Page 42 of Shift the Tide

Kiera

Can I call you?

Izzy stared at it. Her heart beat faster, like every second she hesitated, she was more likely to miss her moment.

She didn’t respond. Instead, she hitcall.

It rang once. Twice.

“Hey.” Kiera’s voice was soft. A little breathless, like she’d been waiting.

“Hey,” Izzy replied, her voice low, steady. She swallowed hard. “Everything okay? You’re up late.”

“I couldn’t sleep.” There was a pause, long enough that Izzy almost said something. But then Kiera’s voice came back, quieter this time. “I keep thinking about you.”

Izzy leaned back against her headboard, phone pressed tighter to her ear. “Yeah?”

She was rewarded with a breathy laugh and “yes” from Kiera, then, “I… I keep thinking about that kiss.”

Relief flooded over Izzy. She hadn’t misread the situation the night before — not entirely, not in the way she’d feared. All day she’d been stuck in her own head, replaying the night before on a loop, second-guessing every playful flirtation. She’d convinced herself she’d pushed too far, moved too fast, that maybe Kiera had only kissed her because it had been late and emotional and impulsive after their game in the bar. “I can’t stop thinking about you, either,” Izzy admitted, voice quiet. “I just want you to know that I don’t ever want to pressure you. And that I just think you’re so… Is it too much to say sexy? Is that okay?”

The sound of Kiera’s breath caught on the other end of the line. “I can’t think of the last time anyone thought I was sexy.”

Izzy swallowed. She wanted to strangle Kiera’s ex-husband for ever letting Kiera think she wasn’t an absolute goddess. “Well, I happen to think you’reverysexy.”

A soft laugh. “Well, the feeling isverymutual.”

“Veryglad to hear it,” Izzy teased.

Another soft laugh. “I’m sorry, I just… I can’t stop thinking about yesterday. I’m… this is all new to me. I spend most days feeling entirely invisible,” Kiera said.

Izzy smiled to herself. “Stop apologizing, first of all. You’re not invisible to me. I see you.”

There was silence. A beat too long. And then Kiera whispered, “I wanted you, too. Want. Present tense.”

A nervous flutter in Izzy’s stomach turned into a full-blown somersault. “I want you, too.”

Kiera was quiet for a moment, though Izzy could still hear her quiet movements and breaths on the line.

“Tell me what you’re thinking about that’s keeping you awake,” Izzy said, her voice softening. If Kiera was so worried she wasn’t able to sleep, Izzy wanted to reassure her.

Kiera’s breath hitched again. “You. Your hands on me. How it felt when you pulled me close in the elevator. Izzy…” She broke off with a quiet moan.

Oh.

Oh.

She just thought Kiera was letting herself be vulnerable again, letting the walls fall for a second. Izzy would’ve taken that. Happily. It wasn’t until Kiera’s breath caught, sharp and uneven, that Izzy felt the shift. Something in her tone, her rhythm, the way she exhaled Izzy’s name like itmeantsomething — that’s when it hit her. This wasn’t just closeness. This was want. This was Kiera reaching for her in a way Izzy had barely let herself hope for.

Izzy exhaled slowly. She was ready. “Tell me what you want, Kiera.”

There was nothing but the sound of their breathing on the line for a moment.

“I want to feel you again,” Kiera whispered, breathless and open. “I want to feel you dig your fingers into my hips again. I want… I want to remember what it felt like when you kissed me. Like I was the only thing you wanted.”

“You are.”

“Izzy.”

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