Page 91 of Facing the Line

“Everybody’s family is different,” I finally say. “Your dynamics with your mom are not the same as the way my family works, but that’s okay. There’s no judgment here. I can see why you’re having a hard time with all this.”

That must have been reassuring, because the tension leaves her body, and she exhales. “Thanks, Joe.”

She smiles and readjusts her armful of pillows to grab my hand. I squeeze her fingers, but it’s like she’s slipping out of my grasp.

That was always the plan, I remind myself. She set an end-date to our fling, and I agreed to it. But that was before. Before Ifell in love with her and started thinking we could stay together…forever.

Chapter

Forty

JONAS

Jonas: I’ve barely seen you since we got back from Boston. Wanna go to the gym with me?

Evan: You work too hard in the off-season.

Jonas: Just trying to stay in shape.

Evan: I’ve been partying pretty hard. I should be more like you.

Jonas: Nah, be yourself. But come for a run with me soon?

Evan: Sure.

“Hey, come’ere.” Stepping over the threshold to our apartment, I pull Hadley close and brush my lips against hers.

Giggling, she fumbles behind her back to latch the door and loops her arms around my neck, leaning into me. She returns my kiss with gusto, and the concerned part of my brain relaxes.

We’ve been back from Boston for a week, but things have been off ever since her phone rang, calling us to her mom’s side. While she hasn’t been uptight, there’s a distance between us. But her walls come down when we kiss. So I thread my fingers through her ponytail, effectively destroying it, and tilt her head back. I taste her—all of her. The salty sweat that lingers on her skin from our workout, her enthusiasm for what’s about to come next, and her desire to lose herself in me. And if her urgency masks a hint of desperation, well, I’m happy to ignore that.

She hitches her legs up, straddling my waist, and I move my hands to support her. Spinning us, I pin her against the door and ravish her mouth. I’m about to strip her naked right here in the entryway when she pulls back, panting.

A weird thrill of pride lances through me at how swollen her pink lips are. I made them that way. I want to?—

“I think I’d like to shower first.” She raises a coy brow. “If you give me a second to wash my hair, you could join me. Scrub my hard-to-reach places?”

Um. My brain misfires as all the blood in my head moves south. Then her stomach growls.

“Hungry?” I ask.

She blushes. “A little. That was a good run. I worked up an appetite.”

I set her down and brush my fingertips over the sensitive skin of her belly. “What if I ordered food for us? For when we’re done with our shower…or whatever?”

Whatever is definitely code for fooling around, and Hadley’s answering smile is a mile wide. Which means I’m about to get lucky.

“That sounds great. Pizza?”

“I’ll do you one better. How about a cheese stick?”

“Oh, god, yes. That sounds amazing.” She moans, and I have to adjust my shorts. A cheese stick is a marvelous invention, concocted by Mad Max’s, a local pizza place. It’s a pizza crust with a garlic butter sauce instead of marina and cut into breadstick bites rather than slices. It’s the best marriage of pizza and garlic bread that has ever existed, and it’s addicting.

I do some quick calculations in my head, based on what I ate already today. I might have to make some different choices tomorrow. I’ve gotta stay healthy. But for now, I wink at Hadley. “I aim to please.”

She brushes one more lingering kiss on my lips before heading to her room to shower. With my mind half on what she’s doing in there, I place a quick GrubHub order and tidy the living room. Evan and I really need to get a couch for this place. Camp chairs won’t cut it forever. Although I’m eternally grateful we didn’t have a sofa for Hadley to crash on earlier in the summer.

I’m about to go check on her progress in the shower when there’s a knock on the door. Wow, that was fast. I could probably put the food in the oven to stay warm and still have time with Hadley, right?

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