Page 91 of Here We Go Again

He chuckles, then he drops his hands into the water and settles them on my hips. He lifts me easily and pulls me onto his lap. My legs wrap around him, then he moves us off the stairs and into the pool, dropping down so we’re both immersed up to our shoulders.

“I’ve been thinking about it since we got here, if that counts for anything.”

“You’ve been very patient,” I say. Then I lift my hands to his face and kiss him again.

His fingers press into my hips, his grip tightening as we kiss and kiss and kiss.

When our fingers are pruney, and we’ve completely lost track of time—it could be one a.m. or four a.m. for all I know—we finally climb out of the pool. Theo picks up the towel sitting near his phone and wraps it around me. He holds the ends closed just under my chin and uses it to tug me in for another kiss.

“I want to try again, Bec,” he says when he pulls back, blue eyes glimmering in the moonlight. “Can we do that?”

There is a mountain of emotion behind his eyes, a vulnerability that somehow tears me open and stitches me back together at the same time. “I would really like that,” I say, and I mean every single word.

Later, when I’m finally in bed, wet hair piled on my head, sheets cool against my skin, my mind starts to tally all the things I don’t know about what this relationship will look like.

If I’ll still leave Atlanta at the end of the month. How we’ll manage his travel schedule. What we’ll even call each other. Is he my boyfriend? With anyone else, it might feel premature to use that word, but with Theo, it almost doesn’t feel big enough.

The point is, I’m staring into the unknown, something that would usually have me running for the hills. But after tonight, it’s like my body has forgotten how to be afraid.

Because Theo doesn’t feel like a risk.

He feels like home.

24

THEO

I don’t last fifteen minutes before I quit trying to sleep and reach for my phone. There’s no way I can actually relax. Not with the taste of Becca still on my lips. The ghost of her touch making my skin hot with awareness.

It’s been less than thirty minutes since I said goodnight.

Is it too soon to text her?

Probably. But I decide to do it anyway. It’s only half-composed when my phone buzzes with an incoming message.

Becca

Hi.

I grin as I delete my first attempt and key out a much simpler response.

Theo

Hi.

Becca

I can’t sleep.

Theo

Me neither.

Becca

I can’t stop thinking about how close you are. Just … right across the hall.

Theo