Prentice’s voice was gentle when he replied, “No’ for you, baby. For me, it won’t be a problem. Fuck, I’m looking forward to it.”
That didn’t sound good.
“Pren –” Elle started.
“Trust me, Elle.”
“But –”
“Trust me.”
She took in a breath and nodded to herself in the mirror. “Okay.”
“I’ll take care of you, Elle.”
That thing relaxed further and she whispered again, “Okay.”
But he wasn’t done. “That time in your life is over. Over. It ended last night. You may burn your hand and Jace may lose a football match and Sally may get the flu and other shit might happen but it’ll be ours and we’ll handle it. You’re no’ taking shit from anyone, no’ ever again. I’ll see to that.”
After his promise that thing inside her was so relaxed Elle had to lean against the mirror to keep standing.
“Pren –” she started but she didn’t know what she was going to say.
She didn’t have the opportunity to say it, Prentice interrupted her, “I’ve got to go.”
“All right,” Elle whispered.
“I’ll see you quarter to.”
“Okay.”
“Love you, baby,” he murmured.
Her breath hitched on his words, words she adored, words she hadn’t heard in a long time, words that settled warmly deep inside her, delaying her reply but he didn’t give her that opportunity either, he rang off.
Two seconds later, Annie threw back the curtain to her changing room.
Elle threw her arms over her body which was clad only in underwear.
Annie ignored Elle’s state of dishabille and demanded to know, “Are you going to become one of those sickly ooey, gooey, lovestruck heroines from a fairytale? Because if you are, Dougal and I are going on vacation until you snap out of it.”
Elle stared at her friend then hissed, “Annie, close the curtain!”
Annie looked to her left then to her right then to Elle. “There’s no one out here.”
“I don’t care, close the curtain.”
“Bella, sickly? Ooey? Gooey? Hello?” Annie replied.
Elle took a step forward, pulled Annie into the changing room with her and snapped the curtain shut.
Then she faced off with her friend. “If I remember when you finally got through to Dougal, you were sickly, ooey, gooey, lovestruck and enthusiastically detailed.”
Annie grinned. “It wasn’t me who described my first time doing it with Dougal against a wall.”
Elle just knew she’d shared too much.
“That’s because you did it in the front seat of his truck, twenty years ago,” Elle retorted.