Page 100 of The Mating Game
“Just you,” I say quietly.
She bites at the inside of her lip, holding back a smile before telling me, “A line like that woulddefinitelyget you a make-out session.”
I kiss her softly then, closing my eyes as she leans into me. She’s so warm, so soft and sweet—it’s hard not to pull her closer, to let her warmth bleed into the coldest parts of me, thawing them, making them come back to life.
I haven’t felt as alive as I do with Tess in a very long time.
“I’m sort of jealous I didn’t grow up here,” she murmurs. “Seems I missed out on a lot.”
“Well,” I tell her, gathering her in my arms and pulling her down into the blankets, “I could show you a thing or two.”
I reach up to trace my finger against the polyester ceiling of the tent, drawing shapes. “That’s Ursa Major right there.”
“Oh, is it?”
“Mm-hmm.” I move my hand, drawing another shape above her. “And that’s Andromeda.”
“You really are a nerd,” she laughs.
I eye her from the side. “You got something to say about that?”
“No way,” she teases. “I think it’s pretty hot.”
“Sure you do,” I murmur.
She cuddles closer to me. “Show me another one.”
“Well. This would be Orion,” I tell her. I draw a line across where its middle would be. “And this would be his belt.”
“Sure, sure,” she says.
“And then there’s Lupus,” I point out, drawing it on the polyester with my finger.
She cocks her head. “There’s a constellation called Lupus?”
“The wolf,” I say. “Yeah.”
“Huh. I bet I would have known that if I’d grown up like this.”
“Maybe,” I tell her. “Maybe not.”
“It’s still so weird.”
“I can only imagine.”
“One day I’m one way, and then the next…Poof. Something else.”
“Do you regret it?”
She looks up at me, smiling softly. “Not really.”
Her soft look does something to my insides, like she’s saying without words thatI’mthe reason she doesn’t regret all the changes she’s going through. It’s like a knot that’s been tightly wound for ages slowly starting to unravel. That’s a heady thing for someone who isn’t sure they’re worth all that.
She shifts beside me, squirming a little as her face scrunches up.
“Are you okay?”
She looks sheepish. “Just a little sore.”
