“Oh, please,” Nic pipes up. “Wouldn’t you want to keep that a secret? Look at him, he’s Eli Walsh. If I had him in my bed, he’d never leave, maybe bathroom breaks, but then back to the good stuff.” She winks at me and grins.
“Well, cat’s out of the bag now, tell us every glorious detail,” Kristin says through a giggle.
We sit like we’re kids again, gossiping about our first kiss, and I divulge my last few weeks with Eli.
“How about we go to my place tonight?” Eli offers.
So far, he’s stayed at my house each night. I don’t know if it was him trying to fit into my world or show he’s fairly normal, but I’ve appreciated it. Tonight, though, I want to show him the same. His world and my world will need to mesh, and that won’t happen by forcing him to fit only in my space.
“I’d like that.”
Eli takes my hand and kisses the top of it. “I’m going to like seeing you in my home.”
I like that he wants me there at all. I want to make him happy, too. Today was amazing. I knew he was uncomfortable at first, but he joked with my friends, did his best to put up with their husbands, and was all around perfect. I’d catch him watching me, smiling, or finding little ways to touch me. He was taking care of me without me even realizing it.
“Thank you for today.”
“I had fun, your friends are great.”
“They’re something all right.”
Eli laughs. “Nicole genuinely loves you.”
“I’m lucky to have her.” As much as she drives me batshit crazy, I could never imagine life without her. “All of them really, but Nicole and I have always been the closest.”
I tell Eli a little about our childhoods, which makes me laugh. We were not all that bright back then. I don’t know how we didn’t land ourselves in jail. My mother would’ve beaten my ass if she knew half the dumb stuff we tried. Kristin was always the goody two-shoes out of our click, and our parents allowed us to do anything as long as she was there, too. I guess they hoped she’d somehow talk us out of it, the problem was, we usually talked her into things.
“Wait, you actually tried to hop the fence to get into Busch Gardens?”
“It was a dare.” If you told Nicole and me that we couldn’t do it, we found a way. “Nicole’s boyfriend worked there and said it was impossible.”
“Did it work?”
We pull into Eli’s driveway and he parks the car. He looks over, waiting for me to answer.
“You saw firsthand how well we climb fences. We’re no better now than we were then.”
Eli’s deep laughter fills the car, and he slaps the steering wheel as he lets it out. “That was the best thing I’ve ever seen.”
I roll my eyes and cross my arms. “It was self-preservation.” It was dumb. I know it, and I can’t imagine how ridiculous we must have looked to someone else. At least I wore pants that day, otherwise, I’d have been even more mortified.
“From what?”
“From realizing I just slept with you.”
Eli shakes his head at my rationality. “I’m not sure if I should be offended. It was definitely a first for me, though. Having someone sneak out after I gave them multiple orgasms.”
I wish I could go back in time to change many things, but that isn’t one of them. Sure, I could’ve done things differently, but my last few months would be very different.
“Let me ask you this, if I’d stuck around that night, would we be sitting here today?”
He goes quiet and runs his hand through his hair. “I wish I could say yes, but you walking out that night is what made me determined to know you. I’ve never had that happen.”
“No one would dream of running from the Sexiest Man Alive.”
He chuckles. “You did.”
I lean over the center console so we’re face to face. “I would do it the same all over again.”
“Yeah?”
“Yup, because I’m here with you now, and I know if I’d stayed in that bed, you wouldn’t have chased me.”
Eli’s eyes soften, and he gives one of his cocky smirks. “I guess we’ll never know.” He moves closer until our breaths become one as we both take in this moment.
I lift my hand, tangling my fingers in his brown locks without moving my gaze from his. I see the shift from contentment to fear and then to adoration. Is he afraid of us? It’s twice today that I’ve seen something troubling him. There’s a part of me that wants to ask him, but I pretend I don’t see it.
My gut fills with dread because I know it’s the wrong choice. I’ve felt this before, and I acted on it. I used to beg Matt to talk to me, to tell me what he was feeling. Each time I tried, he pushed me away more. Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. For all I know, it’s nothing, yet somewhere inside me, I don’t think that’s the case.
Eli leans in, touching his lips to mine. I work hard to let whatever I saw go and focus on right now. Our futures are undefined, and if I set us on the wrong path, we’ll crumble. I have to walk it with him and hope that we can endure the potholes and detours.
He pulls back, resting his forehead on mine. “Let’s go inside. I want to get you in my arms.”
“Sounds good to me.”
We exit the car, and he seems to be back to normal. The sun has set, and strategically placed lights illuminate his house. It looks like a freaking palace. The grandness of it all hits me the same way it did the first time. I don’t think it’ll ever fade. With my hand in his, we tour the house again, only this time he shows me all the rooms.
On the second floor, he shows me his six guestrooms, all are double the size of my master bedroom at home, with a bathroom, and decorated with extreme detail. There’s no way he chose this stuff, I can only imagine how much fun Nicole would’ve had in here.
When we enter his room, I almost pass out. It isn’t a bedroom; it’s a small house. There’s a sitting room at the far end with a full living room set up, off to the left is a fireplace that’s see through on both sides. Eli leans against the wall watching me as I walk around the room, trying to take it all in.
“This is incredible,” I say with awe.
I continue looking around the other side of the fireplace. There’s a master bathroom, if you can call it that, that leaves me speechless. The Jacuzzi tub sits off to the right, and there’s a shower taking up the entire back wall. I swear at least ten people could fit in there.
Eli clears his throat, causing me to turn quickly. “You look good here.”
I shake my head in disbelief. “I doubt that.”
He moves forward. “One day, you’re going to see how beautiful you are.”
“One day, you’ll realize that you need glasses.” I try to joke, but it falls flat. I’ve never thought I was ugly, but I’m nothing special. It’s still crazy to me that Eli thinks differently.
He wraps his strong arms around me, and I sink into his embrace. Just like that, Eli can make me feel whole. When I’m with him, my world doesn’t seem so bleak. Sure, the issues are all there, but with him, shouldering them doesn’t feel so hard.