Page 61 of Finally Loved

Neve turned and walked away, and Zainab snorted. “You’re going to try to act like you two aren’t a couple?”

Alba barely heard her. She shot off after Neve.

“Hey,” she said, catching her up in the bedroom—Alba’s bedroom, their bedroom?

Neve paused like she’d been caught doing something wrong. “Hey?”

Alba smiled. “What are you doing for the holiday weekend?”

“Oh.” She relaxed. “Nothing really.”

Alba nodded. She’d never taken anyone home. Not once. Not ever.

Well, she’d taken friends home. So, wasn’t this supposed to feel the same? She was just bringing a friend. Supposedly.

“Why?” Neve asked, taking a step forward.

“My family does this beach house thing every year. You know, cousins, grandparents, everyone hanging out.”

“Okay.”

Alba breathed against the butterflies in her stomach. It was just two friends, hanging out. Her mother would be thrilled to meet another one of Alba’s friends. “I was wondering if you wanted to come with me?”

“Oh.” Neve blushed again. Alba was really starting to love the sight of it. “Are you sure your family wouldn’t mind me crashing at the last minute?”

Alba laughed. “Not at all. My mother is from the school ofinvite and feed everyone you’ve ever met. And even the more discerning members are always happy to meet friends, family, partners of those attending.” She tried not to notice the way her voice sounded slightly strangled when speaking about partners in attendance.

Neve smiled nervously. “You’re not going to ditch me the whole weekend to fend for myself, are you?”

“Of course not.” Alba would never do that to her. It was much more likely that she wouldn’t leave Neve’s side for even a minute.

“Okay. Then, uh, yeah. I’d love to go.”

Alba couldn’t keep the dazzling grin off her face. “Great.” She nodded in the direction of the bathroom. “I’ll let you take that shower now.”

Neve nodded, waiting until Alba was right by the door before she whispered, “Thanks. Alba.”

The pause in the middle did something strange to Alba’s insides. She felt herself blushing as she headed back towards Zainab and the kitchen.

Zainab didn’t look up from her phone when Alba entered and set about boiling the kettle for drinks to go with the cake. With Alba being so mesmerized by Neve, it took a minute, but she finally caught the little smile on Zainab’s face. She couldn’t help but think it likely wasn’t a million miles away from the look she’d had on her own face back when Neve first texted her.

She cleared her throat lightly. “Someone interesting?”

Zainab looked at her with dangerously narrowed eyes. After being caught pinning Neve to Tariq’s car, Alba supposed she was playing a dangerous game. But what was life without a little danger?

“Or something,” she added, entirely unnecessarily.

Zainab finished typing and slipped her phone into her pocket. “You know, I’ll at least give you this, it’s not as unrequited as I thought it would be.”

Alba watched as Zainab opened the fridge and pulled out the remnants of the cake her colleagues had presented her with earlier in the day. “What’s not?”

She sighed heavily. “It’s actually insulting that you somehow managed to get someone as intelligent as Neve interested in you.”

“You’re changing the subject,” she pointed out, willing the slight desperation of wanting Zainab’s words to be true not to show on her face.

“Right, because you never do that.”

“Nope.”

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