happened to her because of me, and she’s “all good there?” My need for this information doubles.
“I’m just…” She sniffs loudly. “I’m just so happy. This depression you’ve been in since it all went down has been like a huge weight on my shoulders, and you just have no idea what a relief it is to hear you sound so much like your old self.”
That brings tears to my own eyes, and my chin wobbles. “Yeah, I’m working on it, kid,” I tell her softly. “And I think what would really get this ball rolling is if you were to give Neil permission to tell me the type of therapy you went through. Because I’m hoping if it worked out so well for you, then maybe… just maybe, it might help a little bit for me.”
“Yes!” she yells into the phone, and I give a little half-smile as I glance up at Neil. “I give my permission, Doc. If I need to sign something or whatever, I’ll do it. But I give you the green light. Tell her everything; I don’t even care. In fact, this is way better. If you tell her, then I don’t have to, and it’ll be way less embarrassing for me.” She laughs even as she sniffs again.
“Does she need to sign something in order for you to tell me right now? Because I will leave right now and take it over to her,” I ask him, lifting a brow.
“No, goddess. Just the verbal confirmation is good,” Neil replies, and I nod, making to stand up from his lap to go back to my seat, but his big Thor arm comes down over my legs like a lap bar on a roller coaster.
I purse my lips before telling my sister, “Well, that’s all I needed, Twy. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“I want to see you!” she inserts quickly. “I mean, not now. You’re in the middle of… important things right now. Obviously. But I want to see you soon. Dinner sometime this week, the four of us? Or maybe lunch just the two of us?”
“Definitely. I’ll text you later and we’ll make actual plans. I love you, baby sis,” I murmur.
She sniffs one last time. “Love you too, Astrid. Bye.”
I place Neil’s phone back into the nook in the hot tub then look him in the eye. “Spill.”
The corner of his sexy lips tilts up, but he shakes his head. “While I am enjoying this pair of balls you’ve grown, and I fully intend to tell you everything you need to know, we’ve been in this hot tub longer than the recommended amount of time. Where would you prefer to move this conversation, goddess?” he asks, and it’s not until he mentions it that I realize I’m pruny and flushed from the spa.
“Hmmm… how about the study, so I get the full therapeutic effect on the leather couch?” I suggest, and he chuckles.
“The study it is,” he replies, and instead of letting me up off his lap, he just stands, lifting me in his arms and making me squeal in surprise.
“Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ. A little warning, Viking,” I chastise, and his eyes get all steamy. “Damn, the air sure is thinner up here,” I joke nervously, seeing that look in his eyes take over his whole face the longer my mostly naked body presses against his torso bridal-style as he steps us up then down and out of the hot tub.
Without preamble, he lets go of me with the arm beneath my legs, and I yelp when my body drops like a dead weight. But the arm encircling my upper back holds tight, and then he slooowly slides me the rest of the way down his palpitation-inducing body until my feet touch the non-slip mat.
“Well that was unnecessary,” I say, my voice all breathy, and he just gives me a sexy smirk as he takes a towel off the stack and wraps it around me.
Chapter 11
Astrid
After going upstairs and somehow only rinsing the chlorine off our naked bodies before getting dressed, we’re now in the study, me on the couch and Neil sitting in the matching brown leather armchair he pulled around to face me. Wanting the full therapy session experience, I asked him if he’d dress like he was going to work, and goddamn does he look delicious in the midnight-blue with white micro-dots button-down shirt that fits him like a second skin, solid flat-front navy-blue slacks that leave nothing to the