Page 5 of No Place Like You

“You totally owe me a new pair.”

“I’ll buy you the whole fucking store,” I retort darkly. My voice drops about four octaves, and it makes me sound impatient and desperate and wild. Like I’d clean out the nearest La Perla in a heartbeat if it meant I could listen to her breathless voice against my ear.

Her head falls back at the same time the backs of her legs hit my bed, and her body falls onto my new old sheets with a thud.

“Are these Egyptian?”

“Hmm. Eight hundred thread count.”

“I’m impressed,” she says softly, catching her breath at the same time. “And here I thought they were going to be flannel.”

“I guess I’m not like other guys.”

She laughs. “You are so full of shit.” The sweet sound of her giggle and the bounce in the column of her neck makes my heart stutter.God, she’s so beautiful.

My lips continue their journey, meeting the sexy-as-fuck swell of her cleavage. Her hand flattens and tucks between the waistband of my sweatpants. And when her hand grips me, my entire body turns into Jell-O. Myhand pulls at the fabric covering her breast, exposing a bare nipple. I take it in my mouth, and she moans, her hand moving in earnest inside my pants.

“This is just sex, right?” she says, a whimper ending her question when my tongue flicks her skin.

“Just sex.”

3

Lucy

present day

Holy shit.

“Nat. What is that?”

Silence. Nothing but wide smiles, stifled giggles, andsilence.

I realize now that this FaceTime call isn’t a simple video chat. One my sister texted me about the night before with a sudden urgency to be available the next day at 2:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m. her time, all while she told me, “I just want to see your face.”

Stifled giggles continue to fill the silence. “What do you think it is?”

“I—is that…?”

More giggles. “An engagement ring?” Said engagement ring chooses that moment to reflect off the lights in Nat and her boyfriend of three years, Hayden’s, apartment from her left hand. Like someone dramatically sprinkled a handful of glitter in front of the screen to time it with my stunned reaction. It’s fucking gorgeous.

I nod vigorously. “Nat!” I squeal. “When did this happen?”

Nat turns to Hayden and grins. “Last week,” she answers, her gaze swooning in Hayden’s direction. “After Hayden’s grand opening. We closed up for the night, and before we left, he asked me to marry him in his empty restaurant. He’s been hiding this baby in his pocket for a few months.” Her eyes twinkle with the far-off look of fairytale princesses, matching the one on Hayden’s, while he looks at my sister as if she’s the world.

“You guys!” I whine, letting the last word stretch for a few seconds.Hayden leans down to give Nat a tender peck at her temple, and my insides melt a little.My sister’s getting married!“I’m so happy for you two!” I cry, and my voice cracks with a sledgehammer full of emotions.

“Is that Lucy?”

I hear a familiar voice at the same time both Nat and Hayden look over their shoulders. They lean toward the outer edges of the screen as Hayden’s old roommate, Dexter, pokes his head in between them.

“Hey there, stranger,” he calls in that low, throaty voice of his that can keep chocolate in a constant state of gooey softness.

The screen starts to wiggle, looking like Nat’s laptop is being moved from its current position to elsewhere. I can see the entire span of the room, parts of the ceiling, and what looks like a blurred kitchen sink before the movement stops and I see Dexter, his hands braced against a countertop with a lopsided—and pleased—smile.

“How are you?”

I lightly scoff, turning my face away before letting a smile slip. Dexter’s tongue pokes out and swipes across his lower lip, and that smile I couldn’t hold back is joined by an eye roll. “I’m good, Dexter.” My voice loses all of the sweetness and bounce it carried when I was talking to my sister.

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