Page 39 of Feels Like Falling
Come on, Max.
“Because—” The word is harsh, his breathing audible as he stares at me.
And I wait.
But it doesn’t take long, the fight draining from him as his body sags onto the end of the bed, his head in his hands. My heart breaks for him even as relief floods my veins.
Finally.
Stepping up between his legs, I gently drag my nails along his scalp and watch the way his muscles bunch and flex, the tension visible as he exhales through his mouth over and over. It feels like hours have passed when his arms finally come around my waist, his head turning to the side so he can rest his cheek on my stomach.
I wrap my arms around him and just hold him the way I’m sure no one has since the day I left here. I should have been here for him—really here—and not just the sporadic, meaningless text messages that we’d exchanged before Nan passed.
“I can take the picture down if you hate it,” I say because I’m drowning in the heaviness of this moment.
His shoulders shake with silent laughter, the movement vibrating through me before he throws his head back and laughs. It’s rich and full and so damn beautiful my eyes well with tears I have to blink away as a smile stretches across my face.
“Come here, you,” he says as he pulls me onto the bed. I yelp, bracing my hands on his chest before he rolls me onto my back and presses his lips to mine.
It’s sweet and exploratory, and I relish in the decadence of this uninterrupted moment.
“Are you okay?” I ask when he rests his forehead against mine as I draw little circles on the small of his back.
“I would say all this was overkill but…” He sits up enough to meet my gaze. It’s open and vulnerable and I wish I could just hide us away somewhere for a while. “I needed it.”
“I know.”
“I really hate that blanket,” he says as his tongue peeks out to wet his lips, and I can’t resist leaning up to nip at the bottom one.
“That’s why I picked it.” My grin is full of mischief as I add, “Matches your eyes.”
He snorts. “No it doesn’t.”
It really doesn’t, but that’s not important right now because my best friend is smiling, and I’ll do anything to make sure he keeps it up.
“Why don’t we go take a shower and then we can negotiate which of these gorgeous additions to your bedroom get to stay?”
He opens his mouth and then closes it, his lips turning up into a sinful smirk. “You’re on, Eddie. Let’s go.”
19
MONTANA
It had been a week since Ellison dumped all her yard sale finds into my bedroom. The negotiating process had beenintenseand fun as hell.
And exactly what I needed.
At the end of the day, it was all trivial, but I appreciate her for forcing me back to the present.
Grandad had scared the hell out of me. The notion that I truly am alone here if anything should happen crippled me in a way I hadn’t prepared for. He’d always been ageless to me, and I’d pushed all the evidence to the contrary from my mind.
Even with Ellison in my arms most nights, sleep hadn’t come easy. We needed to have a come-to-Jesus conversation about what’s going on between us. We’d just jumped back into our old routine like years didn’t separate the then and now. We both deserve answers and a whole lot of truth that’s gonna hurt like hell.
Maybe.
Probably.
Foolishly, I’d thought Ellison returning home would make things easier, but so far, she’d mostly just had me tied up in knots.
