Page 105 of Villainous Summer

“Hood Canal is not a true canal but a what?”

I had always been good at trivia, but it was as if these questions were made for me.

When we got the last question about the penalties of illegal trespassing, I glanced over at Van. “Did you do something?”

He frowned, but the casual expression couldn’t hide the humor in his eyes.

“Me?”

“Seriously?” I nudged him. “I can’t believe you fixed the questions for bar trivia.”

“How would I do that, Sunshine? Who would spend hours researching to come up with questions that are perfectly in tuned to our interests and relationship and then track the host down at his day job, in Illahee where he works in IT, and pay him a few hundred bucks to switch the questions?”

Heat flooded my cheeks, and I couldn’t bite back the smile blooming over my face.

Leaning forward, I rested a hand on his cheek.

Since I got out, he’d been so gentle with me. While there have been a lot of little pecks and hand-holding, his touch has been tender, tentative, even. Enough of that.

I kissed him in the middle of that dingy dive bar, with its peeling marbled contact-papered tabletop.

He held my cheek delicately as if I were a bubble about to burst, but I didn’t allow it.

I deepened our kiss, my tongue tracing the seam of his lips.

It had been a long month without this. The need pulsed between us as he matched my kisses with his own.

His shouting coworkers, announcing we had won with a perfect score, interrupted us.

No surprise there.

Beside us, Eldon leaned forward, his arm around Savvy’s shoulder. “You two should go grab the prize. You answered all the questions, anyway.”

Van and I grinned at each other. With my thumb, I wiped the spot of pink lipstick lingering on his mouth. “As sweet as that is, I think we’ve both won, don’t you?”

Van’s smile widened.

“Absolutely.” Clapping Eldon on the shoulder, he shook his head. “You two take it. We have other plans.”

We walked through the house and straight out the back door into the garden.

In the middle of the lawn, Van had set a large picnic blanket, with a bottle of my favorite rosé on ice and little cakes. On the edge of the fabric were trios of battery-operated tea lights.

I covered my mouth at the sight. “Van, I—”

Taking my hand, he helped me sit before lowering himself beside me. He poured the rosé into one of the teacups from the cabinet.

He had insisted I use them as often as possible, even making a stray comment about them belonging to me.

I popped one of the little cakes in my mouth, the taste exploding across my taste buds. “I didn’t know the bakery made mini lemon rose cakes.”

He grinned at me. “They don’t, normally. I put in a special request for them.”

A swelling sensation filled my chest at the words. All these little gestures, the care, and details he created for me. My eyes prickled with tears. That was a new thing from the attack. I was rawer at first, crying over music lyrics and sad books.

But then, being in the safety of Van’s arms, with the help of my friends and family, fulfilling it all made it easier to be vulnerable with him.

For the first time in my adult life, I could be soft. Before, I existed behind a shield, never showing my tenderness. But with Van, I grew stronger. And, in that strength, I could move on. Never forgiving, I wasn’t a completely different woman. But I could let go, and eventually, I knew that bad day would be a passing memory I could easily forget.

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