Page 47 of Deking at Love
Surprise danced in his navy blues.“You would have signed up for a nomad’s life?”
“If that’s what you want to call it.It depends on what your definition of home is, Sam.Wherever you would have been would have been my home becauseyouwould have been my home.”
“How come when you say it out loud, it sounds so … simple?Reasonable, even?”His eyes slanted down, lending him a sad look.
“What are you thinking?”she ventured, undecided if she wanted to hear his answer.
He traced his forefinger along her jaw line, and his eyes followed the path.“I don’t know.I guess the fact that we’re lying here talking in coulda-woulda language makes my head hurt a little.”He rubbed his sternum.“It all sounds so … final.Like there’s no chance of ever going back and starting over again.”
Angie was going without filters now.“Do youwantto go back and start again?”
His lips quirked, but he didn’t answer.Did that mean, “Hey, the sex is great, but long-term isn’t for me”?
She settled back against him, unsure whether she was comforted or disturbed by the surprising exchange.
Pulling her to him, he dropped a kiss on her head.“Angie,” he whispered, “has it ever occurred to you that there’s some kind of fate thing at work here?Like me showing up at your work and you becoming my therapist is no coincidence?”
She sat fully upright and clutched the covers to her chest.“What does that mean?”
He waved two fingers between them.“What if it was supposed to be you and me all along, and Brianna was a detour that never should have happened?What ifwewere supposed to get together, and this is a second chance?Another bite at the apple?”
Chapter 16
Epiphany
Angie’smouthhungopen,and her eyes were saucer-wide.Confusion was etched in her pretty face, and no wonder.He was grappling with hisownconfusion, along with his wildly swinging emotions.Where was all this sentimental crap coming from anyway?
Must have been nostalgia talking.Watch a littleStar Wars, throw in some mind-blowing sex, and suddenly I’m twenty again and dreaming of the girl I left behind in a heap of ash.
But was it so far-fetched?What if he had handled that night differently?What if he’d been wise enough to look ahead and recognize how hollow the spaces inside him felt?Spaces that filled when he was with her.
“Do you want to go back and start again?”she had asked.
Was he looking for a second chance he’d never thought possible with her?
I think I might.
The epiphany bowled him over.
The night they’d slept together six years ago had been the best night of his life—better than his first game in the bigs as a rookie.Only tonight had topped it.
She pressed a hand to his forehead.“No fever.”
Not the reaction he’d been hoping for, though exactlywhathe’d been hoping for he had no idea because his mind was blown.
Time to deke.
With her one hand busy feeling his forehead, he easily tugged the covers from her grip.
She yelped in surprise, and he pushed her onto her back.
“What are you doing?”she breathed.
Changing the subject.“Having another bite at the apple.”He smirked.“Or both apples.”He kissed his way across her collarbones and her chest to her breasts, peeling the covers from her body as he went.
“Hey, it’s chilly without the covers.”Her pout had him nearly laughing out loud.
“I promise you won’t be cold for long.”
