Page 66 of On the Way to You
“Whatever you want, Little Penny.”
I smiled a little at the nickname, a blush creeping onto my cheeks before the question even left my mouth. “That night you left the concert with Emily… did you…” I swallowed, looking down at where my hands rested in the middle of his chest. “Did you sleep with her?”
Emery was silent, his thumbs rubbing small circles where my sweater gathered at my hips. “No.”
A breath of relief rushed out of me, and he chuckled a little. “I’m sorry I had to ask, I know you told me not to be jealous. It’s just… I also know what you said about casual sex, and we weren’t… well, we weren’t likethis. So I know I don’t even have a right to ask. I just…”
“It’s fine,” he assured me, cutting my rambling short. “She showed me her record collection and then I left her place and wandered around Houston alone, because that’s all I wanted to be that night. Alone. Then I grabbed breakfast for us when the sun started coming up and, well, you know the rest.”
“Would you have slept with her?”
Emery swallowed, the lump in his throat bobbing with the notion. “Before you, maybe. But not after.” Then he lifted my chin again, his lips finding mine. “Never after.”
Those words, that kiss, it was the more than I could have asked for from Emery in that moment. It wasn’t a promise, but it was a confession, an openness I wasn’t accustomed to from him that I wanted more of. I could get drunk on it, that transparency, and I fisted my hands in his shirt, pulling him closer, savoring every drop.
Kalo didn’t let us kiss for long before she tugged against the leash still in Emery’s hands, making him grin, his mouth still on mine. “I think she’s hungry.”
“So am I.” My stomach growled with my confession, making Emery chuckle.
“I saw some food trucks up there,” he said, nodding toward the area where we’d found a parking spot. “I think there’s some sort of festival going on.”
“You had me at food truck.”
It was a busy Friday night on the beach, considering it was the middle of November, with local vendors and street performers gathering crowds in different areas on the boardwalk and grassy area beyond it. Emery and I took Kalo back to the car for her dinner first, before grabbing two giant slices of pizza from one of the trucks and perusing the vendor tables. There was beautiful local art and pottery, homemade soaps and candles, jewelry of all kinds, and t-shirt designers galore.
We wandered past each of them eating our pizza and enjoying the cool evening breeze before we stumbled on a man juggling sticks of fire near the volleyball courts. Kalo moved excitedly between our feet, trying to find the best view as Emery polished off his slice, but my eyes were drawn to a small table near the end of the boardwalk.
The woman manning the table smiled when our eyes met, waving a hand softly to invite me over. She didn’t look much older than myself, her skin a creamy white, though it was barely visible through the dark ink that painted her from the neck down. Her hair was jet black and shaved on one side, eyes just as dark, and even from where we stood I could see her ears were gauged open with metal rings.
“What do you say?” I asked, nudging Emery and nodding toward her. There was a cosmic sign hanging from the front of her table that read TAROT CARDS. “Want to see what the universe has in store for the last leg of our trip?”
I peered up at him, and he was already rolling his eyes. “You’re joking.”
“Nope. Come on, humor me.”
He shook his head as I slid my hand into his, already dragging him away from the fire and toward her table. “You owe me for this.”
“And what exactly do I owe you?”
At that, a salacious grin spread low on his lips. “I’d tell you, but there are children around.”
I laughed, smacking his arm before taking Kalo’s leash from his other hand. She hopped around in the sand the entire way up to the table, and once we’d reached it, I bent down to pet her fur and give her one of the treats I’d tucked in my pocket. Once she settled by my feet with it, the woman greeted us.
“Thanks for stopping by my table, I was starting to nod off over here,” she said. It was then that I noticed the bull ring pierced through the middle of her nose, the bottom of it grazing her top lip when she smiled. “I’m Melina. What are your names?”
“Aren’t you supposed to tell us that?” Emery piped.
I elbowed him, narrowing my eyes before extending a hand for Melina. “I’m Cooper, and this is Emery.”
“Nice to meet you,” she said, not seeming fazed in the slightest by Emery’s comment, though she did narrow her eyes at him before gesturing to the two small, cushioned stools in front of her table. “Take a seat.”
I sat in the chair on the left, Emery on the right, and I watched his skepticism grow more as Melina grabbed her deck of cards from the corner of the table.
“You don’t look like a psychic,” he said, giving her a once-over.
“And you don’t look like an asshole, but appearances can be deceiving, can’t they?” Melina smiled sarcastically, shuffling the cards between her hands as I stifled a laugh.
Emery lifted a brow at me. “Oh, you think that’s funny, huh?” he teased.