Page 49 of Breathing Wisteria
“That’s good right?” Her voice slightly nervous. “It means they’re getting tired of us?”
“Yeah.” I take hold of her hand and raise it to my mouth, placing a kiss on her palm. “The story’s played out, people don’t care anymore. This is more what you can expect on a normal day.”
Her brow furrows. “So, wait, they’re never all gone?”
I laugh and cringe slightly when I hear the edge of bitterness it holds. “No, there is always someone there, with a camera shoved in your face. You don’t always see them, but they’re there.”
She pulls her hand away, but only so she can trace along my jaw, her fingertips scraping through my stubble. Her eyes are serious, and I wonder if it’s finally occurring to her that I might not be worth all the sacrifices it is going to take to be with me.
Instead, she leans in and brushes her lips across mine.
“I guess we’ll have to make sure we give them something worth photographing then.”
This fucking woman.
Moving away slightly, she quirks an eyebrow at me.
“Have you seen Giselle’s blog this week? There’s been something horrible posted about you every day.”
I can feel the scowl settle on my face.
“She’s a bitch, not even worth worrying about.”
“I don’t know, it feels like more than that.” She shakes her head. “It feels almost personal. How well do you know her?”
I square my shoulders slightly, my body tensing.
“Oh.” She purses her lips, nodding. “Right.”
“It was a long time ago and a huge fucking mistake.” I take her hand and place it between mine, marveling at how well it fits, despite the size difference. But that’s us all over. No matter how many differences there are between us, nobody is a better fit for me than her.
“It’s fine, Flynn, really. We were separated, we both saw other people and neither of us did anything wrong.” She steals my move, taking hold of one of my hands and pulling it to her mouth. Her lips open slightly, and she places a kiss on the back of my hand, right below my thumb. A simple and chaste gesture, but her mouth anywhere on my body sends a frisson of electricity through me.
Pulling away, she moves back, her body turned toward me, her face suddenly anxious.
“So, tell me more about your friends.”
She’s playing with a strand of her hair, the dark red a stark contrast to the bright pink of her nails and worrying her bottom lip with her teeth.
“You don’t have anything to worry about,” I reassure her. “Brax knows all about you. He’s been telling me to win you back since I met him, so he’s feeling pretty fucking cocky right about now. And Mel loves everyone.”
My words were meant to be reassuring, but from the look on her face it had the opposite effect.
“What?”
“He knows all about me?”
“Yeah, we might have gotten a bit drunk the night we met and told each other our biggest secrets. Remind me to tell you about his Disney obsession one day.” I snort out a laugh as I remember Brax, six foot two, heavily tattooed and mohawked at the time, confessing his love for Disney movies.The Little Mermaidis his favorite, just in case you were wondering.
“But he must hate me!” Wyatt looks horrified and I have no fucking clue why.
“Why would he hate you?” The confusion obvious in my voice.
“Because I was horrible to you. God, I told you it was your fault, Flynn. Who says something like that to someone? Especially to someone they love!”
Her entire demeanor has changed. She’s curled into herself and her eyes are full of pain.
“Yeah, you said that.” I wrap a hand around her thigh and drag her along the seat until she’s right in front of me and then my hands slide up to cup her face. “You were in pain and you needed someone to blame. That’s what lovers do for each other. We take the hit and absorb the pain, so the person we love doesn’t have to.” I place a kiss on the tip of her nose. “I’ll always be sorry that I was too immature to realize that at the time. I did think leaving was the best thing to do for you, but it also gave me an excuse to run from my mistakes. You needed me, and I let you down.” I close my eyes and quietly inhale her vanilla scent. “I let you down the night we lost Carys, and I let you down again while you were grieving her. I have no idea why you’re giving me another chance, but I’m fucking glad you are.”
