Page 53 of All of You

Delia shrugs. “I don’t know, but my mom clearly wrote this so she must have made it.”

“Can you play it?”

She nods. “Yup, her CD player is this bad boy,” she says then pats the bulky radio-looking thing on the nightstand.

“Well let’s listen.”

I snatch the CD from her hand and fiddle with the cover until I figure out how to pop open the CD hatch.

“I think it goes this way,” I say and put the CD in, labeled side up before closing the lid again. Delia turns up the volume and some lady starts warbling about only hearing what she wants to and talking too much. Alternative girl folk. My least favorite genre.

Delia flops back on the bed and stares at the ceiling. I follow suit. We listen to the music for a bit.

“My brains been caught up in a shit spiral all day. Is she okay? Why’d she leave?Didshe leave or is there something more sinister going on—kinda thoughts. And then you show up and Heath’s all…grandfatherly with you and he barely speaks to me.” She sits up and jumps off the bed. “I mean…I live here—with him. I’m his granddaughter for fudge sake but he doesn’t even try to get to know me.”

“That sucks.”

She paces the room. I sit up and stare at her.

“Yeah sorry. My brain’s on rapid fire I guess.”

“I can fix that,” I say.

“Ha! Ok, how?” she asks. Her green eyes ablaze as she stares at me.

“I’ll be your distraction.”

Delia raises an eyebrow and bites her bottom lip. “I’m listening,” she says.

I reach for her hand, which she gives, but I’m nervous in her room alone as I pull her to the bed, my hand tugging her down. Her soft warm chest pressed against mine, her breath moving us in unison as she pins me with her gaze.

Her hands move on their own, trailing up my arms to my shoulders and over my chest. Her eyes are greener than I’ve ever seen, like their backlit—shining from the inside out. I feel like I’m coming unglued. A moan slips out of me.

Her nostrils flare. We’re moving to the beat of our frantic breaths. The song playing is so cheesy, rain sounds and some woman crooning about being a lover.

“Don’t fall in love with me or I’ll have to kill you,” she whispers.

A grin pulls the corners of my mouth up. “I won’t. Now close your eyes.”

I flip us so that she’s under me. The bed squeaks. Briefly, I wonder if anyone outside can see in the window near her bed, but they’d have to be pretty far in the front yard, so I relax. Her lashes fan out on her cheeks. She’s so gorgeous. Everything feels right with her. Like the elemental companionship of light and air. We just fucking fit.

I lean down and kiss her. She’s like a piece of candy and I want every last taste. My eyes flick up from our kiss and look out the window. Outside is a squirrel drinking in the bird bath beneath the apple blossom tree in the moonlight, and it seems that all is right in the world at this specific moment.

Twenty Seven

Delia

Langdon leaves but not before thoroughly devouring me with kisses and groping. The kind that can only be described as hot and heavy. My whole body felt like it was on fire. A heady woosh of lust and desire and adrenaline. I didn’t even stop to think about his family and mine just downstairs, that anyone could have walked in on us at any moment. I didn’t think about anything except Langdon’s body and mine.

His mom had yelled upstairs that they were getting ready to head out and we’d both leaped so far apart from each other that you would have thought we’d been shocked by an electric fence. I’d laughed as he smoothed his hair and shirt into place in the dresser mirror while I just laid on the bed and watched him. Langdon was sexy as hell all rumpled and mussed and if I had to guess, he thought the same about me, judging from the tormented look in his eyes as he took me in on the bedwhile he said goodnight.

Mom’s mix CD was weirdly sexy as far as mood music goes. Even if it pains me to admit it.Mom. Ugh. I will my brain to stop thinking before I spiral out of control.

Heath comes to talk to me. He sits on the end of my bed and apologizes for sending me to my room and embarrassing me in front of company. I appreciate the effort, but the damage is done.

“What can we do, Delia? How do we build a relationship?” he asks.

I’m pressed against the wall at the opposite end of the bed from him. I shrug. “I’ve never had family. I don’t know. I don’t know how to do this,” I admit.