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She passed me a pen. “We’ll probably bump into each other again once I start back at the club.”
“Back at the club?”
I signed my name in the front of the book with trembling fingers.
“I have to go back to the States and tie up some things, but then I’m coming home.”
Warmth coursed through me like liquid sunshine. “What do you mean? Home? You’re coming back to live here?”
“Of course. LA was only ever a temporary thing.”
I passed the signed book across the table and my hand grazed hers. Tingling pleasure shot up my wrist.
I hesitated, choosing my words carefully. “I thought about writing a different book at first, but it was too painful. I wanted to write a book about us. Would you mind? I’d change all the details. We’d have different jobs… different names…”
She pushed back a wayward strand of pink hair. “How does it end?”
“I don’t know. I only got as far as the part where the girl comes home from LA. She walks into a bookstore and he sees her again and it’s like his heart starts beating for the first time in so long. He’s been waiting, you see… waiting for the world to start turning again.”
Her bright eyes searched my face and became more animated. “He thought about her?”
Once a patient, always a patient.
“Yes. He thought about her.”
She fiddled with the silver bar in her eyebrow. “The girl is different now. She’s seen more of the world. She’s done a lot of growing up…”
“That’s good. He’s different, too. He’s not as sad anymore.”
She weighed me with a gentle smile. “They need to get to know each other again.”
“They know each other. The things that matter.”
She planted her hands on the desk and leaned across it. She tilted her chin up toward my face. “All good love stories have a happy ever after, don’t they? They ride off together into the sunset?”
“I’d have to give them a happy ending or the readers would get mad.”
She moved around the desk and planted herself in front of me. “Why don’t you send me the draft? I’ll let you know what I think.”
She inched forward and somehow we’d got so close that her scent overwhelmed me. The bright shop lights glimmered in her blue eyes, and I ran an inventory of every remembered speck of green in them.
She licked her lips. “What about this date, then? You never did take me out for dinner.”
“Once a patient, always a patient.” My words came out a hoarse whisper. They sounded unconvincing even to me.
“I talked about that with my therapist, and there are guidelines. A therapist can date an ex-patient after two years, and I was never your bloody patient to begin with. A lot has happened in two years. I’m not sad or vulnerable. I’m doing great, Reece. So, I’m calling bullshit. You’re being too uptight.”
I couldn’t help my smile at her bluntness. “Uptight is kind of my thing.”
Humor glimmered in her eyes. “Right, but I think you need to get a little wild. I can help you with that.”
In one fluid motion she was in my arms. Her eyes searched mine, seeking permission. Her lips touched mine, so soft and forgiving. She wound her arms inside my jacket and around my back. Tingling pleasure arched through me. Her sweet watermelon scent filled my senses and I wanted to get lost in her. It didn’t matter if I ever resurfaced. She broke away from the kiss. People in the shop were sneaking bemused glances at us, but I kept my eyes fixed on her. Her soft hands locked around my neck and her forehead pressed to mine. Softly, her warm breath fanned my face. She stepped away and my fingers ached to drag her back.
“Once, you told me that love is sticking it out together. I believe that, Reece. I was always going to come back to you.” She cupped my face and planted a gentle kiss on my cheek. “You look good. Being an author suits you. We’d better have a look at your book together and work on the ending.” Her lips brushed my ear as she whispered. “We wouldn’t want to disappoint the readers.”
Chapter 41
Skylar
