Page 74 of The Risks of Reuniting

WhenIwakeup,Allie is in the kitchen baking the brownies I'd begged her for, and she squeals and gives me a hug before she pushes me away with a wrinkled nose and laughs.

"I don't know how this is possible, but you smell like a foreign country," she says.

I sniff at my shirt and pull a face. "What are you talking about?"

"Go shower. The brownies will be ready when you're done."

"Is Holt sleeping still?" I ask.

She shrugs, but her eyes are suspiciously shifty as she pours the batter into a pan, so I pause in going to look for him.

"What did you do, Al?" I ask.

"I gave him the ole butterknife, and a side of whisk." She turns to look at me with a firm expression. "And I would do it again."

Allie has always had this quirk of using kitchen utensils to make a point. I've never seen anyone else do it, but I find it hysterical, especially when they aren't aimed at me.

"You really gave him the full thing, huh?" I ask, a smile tickling my face. "Both utensils?"

"He practically peed himself."

I snort laugh and hug her again, smothering her in whatever foreign scent she doesn't like. "You're the best."

She shoves me away. "You'd whisk for me any day."

I go around the wall into the living room to find Holt lying on the couch with his arm splayed across his eyes. I can't tell if he's awake or asleep, but it gives me some tingle-jingles to see him there, in my space, on a couch he helped me pick out. His feet are bare and his clothes are as wrinkled as mine, and I want to crawl in next to him and avoid going to see our families today. I want more time in our bubble.

His arm shifts and his dark eyes meet mine. His expression is serious and I walk closer to where he lies looking up at me.

"I hear you got the utensil treatment from Allie," I smile down at him.

"That's Allison to you." He yawns. "The armed services should put her to work."

I giggle. "She means well."

"She loves you," he responds.

I nod. "Yeah. Do I want to know what she said?"

He glances at his phone where it's propped on the arm of the couch and sighs. "It mostly involved telling me not to mess this up, and to be prepared to make sacrifices as necessary."

My stomach dives and I sit on the floor next to the couch. "What kind of sacrifices?" I ask, already having a guess. "Like the kind where you give up pharmacy school?" I'd asked him to do that last year – well, at least attend locally – and he'd refused. How had he reacted when Allie said it?

He sits up and places his elbows on his knees, leaning toward me. "Yeah. There was a real emphasis on me deciding what I can and cannot give up." I swallow hard. He lifts his hand and caresses my cheek with the backs of his fingers. "In case I haven't made this clear in the past week, I know what I can't live without. That's not a question."

And that's enough for me right now. I can handle the days ahead if I know that's the base we're working off.

"Same," I reply, leaning into his touch. "We'd better get cleaned up and ready to go."

We haul our packs up the stairs and Holt takes the hall bathroom while I take the primary bath. I wasn't kidding about Peru teaching me to shower quickly, and I'm a little sad now that I'm in my glorious bathroom that I can't indulge in a decadent, hot, water-pressure-filled shower. But I keep it to the basics, and enjoy going to my closet to pick out fresh clothing that I haven't seen in a month.

I choose a striped T-shirt dress that hits me just above the knees and a pair of slides that will keep my feet comfortable. As I style my hair and put on more makeup than I have for weeks, I can still feel the exhaustion from the past two days tugging at me. I needed more than a two-hour nap, and everything is suddenly coming at me so fast with family visits happening. My hands shake as I put on earrings and a couple different gold chains. I look at myself in the mirror and make a fierce face.

"Time to go to war," I say to the petite, dark-haired woman looking back at me. "Let's do it."

Holt is quiet on the drive over to his parents' house, looking out the passenger window and taking in the views of the Salt Lake Valley below us. From the foothills everything spreads far and wide, although the inversion today is making it hard to see great distances. I assume he's quiet because he's tired, and also because he's as nervy as I am. At least I hope that's why he's quiet. It could also be because Allie gave him a talking to and he's deep-thinking things.

I remember how he looked at me when I came downstairs after getting ready. He'd given me a once-over, smiled, and pressed the sweetest kissto my mouth when he'd seen me all dressed up, whisperingmy beautiful loveagainst my lips.

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