Luci’s body jerked and she moved as if to pull away and bound up, but his arm banded around her belly and he shoved his face in the back of her hair.
“Cool it, baby. Cool it. Cool it. You knew he’d go there. I went there. You knew he would. Cut him some slack.”
She drew a sharp breath into her nose and forced herself to relax.
Hap kissed the side of her neck and settled in behind her.
His voice held some humor when he continued, “Though, that’s when I lost it with him. Told him he could say dick shit to me, but that was insulting you, and we were done. Then I made us done and hauled our asses outta there.”
“You can imagine, feeling that was an insult to me, how I feel as it was also an insult to you,” she pointed out.
“Yeah.” Definite humor in that. “I can imagine.”
She twisted her neck to catch his gaze. “I’m not finding things funny, Hap.”
“Baby, he can think what he thinks for as long as he thinks it. He can even not get over it, which he won’t. Kia’d have his ass in a sling, and he’d never lose you. Not ever. The man has lost a lot. He also would never lose me. But as long as it takes him, it takes him. And where are we?”
She stared into his eyes.
He gave her a shake of his arm. “Where are we, Luciana?”
“Together,” she whispered.
“Yeah,” he confirmed.
“I’m still angry at him.”
Hap gave her a gentle smile. “I figured you would be.”
“You were . . .” She hesitated, took in a breath and then guided him there, “In a bad place about your grandparents.”
His expression went as gentle as his smile and he bent in to give her a brief kiss.
When he pulled away, however, he didn’t go far.
“Regrets suck,” he muttered. “You are . . . the things you’ve been saying . . .” He shook his head, looked to the sea, then returned to her and whispered, “Baby, you’ve been helping me see things differently. And now that I see me like you see me, I just wish I hadn’t pissed so much life away so they could have seen it too since it was always there. I just didn’t get it.”
She had no control over the moan that floated up her throat and out of her mouth.
And then they weren’t spooning.
Hap turned her into his arms and held her as she wept into his chest.
He said nothing. He didn’t try to hush her tears. He did eventually begin to stroke her hair.
But other than that, he let her cry it out.
He also let her burrow closer when she’d burned it out, his arms tightening around her to hold her there.
She sniffled and told his chest, “I have something else to teach you.”
“Great,” he muttered, but she smiled because she could tell with just that one word he was teasing.
She stopped smiling because what she had to say she knew would be hard for him to believe.
But it was crucial she guided him to believing it.
She tipped her head back and he dipped his chin down so he could look into her eyes.
“Hearts don’t work the way you think they do, darling.”
His arms spasmed around her.
She just pressed closer.
And kept speaking.
“There aren’t rooms that people fill or pieces you give away. If you love someone with all of your heart, you just do. But you can love many with all your heart. Like I love my father. And Sam. And Kia. And my friend Massimo. And Celeste.” She slid her hand up his chest to the bottom of his throat and pressed lightly. “Like I love Travis. And like I love you.”
He dropped his forehead to hers and whispered, “Baby.”
“It’s true. He had more time with me, but in the end, I hope, I’ll have more time with you. But he won’t have more of me, like you won’t have more of me. You both have all of me and always will.”
“You know I loved you before he died.”
She nodded, her forehead rolling against his. “I know.”
“Not like this, I couldn’t go there, but still like this, honey. Somewhere deep I wouldn’t go.”
This was news.
“Really?”
“Luci, you’re you.”
That made her smile. “This is true. I am me.”
She saw his eyes smile back, he gave her a squeeze, a quick kiss, and then pulled his face an inch away.
“So . . . we’re good,” he noted.
“We’re good,” she agreed.
And finally, she was thinking they were.
And again, she felt happy.
“We’re doin’ this,” he stated.
She smiled again, but a lot bigger this time. “We are.”
He took in her smile before he lifted his gaze back to hers. “So how you feel about hitting the crab shack?”
“I feel like that’s the best idea I’ve heard all day, except my idea of swinging through Bo’s. But the crab shack is better, even than Bo’s.”
That got her his smile before he kissed her again, not briefly this time.
Then he dragged her out of bed.
She was pulling on her panties when it struck her that he was still wearing his jeans.
“Can I put in a request?” she asked.
“Hit me,” he invited, reaching to nab his sweater from the floor.
“You on your back with your arms over your head, totally naked.”
He tipped his head to the side, openly intrigued.
“You gonna go down on me?”
“Well . . . obviously.”
“Babe, you’re good with your mouth.”
She struggled her bra on. “So are you.”
He assumed a look of such supreme male satisfaction that it made her wonder if she should take her bra off again.
“You get in your flow, and I gotta fuck your face, even with my arms over my head, and you got no problem with that, I’m in.”
She’d stopped mid-straightening the twists in her straps so she could fully experience the lovely shiver his words caused.
He’d just finished tugging down his sweater when he saw her arrested and therefore asked, “You feelin’ like goin’ to Skip’s in your undies?”
“Not particularly.”
“Then get a move on, gorgeous. I’m feelin’ the need for a sandwich and then getting home so I can get naked for my woman.”
Now that . . .
That got her moving.
Paper and Memories
Kia
I WAS READY for my stubborn husband when his stubborn ass got home from his run.
So the instant he walked through the door, I asked, “Are we going to Luci’s now so you can apologize to Hap?”
He gave me a scowl as he trudged his big, sweaty body across the living room to the stairs and replied, “I’m hittin’ the shower then I’m going to the grocery store.”
Avoiding me.
Because his stubborn ass knew he was wrong.
He just wouldn’t admit it.
I moved to the foot of the stairs and called to his back, “We don’t need anything at the store.”
He made no sound or movement to indicate he heard me, just turned left at the top of the stairs toward our room and disappeared.
“You’re being stubborn, Sampson Cooper!” I shouted.
At that, I heard our bedroom door slam.
“And annoying!” I yelled.
To that, nothing.
“Bah!” I huffed and walked to my laptop sitting on the kitchen bar.
I was not surprised at his reaction to the news of there being a Hap and Luci. Nor his stubbornness in the hour-long, heated discussion (okay, fight) we’d had after Hap and Luci left. Nor his declaring our discussion (yeah, fight) was done and making that so by changing into his running gear and taking off (he did that a lot when we fought, mostly because—it was sweet, though not when we were fighting—he hated fighting with me so that was his way to put an end to it, that and the grocery store). Nor the fact that he was still feeling obstinate when he returned, even though he’d been out running for over an hour.