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“Okay...” I said, not quite sure how that would go.

“Okay?” She smiled at me.

I laughed. “Okay. But you know what might help you relax?”

She tilted her head in question.

“A warm bath. Come on.” I got up, taking her hand, and led her to the bathroom. I sat on the edge of the tub, turning on the water and letting it run over my fingers until it was hot. I plugged the bottom so it would begin filling. “You know what’s crazy? Chick bathrooms have so much shit.” There had to be at least eight bottles of stuff in the shower.

Mags laughed. “Well, there are two of us here, and we don’t use the same products.”

“Why the hell not?” I asked.

She came and sat on the opposite end of the tub, her back resting against the cream-colored tile. “Well, first of all, Cam’s hair is wavy and bleached. She needs a moisture-intensive product to help it stay healthy, and then she needs a different mousse to add volume. My hair is colored, thin, and tends to get oily, so I need a heavy wash and a lighter conditioner to cut back on the oil.”

I reached out and held an end of her brunette hair between my fingertips. “This is your natural color.”

“Nope.” She shook her head. “It was, until I started going gray.”

“No way. You’re not old,” I said.

She laughed. “I’m also not a man, but that didn’t stop me from losing hair at seventeen.”

I took her hand between mine. A glance at the tub showed we had plenty of time for it to fill. And when I looked back, I realized she was remembering that time too when her mom left and she got stress-induced alopecia. Her hair fell out in chunks; I remembered finding some caught between my fingers when we were making out and how she burst into tears after.

I told her the words I’d said all those years ago. “You were beautiful then, as you are now.”

Her lips lifted. “You know how much I missed you, right?”

My heart twitched at the hope those words caused. “You did?”

She nodded. “Other than Cam, you were my best friend. When we broke up, it felt like half of me was missing.” Her voice broke, and she blinked quickly.

I had to swallow down the lump growing in my own throat. “You have no idea how good it feels to have you back.”

Her smile trembled, and she nodded, wiping at her eyes.

I noticed the tub getting full, so I turned it off and pulled a can of bath salts off the ledge.

“Those are Cam’s,” Maggie said.

I twisted the lid and dumped them in the tub. “I’ll pay her back.”

I stood up, and she did too. Hot steam filled the room, making sweat glisten softly on her skin under the incandescent lighting. “Put your arms up,” I said gently.

She looked up at me, slowly raising her arms. I pulled her shirt over her head, showing more of her beautiful body.

“Turn,” I said.

She did.

My fingers made quick work of her bra, freeing her breasts.

She turned back toward me, but instead of taking off her pants, she put her arms around me and hugged me close. I ran my calloused hands over her bare back, higher until my fingers brushed her long hair and lower until I grazed the denim at her waist.

She looked up, resting her chin on my chest, so beautiful with her shoulders bare, and glanced at my lips.

Knowing what she wanted, I bent to kiss her. The brush of my lips over hers was as natural as it was exciting, healing as it was rending. It was a reminder of all I had and all I had to lose.