Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 94106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
“Morning person or night owl?”
“Lately, morning person.”
“What do you care about the most?”
“My sister. But don’t tell her that.”
Eve smiled. “What do you care about the least?”
I scratched my chin. “What other people think.”
“Good answer.” She nodded.
I snagged a chip and dipped into the guacamole. “Thank you.”
“What are you obsessed with?”
My eyes jumped to meet Valentina’s and then returned to Eve. I grinned. “Currently, your best friend.”
Eve’s smile grew wider while Valentina’s blush deepened. The interrogation lasted another five minutes before Tom stood and nodded toward the beach.
“What do you say we play some volleyball?”
Eve pouted. “I’m talking to Ford.”
He took her hand and tugged her up. “Yeah. That’s why it’s time for volleyball.”
***
By nine o’clock that night, it was just Val and me on the back deck. Tom was tired, and Eve had started to slur her words. I’d had fun spending the day with everyone. Bella and Nina had come by for a while, and so did the neighbors on the other side. But I was glad to finally be alone with Valentina now.
“Sorry about the all-day inquisition. Eve’s amazing, but she’s not great with boundaries.”
“It’s fine. I really liked her.”
Val sighed. “I can tell she liked you, too. Which will make her unbearable now. She wants me to get back out there.”
“Smart woman.” I grinned. “I concur.”
“A month ago she was trying to get me to go out with a waiter who wasn’t old enough to drink yet.”
That wiped the grin off my face.
“She means well… She really does. She just thinks I need to get the first one under my belt.”
“One?”
“Date. Sex. Relationship. Whatever.”
I reached for the wine we’d just broken open and refilled Val’s glass. “You really need to start taking advice from your friend. She seems very intelligent.”
Val took another deep breath. The emphasis on the exhale sounded a lot like frustration.
We were sitting next to each other, but I wanted to see her face—read every little thing it would tell me that her words wouldn’t. So I pulled her chair out and moved mine so we were facing each other.
Leaning in, our knees touched, and I caught her shivering a bit—though she tried to cover it up. Her mind might’ve been reluctant about us, but her body was damn enthusiastic.
“I’m not sorry about the kiss the other night,” I said. “Not in the least.”
She closed her eyes. “It shouldn’t have happened.”
“Forgetting that you think that for a minute, you have to admit it was fucking phenomenal.”
Val smiled sadly. “It was a good kiss, yes.”
My ego felt bruised. Good? It was better than good. I might be younger than her, but I’d kissed my fair share of women, and that kiss… It was…addictive. We had the kind of chemistry that left us incoherent. I slipped my hands under the back of her knees and tugged her toward the edge of her seat. “If you think it was just a good kiss, I think you need your memory refreshed.”
She put her hand on my chest, though I had a feeling if I’d leaned in and taken her mouth, her resistance wouldn’t have lasted. I should’ve done it. But our physical connection wasn’t the problem. It was her head I needed to work on.
“Fine.” She sighed again. “It was a mind-blowing kiss. The kind that kept me awake for three hours afterward because my body was so revved up, it couldn’t idle down enough to go to sleep. Does that make you feel better?”
I grinned. “It does. And I’m glad to know you didn’t sleep either.”
She rolled her eyes. “You made sure of that with your texts.”
Good to know. I reached out, took one of her hands, and brought her knuckles to my lips, allowing my tongue to graze over the soft skin.
“I wasn’t kidding today when I answered Eve’s question about what I’m obsessed with. You’re all I can think about for the last month.”
“I won’t insult you by trying to claim it’s a one-way street. From the moment we met on Match, I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about you, too.”
I still had her hand in mine, so I squeezed. “Doesn’t that tell you something?”
Valentina looked down at her feet for a moment before she spoke. “I started dating Ryan when I was fifteen. I got pregnant at seventeen and married at eighteen. When I was thirty-four, I caught him cheating on me. Instead of leaving, I spent a year trying to make it work. I blamed myself—I’d gained a little weight, didn’t put on makeup half the time. I thought if I got myself in better shape, kept the house nicer, paid more attention to him as a man, things would be okay.”
She shook her head. “Obviously, they weren’t. It took me a long time to accept that my failed marriage wasn’t all my fault. But it’s taken me even longer to figure out who I am. When you become an us at fifteen and then suddenly you’re an I for the first time at thirty-five, you need to take some time to really be an I.”