AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I hold her and seconds, maybe minutes, tick by before she whispers, “We’ve never had front door sex. That worked for me. How about you?”
I laugh. “Yes, sweetheart. It worked for me.”
She presses on my chest and leans back to look at me. “Did it?”
“Yes,” I assure her, realizing now how much less on edge I am. “No one else could take me from where I was to laughing about front door sex but you.”
“You know this isn’t your fault, right?”
“I’m still inside you. Is this really the best time to have this conversation?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s the only way to have this conversation based on how you were in the car.”
My lips curve. “Well, every conversation is better when I’m inside you, but if we stay like this long enough we won’t be talking.”
“You aren’t that fast,” she teases. “Pretty fast sometimes, but—” She sobers. “Cole—”
I pull her to me and kiss her. “I know it’s not my fault, but Ashley has no one in this world. Somehow, when I wanted to have no one in this world, I have you, and with you I seem to have realized I have a richer life in the way of people I care for than I realized.” I kiss her temple and stand up with both of us, my hamstrings burning with the effort to the point I moan.
“You should put me down.” Lori laughs when I start walking.
“I don’t want to put you down,” I say and it’s true. Holding her and staying inside her the rest of the night sounds pretty damn good.
Inevitably though, I do set her down once we’re in the bathroom at the sink where I hand her a towel and grab her robe from behind the door. “How about a pizza?”
“Okay,” she says, slipping on her robe.
I kiss her and help her to the floor. I grab my phone and place our order with a late-night joint we know well. In the process I walk to the bedroom and ultimately the window, overlooking the starless dark city. I’ve just stuck my phone back in my pocket when Lori appears by my side, stepping between me and the glass, where she leans on the clear surface. “I get it,” she says. “A life rich in people means you can lose those people. You know how I feel about this. Death is that thing you can’t control. I can’t control it. It’s terrifying. It’s why I panic when my phone rings, for fear it’s about my mother again.”
“I can’t believe I’ve never asked you about that story,” I say, my hand settling on her waist. “How did you find out about your father and your mother?”
“With my father, I was in the law school library when a security guard came and got me, of all people. I knew when he stopped by my side that it was bad. I knew. They took me into an office and a nurse had to tell me because my mother was incapable of speaking.” She cuts her gaze and I can almost feel her lose her breath before she looks at me. “I had to be strong. She was—she was bad.”
“When did you cry?”
“I don’t remember when I cried, Cole. I know I did, but it wasn’t at the funeral. I found this cold spot to live inside.”
“What about your mother’s stroke?”
She inhales and lets it out. “In the middle of a mock trial. The teacher pulled me aside. The trip to get from school to the city was hell.”
My forehead settles on hers. “You’re never going to be alone again. I promise.”
She leans back to look at me. “You can’t promise that. I can’t promise that to you either, so let’s just promise that we are going to crazy love each other every single second.”
“Yes,” I say, my voice low, rough. “Every second.”
Her fingers curl on my jaw. “Ashley is alone. You’re right. We have to help her. But how?”
“How,” I repeat when a thought hits me.
“Houston.”
“What about Houston?”
“I don’t know. It just feels like an answer. It’s where she’s from. It’s where she met her fiancé.” I pull my phone from my pocket and dial Royce, placing him on speaker.
“Nothing new,” he says.
