Page 69 of I Can't Even

“You already said you were sorry for leaving me,” he said. “Why don’t we just leave it at that for now and start over?”

“Do you really think that’s possible, new boy?” I desperately did not want to lose this man again.

He stared into my eyes, looking for something. He must have found it because a slow smile turned up the corners of his full lips. He leaned in and whispered, “I think we’ve already started.”

After more sexy time, heaven help me, I rose from the bed and began to get dressed.

“You don’t have to go,” Liam protested.

“Yeah, I do,” I said. “Babs, being Babs, put it in her will that Soph, Em and I have to live together in her house for the next three months, and by that she meant sleeping there every night, or our entire inheritance goes to our cousin Paisley.”

“What? That’s mental.”

“That’s Babs.”

He studied me while I slid back into my yoga pants and sports bra. A slow grin spread across his face.

“What?” I asked.

“Three months,” he said. “I have three months to convince you to stay.”

My heart swelled until I thought it might explode. He wanted me to stay. There was still so much I needed to tell him, but the fact that he wanted me here made me giddy. Still, I tried to play it cool.

“I suppose it’s always good to have a project, new boy,” I teased.

He tugged me back onto the bed by the waistband of my pants and kissed me stupid. Then he walked me downstairs to the door, watching as I floated my way over the short wall that separated our front yards until I got back home.

Em was in the same place that I’d left her. I didn’t wake her up but took the recliner next to her and fell into an exhausted slumber.

It was three hours later when I awoke to the sound of Soph in the kitchen, using Babs’s smoothie maker to whip up some foul concoction to cure the hangover that was looming over Em like a fog of hurt.

I stretched and glanced at her slouched body. In my loudest conversational voice, I asked, “Em-bryo, how are you this morning?”

“Not funny.” Em groaned, opening her eyes to mere slits, and then quickly closing them with a hiss. “How were things with the boy next door?”

“Amazing!” It felt like my smile might split my face wide open.

Em held up a hand as if to ward off a light. “Stop that. Sheesh, your post-coital glow is practically nuclear.”

“She’s right.” Soph joined us carrying a large glass with a very green beverage in it. Ew. “I’m surprised you don’t have sparklers shooting out your fingertips, or anywhere else for that matter.”

“Sorry,” I said. “I’ll try and turn it down for you all.”

They looked at me expectantly while I tried to wrestle the smile from my face. “Yeah, sorry, I think I have an advanced case of perma-grin.”

“Did the two of you at least talk?” Soph asked.

“Yes, well, a little bit.” I told them about Liam breaking up with Courtney right after he consoled me about Babs’s death. Soph made an “aw” face while Em shrugged.

“That doesn’t excuse his mantrum on the first night you two got together,” Em said. “He was straight-up mean.”

“No, it doesn’t,” I agreed. “But he owned it and he apologized. Besides, you have to remember how much I hurt him when I left town with Jessie.”

“Which you still haven’t explained to him or us.” Em reached for the green beverage Soph held out to her and took a long chug. “Oh, ergh, ugh.”

While she gagged, I looked questioningly at Soph, who shrugged. “It’ll either make her feel better or wish for death, hard to say.”

“I hate you both, go away.” Em flopped back onto the divan, which was an invitation for Soph and I to snuggle into her. “Stop. Go away!”

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