Page 117 of Stand Your Ground
Will’s phone buzzed in his hand.
“She’s here,” he said, glancing at me before heading for the elevator. “Try not to puke before she makes it upstairs.”
Jaxson raised his glass in salute, already manning the speaker with a grin. “Don’t worry, I’ve got Barry White queued if things get awkward. Nothing sets the mood like deep baritone and a saxophone solo.”
“Christ,” I muttered, scrubbing a hand down my face.
Aleks smirked from where he adjusted the lanterns strung across the railing. “Ignore him. Everything’s ready. Just breathe, Fabio.”
Easier said than done, I thought, but I did my best to force air in and out of my lungs. I cracked my neck, rolling my shoulders and swallowing what felt like sandpaper in my throat. My hands were too big suddenly, too awkward, and I couldn’t figure out what the hell to do with them. I alternated between cracking my knuckles, smoothing my sports coat, and shoving them in my pockets.
The ding of the elevator snapped through the rooftop like the starting gun of a race.
My pulse lurched, stomach twisting violently like I was on a rollercoaster that just did a loop before dumping me into a nosedive.
Don’t blow it,a familiar voice whispered in my mind.
Before he could get another word in, I snuffed him out, visualizing me shoving him into a box and kicking it off the edge of the Grand Canyon.
And then the doors slid open, and at just the sight of her, all my nerves were calmed.
Will stepped out first, all smug professionalism with dark sunglasses covering his eyes and Livia’s arm tucked into his like she was royalty being escorted to a throne. But the second I saw her, the rest of the world dimmed.
I’d been bracing myself for her usual armor: a killer dress, heels sharp enough to slit a man’s throat, that don’t-mess-with-me confidence that made everyone in the room orbit her like she was the sun.
Instead, she padded out in gray sweatpants and a black cropped tee, socks shoved into slides, her textured hair pulled back in a low bun. She still wore her jewelry, of course, gold chains glimmering from around her neck and studs in her ears.But she was bare-faced, cozy, like she’d just walked out of her condo and right into my best dream.
And Jesus Christ, she was beautiful.
The nervous hammer in my chest slowed to a steady and strong beat, like my heart was a drummer cast with the task to keep pace for every other organ. The moment my eyes locked on hers, the pressure released.
My breath evened out.
My spine straightened.
I didn’t just feel calmed by her presence, but confident — in what I would say, in how she would receive it, inus.
Why the fuck was I ever nervous to begin with?
Still, as I started walking to meet her, I could see her wearing the same worry and exhaustion I had been, like she, too, was suffering from the distance we’d put between us. She looked like she’d been carrying just as much weight as I had these last weeks. But she was here. She’d come. And I knew right then that this was my chance to bring her smile back.
I took my next steps with swagger, like she was mine already, like there was no other option than for the night to end with her in my arms and my heart in her hands.
Will smirked when we met in the middle, bowing like the Queen’s guard before handing me Livia’s hand. I chuckled a bit, giving him a mock nod of polite gratitude, and then as he slipped back into the elevator with Aleks joining him, I pulled Livia’s arm through mine.
“Hello, gorgeous,” I said, smile beaming out of me like a spotlight now that I had her. The press of her warm body against mine had me as giddy as a child.
I waited for her to roll her eyes or tell me not to call her that, the way she had when I’d called her beautiful. But for once, Livia didn’t seem to have a single word of retort. She only smiled, the edges of it soft and tinted with sadness. “Hi.”
“Matilda” by Harry Styles began to play, and when I looked over my shoulder, it was just in time to see Jaxson cast me a wink before he joined the other guys in the elevator. Will moved his hand where he’d been holding the door open, and they disappeared, leaving us alone.
Zamboni finally realized there was someone new on the rooftop, and he abandoned where he’d no doubt been sniffing out the crumbs not even the world’s best waiter could have found and sprinted straight for Livia. Like usual, she commanded him with just a raised fist, my ornery pup sliding to a stop in front of her and plopping his furry butt right down on the ground. He whined as he looked up her, tail wagging hard enough to knock over a small child.
“Good boy,” she said, bending to pet him. And she didn’t just hinge at the waist, either. She released me so she could squat down to his eye level, giving him her full attention, rubbing his chest and then up behind his ears with that soft smile of hers locked in place.
And if I didn’t already love her, seeing her love my dog like that would have done the trick.
“What’s this your dad has wrangled you into?” she asked, plucking at the hiking vest. She stilled for some reason after the words left her mouth, like she’d said something she didn’t mean to, but I couldn’t read too much into it before she was standing, and the look was gone. “Are we hiking or having a fine dining experience, because the way you’re dressed and the way Zambo is dressed are really contrasting here.”
