trapped in bed constantly, and nothing seemed to make them better. The medication I’m on now hadn’t even been invented yet. Plus I had this boyfriend at the time, and he…” She shook the thought away. “Our big adventure started to feel like a burden, so we shelved it, and…Idon’t know, the whole thing’s probably silly. It’s not like we can get that time back. Bree’s in a completely different phase of her life.”
But Lainey wasn’t. In so many ways, she was as unfinished as one of her sculptures in the yard, still unsure what she ought to become.
Kneeling sideways to brace himself, he placed the last piece on the peak of the roof, completing the puzzle. “That doesn’t seem silly to me,” he said, drilling it into place.
With the final piece secured, they climbed down and stepped far enough back to properly admire their work.
It was obvious they’d lost the log cabin charm of the original, and knowing that Elliot’s tastes leaned more toward organic architecture than modern farmhouse, Lainey imagined panic brewing inside his wavy-haired, design-obsessed head.
He removed his gloves and adjusted his glasses, taking it in.
She took a deep breath. “Now, before you say anything, I know it’s not representative of the ‘natural architecture movement’ and it sticks out like a sore thumb, but it’s watertight and—”
“We made this.” The smile built steadily across his face until suddenly he was bursting. “This is a roof. That we installed ourselves.”
“Yeah. We did,” she replied, batting the dust off her jeans with her gloves.
He pressed his hand to his forehead like his happiness was so great, it was liable to take his head off with it.
“So it’s okay?” she asked, laughing.
His reaction was so bold and bright. It made her desperate to do more things to elicit that same response.
“Of course it’s okay.” He turned to her, giving her the full force of his exuberance. It landed hot on her skin like sunshine.
“Holy shit, Davis!” His hands gripped her waist, and he lifted her into the air in a rush. He spun her around, the world blurring into streaks of green and brown. “We made a roof,” he shouted, a little too close and a little too loud, but still utterly thrilling. Giddy with laughter, she slung her hands around his neck. She was weightless as strands of her hair fell loose from her ponytail.
When her feet floated to the ground, their lips touched. Just for a second. The briefest accidental brush. As though they were doing a dance and it simply was the next step—only they’d forgotten they weren’t supposed to be doing that part.
When her shoes skimmed the grass, there was an opportunity to pull away. It would’ve been so natural to jump out of his arms and act as though nothing had happened. They hadn’t kissed yet, not really. Surely, this little whisper couldn’t count.
Her heart didn’t race, but stilled, as though someone had pressed pause on the two of them. She watched the moment pass, then another, as she felt his shaky breath brush against her lips, neither of them making a move for the easy out.
She’d never be able to remember if she wrapped her legs around his waist first or if he’d already picked her up by her thighs—but suddenly her back was pressed against the side of the cabin and his lips were on hers, his tongue urging her mouth open for him, making her gasp.
He tasted like mint Life Savers and salty skin. She tugged on his hair, wanting to grab at pieces of him. It was soft and slick in her fist. Heat swirled in her belly, licking up her chest and into her neck, where Elliot’s thumb pressed across her collarbone.His other hand was still gripping her thigh, his hard chest bearing down against hers. Every inch of her was pressed against his warmth and solidity and safety.
This was never going to be a normal first kiss. The tension had been building between the two of them since he climbed into the back seat of her car in the rain. They’d let their attraction develop into something unstable—volatile—and this was their reckoning. Her kissing him the way you kissed someone you’d fantasized about kissing. Him touching her how you touched someone you’d dreamed about touching late at night when you were all alone and in desperate need of a cold shower.
“I can’t believe we’re finally doing this,” he gasped into her mouth, his lips attentively responding to each little nip and noise like they were of the utmost importance.
