He’s got to come first.
Resting a hand over his tiny back, I hold him to me for another minute before reaching for my phone.
Finding the email from the agency, I reply, asking them to start setting up interviews. And then I start scrolling back through two and a half weeks of texts.
Chapter 11
Axel
Road trips over Thanksgiving aren’t something I’ve ever given much thought to. It’s part of the job, and while I haven’t been able to spend the holiday with my family in years, I’ve spent it with my team. Happily.
This year it’s different.
This year, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the holidays ahead for Otto, and Nora spending this one alone with him. I had a catered meal delivered for her and even asked Anders to drop by and hang out for an hour or two.
Which practically killed me. And yeah, the asshole totally made sure to wave at the living room camera we had installed so I can see what’s happening through my phone. He gave me a thumbs-up before pulling her in for a full-frontal hug. Not entry-level. Two arms, and if I’m not mistaken, the fucker smelled her hair.
Not cool.
What was cool? Nora’s eye roll accompanied by a shoulder pat/push away that all but screamed whatever. This girl is not falling victim to my brother’s player moves.
But yeah, I wished I was there.
We video chat at least once a day, and we’ve started texting more too. Sometimes it’s a phone call. Not just about Otto, though the picture she sent of him this morning was fucking adorable. But about jobs she’s applying for and which cities are my favorite to play in. What’s going on with her siblings back home and how excited the little ones are to see her at Christmas. How she learned that eggplant isn’t her thing and how I learned escargot isn’t mine.
We’re friends. Only, friends doesn’t seem quite enough.
I have tons of friends, but I don’t have this kind of connection with any of them. Maybe it’s because of the emotion and intensity of the last few weeks, Otto bonding us in ways we wouldn’t have otherwise bonded. I don’t know, but I don’t feel the same urgency to talk to anyone else the way I do Nora. To find out what’s happening in her day and hear her laugh when I share whatever stupid shit the guys are getting up to in the locker room. To count down the time until it’s just the three of us back in the apartment and I’m ordering some dinner in or she’s teasing me about my ego, a beast only fatherhood could tame.
I hate that it took five months for us to reconnect, but the truth is, it might have been for the best. Hell, five months ago, I wouldn’t have stopped until I had her in my bed… a scenario I work really hard not to visualize in torturous, explicit detail too often.
And how long would that have lasted? Considering my less-than-stellar record with romance, I’m guessing not very. Chances are, I would have lost her, and, even if we’d somehow ended up in this same place with her saving me and Otto, there’d always be a past between us getting in the way.
So, it’s a good thing we don’t have that.
Especially because being the kind of connected, bonded, extra-good friends we are now totally justifies the way I’m thinking about her almost as much as I am Otto. That I’m dying to unload from this plane so I can get home while both of them are still there.
It takes me longer than I’d like, but I’m finally letting myself into the apartment when—
“Oomph! Whoa, Nora?” My arm instinctively wraps around the warm, soft woman who’s launched herself at me and is currently pressing a kiss to my jaw and squeezing my neck, her thick curls teasing my nose.
Apples.
“Thank you, thank you! And also, Otto is sleeping. But mostly, thank you!”
I drop my suit coat and gear as I bring my other arm around her, securing my hold on her and this moment a little longer. Walking us into the kitchen, I grin. “You’re welcome. For whatever I did.”
And I mean it. Jesus, this feels good. Totally a hug that friends of our caliber are entitled to.
“I just got off the phone with Sam Farrow,” she says, beaming at me, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything prettier than that wide smile.
“Ahh, Sam called you.” I was hoping he would. He owns a successful residential contracting operation in the city, and with the way his business is growing, I thought he might have room for someone with Nora’s drive.
“He asked me to come in on Monday for an interview. His office manager needs a hip replacement, and she’s going to be out three months. So, he’s looking for someone to help and train for a few weeks before and then to stay to help her get caught up after. He knows I don’t have much traditional experience but said you told him about what I did for Diane.”
She shakes her head and lets out a laugh, so free and pure, I feel it straight through the center of my chest.
“Thank you, Axel.”
“Just told him the truth.” I told him I thought she could rule the world if someone gave her a chance. That I’d do just about anything to keep her myself, if that’s what she wanted. “You’re amazing. And he’d be lucky to have you on his team.”
Those honey brown eyes meet mine again, and this time, there’s something in them I haven’t seen in months. Since that last day when my puck bunny past came back to haunt me and Dina showed up.
My heart thuds hard, and suddenly I’m aware of my hold on Nora in a way I haven’t let myself be aware of her in a long time. The feel of her hands at my shoulders, the way her chest rises and falls in time with mine. The slow burn of her gaze drifting to my mouth as I loosen my hold, allowing her body to slide down mine until she’s standing in the circle of my arms.
I should let her go, but her hands are still resting flat against my shirt, her body pressed too close to ignore as this thing between us starts to pulse and pull. There are reasons this is a bad idea… but in this minute, I can’t think of a single one.
In this minute, it feels like there’s something drawing us in, closer.
Closer.
Until a breath is the only barrier between my mouth and hers. Every muscle in my body is tensed, straining with the effort of holding myself back from finally, finally knowing the sweet give of her lips, the taste of her.
I want it.
I want her.
But if she doesn’t want this too—
Her hands slip higher, one easing over my shoulder and the other around to the back of my neck in a move that’s tentative and sweet and definitely not a no.
I stop fighting.
I give in to the need for that single taste, my mouth covering hers in a soft press. It’s the barest rub, a lingering contact I feel through every fucking inch of my body.
I draw back, my heart pounding like I’ve just come off the ice instead of engaging in one of the tamest, most potent kisses of my life.
Our eyes meet and, Christ, it’s right there. Everything she never lets me see. Everything I want.
We collide, our mouths coming together in a hard crush. Nothing tentative, nothing gentle. It’s like a flash flame, burning past reason before it even has a chance to take voice.
Her hands are fisting in my shirt, my hair. Her body pressing into mine and bowing back as I devour her mouth.