Page 91

“Yeah.” Lydia nodded and lifted her head to smile at Zann. “I just want to dance with you.”

Zann swallowed against the emotion that welled in her throat as she kissed the tip of her nose. “We can totally do that.”

“Good.” Lydia’s eyes crinkled with her widening smile. “And I also wouldn’t say no to a real kiss or two.”

“Just one or two?” Zann checked playfully as she dipped her head. Her heart leapt as long fingers framed her face, and her stomach followed suit as a trembling, wanting sigh crashed against her lips.

“Definitely not just one or two,” Lydia purred.

Zann whimpered as Lydia’s lips gently enveloped hers, and her eyes rolled back in her head at the hushed, breathy sound that tickled Lydia’s throat as she sucking lightly against her lower lip. She held Lydia closer as she lost herself in the slow, steady pull of their kisses, the music she was idly aware of completely drowned out by Lydia’s short gasps and contented sighs that punctuated the beginning and end of each kiss.

“I love you,” she whispered. She smiled as Lydia’s fingertips pressed into her jaw, holding her close as Lydia exhaled, “I love you,” and pressed forward to kiss her again.

Given their surroundings, Zann knew they were on borrowed time as they fell into another string of breathtakingly tender kisses, but that didn’t keep her from groaning loudly when their intimate embrace grew to include two more people as they were sandwiched between them.

“You guys know this isn’t a slow song, right?” Jack teased.

“I think they know,” Michael said.

“Hello, boys,” Zann grumbled. She dragged her eyes open as she tipped her forehead to rest against Lydia’s. The moment had been ruined, but she wasn’t ready to lose this closeness yet.

“Is there a reason you’re bugging us?” Lydia drawled, her eyes crinkling with a smile as she tenderly caressed Zann’s cheek. “We were kind of in the middle of something.”

“Oh, we saw,” Kit said as their four-person hug became five.

“It was very sweet,” Alder cooed as five became six.

“But you can’t look more loved-up than us at our wedding,” Aspen added as they were jostled two more times, and six became eight.

Zann huffed a laugh. “You mean I can’t do this?” she asked, winking at Lydia as she dipped her head to kiss her softly.

“That’s exactly what I mean!” Aspen laughed.

Zann stole one last kiss before allowing their friends to force them apart. Not by much, though, as she refused to let go of Lydia’s hand as their group hug dissolved into a loosely-knit circle and they fanned out enough that everyone had room to dance.

It was fun and carefree, much like their time together all week had been. Their laughter drew other guests to the floor until it was packed, everyone cutting loose as they celebrated Aspen and Eve. Nash and June had everyone cheering them on as they danced with the freedom only a child could ever manage, while Aspen and Michael’s parents—who’d been taking weekly lessons from a professional choreographer for years—put on a show of their own.

It was exactly the kind of party that would live in rose-colored memories that began “Do you remember…” and through it all, Aspen and Eve smiled at each other like their every dream had come true.

Eventually, the party began to wind down as guests retreated to their cottages for the night, and Zann took advantage of the distraction Aspen and Eve provided when they excused themselves to say goodbye to Aspen’s grandparents to take Lydia’s hand and pull her close.

She brushed a kiss over Lydia’s cheek as she swayed into her, a hot hand sliding over her shoulder to press against the exposed skin at her collar, the touch burning her from the inside out. She smiled against Lydia’s ear as long fingers curled around the flared collar of her shirt, gripping tightly as their hips pressed together. Her eyes fluttered at the heavenly feeling of Lydia’s body against hers, and she nipped at Lydia’s earlobe as they began to sway lightly together to the music.

Encouraged by the breathless, wanting whimper that crashed against her throat, she traced the shell of Lydia’s ear with her lips and whispered, “Do you want to get out of here?”

The hand gripping her shirt tightened. “Oh my god, yes.”

They shared a smile as they broke apart, and Zann took Lydia’s hand as they went to tell their friends they were leaving. She didn’t miss the money changing hands as they turned toward their table to gather their things—apparently, bets had been made on how long they’d stay, and it looked like Shannon, to Kit’s unending amusement, was the big winner—but she would take their friends settling bets over the teasing they could have rained upon them any day of the week.

Once they’d gathered their things from the table, they sought out Aspen and Eve to say their goodbyes as travel plans meant this was the last they’d see them until sometime after their honeymoon, and after a few final minutes with the brides, the doors to the party were closing behind them and, for the first time since that morning, they were alone.

The familiar, comfortable silence that surrounded them as they made their way along the foliage-lined path to their cottage was tinged with an unmistakable disquiet that sat thick and heavy in Zann’s throat. This was the last time they’d be taking this particular walk. Tomorrow, Real Life would insert itself into the conversation, and this slice of heaven they’d found would disappear.

Zann didn’t know what Lydia was feeling, or what she was thinking, and she hated the uncertainty that came with that.

Hated even more that she knew there was nothing she could do about it. No matter how much she wished otherwise, she couldn’t just say “fuck it” and follow Lydia to New York tomorrow.

She had put too much work into getting her next project lined up to throw it all away, but once her meetings with the production company were finished, she could work on fine-tuning the shooting schedule of her next doc anywhere.