enough going on in our lives without me having to spend the night worrying about whether or not she was telling me the truth.
But the last thing I expected was for me to walk into Lilly’s apartment and her give me a dopey grin saying, “I can have wine.”
My eyes closed and relief rolled through me. She really was fine. “What are you talking about?”
“I tried to tell you that you didn’t have to come.” She squeezed my hand still curled around her shoulder and pulled me to the kitchen counter. “Look. I don’t understand all of it, most of it’s a bunch of legal nonsense I guess, but Ellen came over tonight because she’s changed my parole conditions.”
Surprise hit me like a sledgehammer. “She did what?”
“Yeah. Look. Alcohol allowed even though I still might have to take random drug tests, which she’s never done before, anyway. I don’t have to go to AA classes anymore… apparently seven years of them being required is enough. And… I can travel. Four hundred miles.”
I barely scanned the paper she held out. I was too caught up in Lilly’s glistening eyes and blindingly happy smile. Four hundred miles. “Chicago,” I guessed.
“I can go. If I ever want.”
I wasn’t touching that conversation with a ten-foot pole. Not tonight. Not when she seemed lighter. Talking about her parents brought more tears and she’d cried enough. They’d hurt her enough.
“And you were the most excited about wine?” I couldn’t help but smile. The first time she saw me having a glass she’d looked so longingly at it like she’d desperately wanted a taste.
It was a small thing but one more thing that had been stolen from her—the ability to go through all the typical phases of becoming an adult. When she should have been in college, she was behind bars. And because of her parole, she was still chained… but they were loosening. And small ways to her were big ones.
Her expression turned introspective. “I lost so much time. This…” She tapped the page I still hadn’t really read, “it feels like freedom. Making my own choices. At least finally giving me the chance to make them. And… I got A’s on both of my finals today.”
A rush of relief finally spread through my veins.
I’d needed to see her to make sure she was okay, but I hadn’t expected to her to be so… exuberant. So damn excited she was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. The last remaining threads of fear I felt when she called and while I raced to get over here snapped and vanished.
Setting down the paper, I reached for her, grabbed her hips and yanked her to me. She laughed at my quick movements. Unable to resist the beauty lighting up her face, I kissed her harshly, captured her mouth with mine before she could wipe the smile off her face and when she melted against me, I pulled back, grinning down at her. “Then it’s time to celebrate, isn’t it?”
“Now?” She bit her bottom lip, but her excitement was a bright, shining beacon in her amber eyes.
It was late, but not that late. “Go pack a bag. I’ll get you to work tomorrow, and I want to get back to Dad, but he’ll want to hear this, too.”
She nodded quickly. “Okay.”
I waited for Lilly by the front door until she returned only a few minutes later. One small bag I figured carried all of her things for tomorrow with an outfit dangling from hangers in one hand.
“That was quick.”
“It’s not like I have a lot.” She shrugged like it didn’t bother her. And truly, I didn’t think it did. This girl had come from so much, and yet had nothing important. She knew the difference. I doubted it was prison and losing everything that taught her that lesson, either.
I suspected Lilly had always been this kind and beautiful woman in front of me, inside and out.
I went to reach for the outfit she held and instead, grabbed her wrist. Yanking her to me, her makeup bag fell to the floor and her hand slammed into my chest with an oomph.
Before she could steady herself, I bent down and kissed her, gave her everything I felt for her in a kiss that seared to my chest and hoped it did the same to her.
“We’ll finish that later,” I promised, my voice gravelly, my body strung tight and my arousal pressed hard between us.
“More celebrating then,” she said. She kissed