“Maggie,” she scolded.
“I compromised,” he said and sent her that smile that melted her.
“Oh, all right.”
I shut the door behind me and wondered what kind of mood Seth was going to be in as he tugged me by my hand through the parked cars to his truck. I felt awful for him after the hell he’d just been through tonight. My family freaking ambushed him and then the vision about his mom. He was probably ready to ditch me and take his family up on their offer.
He moved swiftly until we reached his truck. When we got there, it was already running and the windshield defrosting. He opened my door for me and I kept my head down, wondering what to say. We were finally alone.
One of his warm hands pressed on my left hip, pushing me to lean against the truck seat. His other hand used those expert fingers to lift my face. The open truck door blocked the wind for us. He wasn’t smiling, but he looked so intently at my face.
That warm hand on my hip inched around to my lower back. The one on my chin spread out and cupped my face.
“What are you doing?” I said, so confused at why he wasn’t angry.
“Falling more in love with you than I thought was possible. Ava, you just fought your family for me.”
“Seth…” I smiled, but felt the tears coming. That seemed to be happening a lot lately. “You fought your family for me the very first day you met me.”
He remembered then and sighed, his breath puffing in the cold air between us, letting his head fall and almost touching mine. “It’s not the same.”
“I know. Yours was worse.”
He smiled a little. “We’re not comparing. I can’t believe you just did that.”
I felt angry all over again. Enough to start shaking. “I can’t believe they just did that. They completely ambushed you. I wasn’t going to let them—”
“I know,” he breathed, coming closer, erasing the space between us, warming me with his body and with his presence. His next words were not breath however, they were growled as he moved his lips against my own. He wanted me to feel them. “And it was the sexiest, the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”
And then I did feel them. I felt them as he pressed me to into the seat and devoured my mouth. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on as he showed me what love felt like. As he showed me that a kiss could change your entire world.
I was just as hungry as he was. He moved, putting his arms inside my jacket, so he could feel me, we could both feel each other’s warmth. He groaned a little when we came back together. I was up on my tiptoes to reach him, and once they got tired and I went back down, he spread his legs like always to make himself shorter. He was always accommodating me.
My cell phone dinged with a text message in my pocket, but I didn’t even flinch. He kept right on licking his way into my mouth, not a care in the world but what was waiting inside for him.
I felt different, like something had shifted for us. It felt like us against the world now. Like…even my family weren’t at our backs. We could only fully trust ourselves. And that wasn’t as awful a thing as I thought it would feel like. It felt good to have one person in the world I knew I could trust completely.
I tilted my head a little, giving him the hint I hoped he’d take. He took it and kissed my jaw first, then under it. He pulled my scarf down a bit, but then decided to take it off.
Pulling it gently, it went, and then I felt his lips on my collar bone. I breathed into his hair and gripped it tightly in my fists. The assaults moved to the other side and back up to my mouth with an ease but a ferocity that made me so hot in my veins.
“Don’t worry about your family,” he finally said, his head to mine, his breaths a little ragged as we tried to calm down. “I can handle your family.”
“You shouldn’t have to.”
His smirk was adorable. “Come on, beautiful, most families despise their in-laws. It’s a fact.” I shook my head at his attempt to make it all okay. “I expected it, sweetheart.”
I looked away, but he brought me back, that thumb on my chin, always commanding in the most sweet and uncommanding way—saying trust me, stay with me, love me, I’ll figure this out for us.
I gripped his shirt in my fingers and waited. “I expected them to ask,” he looked down a little and smiled. “Did I expect them to have a guy that could read my intent? No, but that was clever.”
“It was underhanded.”
“They were protecting you. And themselves. It was smart. They were using what they had at their disposal.”
“Seth, don’t. Don’t make out like what they did was okay.”
“They,” he began slowly, “maybe could have done it in a more…”
“Tactful way?” I said harshly. “Without the entire family watching? Without making it seem like the whole family was against you? Without making me have to choose you over them like that? And they had to know, right? What did they think I was going to do when they starting asking you all those questions? Did they think I was stupid and wouldn’t get it? That I would just watch and let it happen?”
He smoothed his thumb over my chin. “I don’t know, sweetheart. And I’m sorry that you had to choose.”
I sighed and tugged him closer by his shirt. He ‘oomphed’ against me as I hugged him. “Let’s get out of here. I don’t want to be here when they start leaving.”
“Whatever you want. You sure you’re okay to stay at my place?” he asked, but he looked pretty excited by the idea.
I lifted one shoulder and bit into my lip. “I’m fine.”
One side of his mouth lifted. “Ava Jacobson, are you flirting with me?”
“Maybe,” I whispered and smiled. “Would flirting get me some coffee?”
His smile grew. “Flirting would have gotten you coffee the first time if you had stayed. But you were in a rush to get away from me, if I recall.”
I smiled and looked down. “What if we were just two normal Virtuoso people and we met. We would have met and been happy, all our families would been happy.” I looked back up.
“But you wouldn’t be Ava Jacobson then. And that’s the girl I’m in love with.”
My heart stuttered behind my ribs, painfully, beautifully. He turned me and put his hands on my waist to help my stunned body into the cab of the truck. He ran around and got in, putting his hand on my thigh to tug me so I’d be right against him. “This okay?”
I looked over. “Yeah. Yeah,” I said and laughed a little. I needed to get a grip. “Seth?” I whispered, feeling all my emotion bubble to the surface, as I turned and put my hands around his upper arm.
He looked over, our faces only inches apart. “Yeah?”
“You wouldn’t be Seth Watson either. And that’s the guy I’m in love with.”
He took a few seconds. He didn’t even look like he was breathing really. We just stared at each other. I’d called him ‘Watson’ and it wasn’t with disdain, it was with love. It was his name, whether he or I wanted it to be or not. And I loved him.
He eventually sighed, a little harshly, and then a hand tunneled in my hair, dragging me back to him for the softest kiss I’d ever had. He exhaled, his breath blowing down my neck. “You’re killing me in all the ways that matter, little bird.”
“You’re absolutely killing me,” I whispered. “Truly. Thank you for being so gracious about my family. After what you’ve been through with the Watsons, they…don’t deserve it.”
He paused, looking at me for a moment before he said, so softly, like his words would punch through me and he was trying to ease the jolt. “We have to be bigger than the things we suffer.”
My chest hurt at how beautiful and painful those word’s truth were.
I leaned in and kissed his mouth once more before putting my hand on his thigh, and licking my lips. I could still taste him there. I closed my eyes for a second before opening to find him watching me.
He shook his head with a heated chuckle as he put the truck in
reverse and looked behind us. “Gah, you are going to be trouble.”
Sixteen
We got coffee at the place where we met. Paul was none too happy to see us waltzing in, but I honestly couldn’t care and was barely paying attention. We found a small booth in the back and decided to sit there and talk for a while.
About nothing. About everything.
I learned that he played football in high school and was the—wait for it—quarterback. With those arms, I couldn’t see how not. He said high school was a very strange time because there was no dating and he loved sports so girls were all over the place.
I crinkled my nose, making him laugh. It was cute, thinking about a high school Seth.
But he never dated. He just worked, played sports, and was with his family. Training, plotting, waiting patiently until he could be free.
The drive was short and I almost wished it was longer. His hand stuck between my thighs was comforting, warming, and possessive. I hated that he had to move it.
He got out and then pulled me out the driver’s side, his hands on my waist. “Thanks.”
His smirk was small. He nodded his head toward his place. “Come on.”
The last time I’d been here, Harper was there. I looked around, half expecting her to be here now. “She won’t. She’s done with me, I promise. And vice versa.”
I didn’t say anything. I just left it at that.
He unlocked the door and I walked over the worn “Welcome” mat. The darkness didn’t scare me, even though it was pitch black inside. I took a few steps inside, maybe to show him that I was okay, that I trusted him and his place. I heard him locking the door behind me and the lights came on.
It was exactly as I remembered.
I set my coffee on the bar by the kitchen and started to take my coat off. He came to help me, placing a quick kiss on the back of my neck as the jacket slid from my arms. He moved away to hang it on the coatrack along with his own.
This visit to his apartment felt so different from last time.
“Well,” he began out loud, “last time you were here, you kinda hated me.” He smiled, but I could tell he was thinking about that day just like I was.
“I’m sorry.”
He shook his head. “It’s done. We’re not going back, remember?”
I shook my head. “Not going back.”
We stared at each other across the room.
“What do you want to do now that you’re here?”
I thought about this place. About how last time, I had been so unsure of him, but wanted to believe in him so badly. I looked around the room. I remembered it all, all my feelings, all my wanting to touch him and just have everything that was promised to me. I remembered feeling cheated and saying so.
Seth watched me as I worked through it all.
“Why don’t we start with the couch?” I finally said.
He didn’t move, but I saw his throat work through a loud swallow. “Sweetheart, you’re going to have to elaborate on that.”
I giggled as I got his implication of my words.
“All the memories here are things I want to forget. When I come here, and I don’t know what we’re going to do later on and I don’t care right now, but I want to think about good memories of this place. So let’s take a bad memory and erase it, replace it with a good one.” I moved to the couch. “The couch was where we fought, sort of. Let’s start here with a new, better memory.”
He moved toward me and stopped at the arm of the couch. “What did you have in mind?”
“Do you have any movies?”
“I have Netflix,” he said with a grin.
“Do you want to watch a movie with me?” I asked, suddenly shy. It was something so simple. I forgot that we were still learning how to be a couple. I didn’t even know what kind of movies he liked.
“Sure.” He kicked his shoes off at the end of couch and grabbed a remote, handing it to me. He went to the kitchen and started looking around.
“Want some popcorn? Are you a popcorn or candy person?”
“Popcorn. Though, who turns down candy, seriously?”
I could hear his chuckle over the crinkling of a wrapper and then the noises of a microwave. When he came back in, he had grabbed my coffee off the bar by the kitchen as well and a big bottle of blue Gatorade for himself. “Thanks.”
“What are we watching?” he asked as he settled in next to me, propping one ankle on his knee and letting one of his arms come around me. The bowl of popcorn sat in his lap.
I looked at him. “You’re letting me pick?”
He shrugged. “If you want.”
“Okay,” I said casually and let the little boxes jump over until it reached Steel Magnolias. “Awesome,” I said excitedly. “I haven’t watched this in ages.”
To his credit he kept a straight face. He leaned back further, settling in and shook his head once, like he was putting on his game face. “Steel Magnolias. Love those girls.”
I snorted under my breath. “Are you serious?”
“What? I can hang with Clairee and Ouiser now. Those broads are tough.”
“Oh, my gosh.” I swatted him, though I wasn’t sure why. He was spoiling my plan. “You actually have watched Steel Magnolias!”
He laughed and held up his arm in defense a little. “What? We have limited channels at the station and it gets boring. What can I say? All the firemen of Station 22 have seen Steel Magnolias.”
I laughed so hard, giggling and falling into him. He laughed into my hair. I sat up and slapped his thigh. “I would never make you watch Steel Magnolias. But thank you for being so willing.
“Whatever you want,” he said, his smile wide.
“How about a…comedy?” He said ‘comedy’ the same time I did. I grinned. “Okay.” I snuggled in closer under his arm, putting my socked feet up on the coffee table. I clicked through movie after movie. The new stuff was all junk. Nothing was funny nowadays. I missed humor when people were focused on family and finding love. Now people were focused on jobs and finding sex.
I stopped on Dodgeball and looked over at him. He grinned and chuckled silently.
“You like Dodgeball?”
“It’s hilarious.” He squinted, looking at me funny. “You don’t believe me?” I bit my lip a little. “Go look for yourself and see if I’m telling the truth.” My words were barely breathed and his face changed immediately.
He breathed out. “Ava, I want to, but I don’t want it to be in response to your family.”
“What?”
He licked his lips and held my chin, which I was learning was becoming his move. “When we decide to go there, to do that again, I want it to be because you’re happy and ready and… Not because you’re at my place, hiding from your family that currently doesn’t know if they trust me or not.”
“You passed their little test,” I sneered. “They trust you.”
“Well whatever. That’s not how I want this,” his fingers moved to graze my temple, “to start.” I let my gaze swing up to him, but he was smiling, looking at my skin as he was off in his own world.
“Seth?” I whispered.
“You didn’t doubt for a second.” His eyes met mine. “When your grandpa was questioning me. You knew that he was about to expose anything and everything and I would have no idea. And yet, not once in your mind, did you have a thought that I might not pass his test.” I shook my head. Nope. Not once. I knew he was there for me. “You were just upset that my welcoming party was being ruined at the very end with a heaping of betrayal.” He chuckled once without humor. “But it really wasn’t betrayal, Ava. They don’t know me. They don’t owe me anything. But you, trusting me completely, believing in me. Thank you.”
“Seth…” I bit into my lip and closed my eyes, trying to make sense of this. Feeling his thumb on my chin to release my lip from my teeth was as welcoming and comforting as a warm blanket. “I wasn’t smiling,” I reminded him. He didn’t release a smile, he just released my l
ip.
“You should be,” he said, ordered really, and the blood in my veins lit up with crackles as he leaned in. We were already so close as it was. “When you smile, it’s like my body can relax. Something inside me, in here,” he palmed his chest, “aches when you’re not smiling, and the thought of you unhappy at all makes me physically hurt. Tonight, I wanted to stand up and punch someone for making you feel that way. But I knew that doing that would just make you feel worse. Punching that old grandpa wouldn’t solve anything, right?” He searched for my gaze and the second he found it, I cracked a smile. “There it is.” He palmed his chest again and sighed. “All is right with the world again.”
What could I say to that?
“Tomorrow night we can watch Ron Burgundy if you want?”
He stared. “You do not like Ron Burgundy.”
“Yes, I—”
“Where did you come from? Are you a fembot?” I laughed loudly, my face in his neck. I heard him laughing around me. I lifted up, but he didn’t let me get far, wrapping his arms around me. “I’m completely serious. You’re not real. No girl watches guy comedies, listens to old music, and stands up to her family without blinking an eye.” He finished so softly. He moved in to cup my face with one hand and kissed my lips. “You’re not real, but you’re sitting right here, aren’t you?”
I smiled and we stared, blue colliding with brown in a war that was meant to be lost. He eventually took the remote from my fingers and pressed enter. “Dodgeball it is.”
Then he stuck his hand between my thighs and looked at me with a smile, remembering what I’d thought about how I felt about that. He leaned in and kissed me once before looking back at the movie.
I snuggled into him, hugging his arm with both of my arms and laying my head on his shoulder.
I wanted someone to take a picture of us like this, because surely this was the happiest I’d ever looked in my life, surely I was glowing, surely my smile had never been more genuine. I wanted a picture because this was the first time in my life that my home and my heart were in the same place, and I wanted someone to capture that for the whole world to see.