“I want to feel close to you tonight,” she pleads, whispering.
With her back pressed against me, I separate her thighs and enter her from behind, my hands running the length of her curved body, massaging her sensitive clit before cupping handfuls of her swollen breasts, and then trailing up to her lips. My thumb slides along her mouth, parting the seam, making her taste what I’ve done to her.
Returning my attention to the hotness between her thighs, I pump harder and faster, pressing hard, needful kisses into the feverish flesh of her left shoulder as she gasps. Aidy buries her face into the pillow in an attempt to keep the noise down, and I can tell by the small earthquakes consuming her body that she’s getting near.
Her hips buck against mine, meeting them thrust for thrust, and the moment her body tenses, I thrust harder, pushing her over the edge, releasing myself inside her, and wrapping her in my arms as we float down from the ceiling.
“I love you, Aidy.”
She’s silent.
I hadn’t planned on telling her. It just came out.
The seconds that pass, without so much as a response, are pure fucking torture.
Aidy rolls to her other side, facing me. She swallows hard, reaching for my face and brushing a loose strand of hair from my forehead.
“I love you too, Ace,” she says. “But I have to tell you something.”
My heart stops. The weightlessness I felt a moment before is gone, and I’m sinking fast.
“What is it?” My mouth is dry, my heart beating hard in my ears.
“I’m moving to L.A. I took a job there, and it starts next month.” Her face is pained, and her body is stiff as she awaits my response.
“Jesus, Aidy.” I exhale, relieved. At least, I think I should be relieved. I have to admit, part of me was expecting something much worse. “You scared the shit out of me. I thought you were going to say you were pregnant or something. Not that it’d be the worst thing to have happen, but you had me worried for a second. This move? Is it a done deal?”
Aidy nods slowly. “It’s a six-week job, but I’m staying so I can grow our app on the West coast. This has been planned for a while. It had nothing to do with you. I’m not trying to run away from you or anything. I was actually planning on moving next year, but with Wren getting pregnant and the wedding getting moved up, my timeline was sort of moved up.”
“I see.”
I feel her watching me, her eyes searching mine for something, though I’m not sure what.
“Is . . . is distance a deal breaker for you?” she asks.
Taking her cheek in my hand, I lean in and crush her lips with an authoritative kiss.
“No,” I say, voice low and confident. “It’s going to take a lot more than three thousand miles to keep me away from you.”
She kisses me hard, exhaling, and I roll over her, anchoring her beneath me, anchoring the two of us in this moment.
“Tell me about your family,” she says. “Your brothers. Your mom. Tell me everything. I want to get to know you – the real you – all over again.” Moonlight spills onto the pillow beside her and casts a warm reflection in her ocean-blue eyes. “I want to know everything there is to know about you.”
“You writing a book or something?”
“I just want to feel close to you,” she says, her verve tamed but only slightly. “Is that so wrong?”
Exhaling, I slide my arms beneath her, creating a cozy cocoon, and all I see is hers.
“My mother’s name is Valentina,” I say. “She still lives in Jersey. I’d love to take you to meet her soon. My brothers are all younger than me. There’s Matteo who lives in L.A. He’s a struggling actor, but he’s good at what he does, and I’m convinced if he gets that one big break, he’s going to be a star someday. After that is Dante. He lives in Seattle and he runs some tech company that I’m pretty sure is going to sell for a ridiculous amount of money soon. Then there’s Cristiano. He just finished graduate school, but I’m not sure what he’s up to these days. Last I knew, he was backpacking through Europe, staying in hostels. The youngest is Fabrizio. He’s finishing his senior year at Ashburn University in Chicago.”
“You Amatos are kind of spread out all over the place, aren’t you?”
I nod. “Which is why we’re not nearly as close as we used to be.”
“I bet it breaks your mother’s heart.”
My lips purse. “Yeah.”
“So do something about it.” Aidy’s lips inch into a careful smile. “Can I meet them? Can you invite them all to the city? Your mom, too.”
I release a steady breath and stare off to the side. “Growing up, the five of us were tight. We were always together. Staying out of trouble together. Getting into trouble together. In many ways, I had to be the father we never had. I had to keep them in line when Mom was at work, and I had to get them to school in the morning those years when Mom was too sick to get out of bed half the time. My brothers were my responsibility. And the second I got my baseball scholarship and left for college, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Guess I’ve always felt a little guilty about that so I’ve maintained my distance.”
Aidy’s eyes widen. “No. God, no. Don’t feel bad about going to college and chasing your dreams. I don’t think any of them expected you to throw your life away. To stay home and raise your brothers. You stepped in when you had to, but don’t you dare feel guilty for moving on. Your brothers turned out fine, at least from what you say. I’d say you did more than your fair share, and you did a damn good job.”
“Yeah.” I press myself off her, rolling to her side, and she curls up against me, wrapping a long leg over me and resting her cheek on my chest. “Guess that’s one way to look at it.”
My body is washed in fatigue, weighed down with the heaviness of the day and relaxed by the lightness I feel being in Aidy’s presence. Yawning, I run my fingers through her hair and let my eyes fall closed.
“Ace?” Aidy’s light voice whispers in my ear.
“Yeah?”
“I love you,” she says. “I know I said it before, but I just wanted to say it one more time. It feels really good to say it.”
For the first time in forever, my mouth forms a real smile. “I love you too, Aidy.”
Thirty-Six
Aidy
* * *
My bed is empty and cold when I wake Sunday morning, but my bedroom door is slightly ajar. Flinging off the covers, I head to the bathroom to freshen up, and then I follow the trail of voices and the wafting scent of breakfast coming from the kitchen.
“What’s the oldest stadium in MLB history?” Enzo asks. When I round the corner, I see him sitting at the kitchen table, a handful of trivia cards in his hands.
“That’s easy. Fenway Park,” Ace scoffs. Peeking into the kitchen, I watch as Ace pours waffle batter into the iron and closes the lid. “Next question.”
“Name the only player ever to hit a Major League home run and score an NFL touchdown in the same week,” Enzo reads off his card.
“Psh. Deion Sanders. Give me something harder. Come on. I know you can do better than this.”