Page 103 of Only and Forever

She eases toward me again, staring up at me. “Blood sugar is good, too.” I hold her eyes as she takes my hand, until we’re close to her pod. Gently, she guides my finger along the edge of the adhesive. “All safe and sound,” she whispers. “You didn’t knock it loose.”

I swallow roughly, flooded with emotion as she settles my hand on her hip and nudges her thigh between mine. Our eyes hold as I glide my hand slowly from her hip along her back, a soothing circle. I’m relieved I didn’t hurt her. I’m overwhelmed by this trust and honesty she’s given me, telling me how hard this is, showing me an entirely new level of this part of herself and her life.

“I wish I could do something,” I whisper. “Anything to make it better for you, Lu.”

Tallulah stares up at me and smiles faintly. She blinks away tears. “You are. I told you, this makes it better, you understanding, helping, being here.”

“Doesn’t feel like enough,” I mutter roughly, blinking away my own tears.

“It is,” she whispers. And then she’s quiet for a moment, her eyes searching my face. A faint smile lifts her mouth. “Your hair is a sight to behold.”

I don’t move my hand from her hip, don’t check to feel how goofy it must be. “Headphone hair. I was listening to an audiobook.”

She frowns. “Couldn’t sleep?”

I shake my head.

Uncertainty tightens her expression. “Maybe you want to go back to your audiobook now. I shouldn’t... I shouldn’t keep you.”

I stare down at her, my hand gliding across her lower back again. “You’re not keeping me. It’s a reread anyway. So... I could stay. If... you wanted me to.” Nerves get the better of me, make me ramble, afraid if I’m quiet, she’ll say what I’m dreading—that she doesn’t need me, doesn’t want me, that I’ve overstepped. “Besides, it’s been a while since I slept on the right side of the bed. I like to mix it up, which side I sleep on. Lately, I’ve been on a left side streak. The left side of the bed has a very specific kind of energy, know what I mean?”

A soft laugh huffs out of her. “You’re rambling.”

My cheeks heat as I grimace. “I am.”

She brings a hand to my hair and softly combs through it. “You do that when you’re nervous.”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

Her eyes hold mine. “I’m a little nervous, too. I’ve never shared a bed with someone. But... I want to, with you. If...youwant to.”

I beam down at her. “I do.”

“Just don’t get too attached to the right side of the bed,” she says as she shuts her eyes and snuggles into me.

My stomach drops at the implication. That she won’t want this again, that this is just a onetime thing—

“I have to switch sides,” she says, her voice quieter, her breath sweet and warm against my neck. “When I rotate my CGM and my pod to the other side of my body, I have to sleep on the other side of the bed.”

A ridiculously wide grin lifts my mouth. I shut my eyes and rest my cheek on her head. “Well, then, lucky for you, to have found such an expert cuddler who appreciates the merits of both sides of the mattress.”

Who wants to hold you and comfort you for as long as you’ll let me.

I feel her smile against my skin, soft and sleepy. “Lucky for me indeed.”

—

“Ready to go?” Tallulah calls from the kitchen.

“Almost!” I yell from my room, dragging my soccer shorts up my legs.

“We’re going to be late!”

I frown, peering down at my phone. “No, we’re not!”

Tallulah storms down the hall and knocks. I open my door. She takes my breath away. Like always. Lightweight gray athleisure capris, a yellow team T-shirt tight across her tits and soft stomach, hair up in a messy bright blue bun. “Yes, we are. Our game is at nine this week, not ten.”

“Shit.” I lunge past her, to where my turf shoes and soccer socks sit in a pile on my dresser.

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