Page 24 of Truly

I wait for her to go up the steps first and follow her with the pizza box. It’s so natural having her in my home. It’s so easy spending time with her.How can it be this simple after all these years?After the heartbreak of my life?

It probably feels right because I’m only showing her “healed and easygoing Luke” and not the “I hate the world Luke” I was for a long time after we ended.

“Ugh,” she says, stutter-stepping in the doorway to my bedroom.

I nearly run the edge of the pizza box into her back. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I just left my dress on the floor, and seeing it just felt like …” She sighs and goes into my bedroom. “It didn’t feel good.”

I drop the box on the bed. “Let’s do something with it, then.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. What do you want to do with it?”

She sets the bags in the bathroom and then returns to the bedroom. She studies the big white poof on the floor.

“We could put it in a trash bag and save it,” I offer, not sure what women do with these things.So much money for one day. Or half a day in this case.

“I don’t want to save it.”

“Okay. We could bag it up and donate it to charity.”

Her eyes shine. “Let’s do that.”

I grab a lawn and leaf bag from the kitchen, and we make quick work of stuffing the dress inside. Once the material is out of sight, the relief on Laina’s face is evident. Her wrinkled forehead eases. The lines around her mouth soften. Her shoulders slump forward as if a weight has been lifted, and if I had known this would help her, I would’ve done it hours ago.

I toss the bag into the hallway. “I’ll take it to the garage later.”

She free-falls backward onto the bed.

My shirt cradles her body, sucking against her front. Her tits sit on top of her chest with the nipples pressing against the fabric, and the hem of my boxers ride up and pool at the apex of her thighs. Her skin is tanned and smooth. She’s delicate yet strong, beautiful yet the embodiment of sexy.

My cock twitches in my jeans.

“Do you want to eat or go to sleep?” I ask, moving into the bathroom to adjust myself without her noticing.

“Can I eat in bed?”

“This isn’t a hotel.”

“No, but I’ll be super careful and not drop a crumb.”

Hate to tell you, lady, but I wouldn’t kick you out of bed for getting crumbs in the sheets.

She yawns in the other room.

“Did Gavin bring you everything you need?” I ask.

“I think so. Thank you again for organizing that for me.”

Sufficiently calm, I go back into the bedroom and sit on the other side of the pizza box from her.

“My best friend flies out tomorrow and has all of my stuff,” she says. “I’m not sure how to get it from her if you let me stay a few days.”

“Just a few days?”

She shrugs, flicking open the pizza box. “Maybe in a few days things will have blown over enough that I can get to the airport and go somewhere else. I don’t know where I’ll go, but I can figure something out.” She sits up and takes a slice of pizza. “Where would you go if you could go anywhere?”