do this?” I asked her.
“Hold hands. Yeah. It made me feel safe.”
“You were always crazy coming to that part of town, Amelia. It was really dangerous.”
“What? You and those fools you hung out with?”
“Fools, huh?” I asked.
I gave her hand a tug and she playfully sidestepped toward me. I did the same and inched toward her. We were closer, still holding hands.
“That was a shit part of town,” I said. “There were always fights and problems.”
“So what? You were a teenager. Isn’t that what you were supposed to do?”
“You don’t have the half of it then, love. Which is good. I never wanted you near that stuff.”
“What happened to the guys you hung out with?”
“Well… Murph is in jail. For stealing who knows what. Last I heard, Nash was in rehab. He got messed up real badly with drugs. And Abel… believe it or not, he’s a lawyer.”
“What?”
“I know. He packed up and moved far away then put himself through college and law school.”
“And you became a tortured artist, huh?” Amelia asked.
“Tortured? Where did that come from?”
“I don’t know. I’m just feeling wordy at the moment.”
“Wordy,” I said. “Thanks to me?”
“Actually…no.”
That’s when Amelia pulled her hand away from me.
She moved down around the counter where she had been standing. The way she grabbed her beer bottle and took a swig… it was like someone cutting my heart.
She was seduction. Temptation. Beauty.
Everything I remembered.
Everything I wanted to forget.
“I really have to wait for you to leave to read this?” I asked Amelia as I pointed to the story she brought.
“Yes. I might let you read the first page.”
“What’s the fee?”
“Part of your story.”
I turned and leaned against the counter and folded my arms. “How about you tell me what’s got you wordy?” I looked at her. “Or why you stopped writing in the first place.”
“Things just didn’t work out,” Amelia said.
“With what?”
“I almost had a book deal,” she said. “It fell through and it just… it hurt.”
I nodded. “I get that, love.”
“Do you?” she asked. “You seem pretty popular, Josh. People would do anything to see your stuff.”
“I wonder how many are full of bullshit. Who see, but don’t actually see.”
“They at least show up and tell you it’s good.”
“Anyone can do that, Amelia. Lying is the easiest thing in the world. Tell someone you love them when you don’t. Tell someone they’re beautiful when they’re not. Tell someone their story is good when you haven’t read it. Or tell someone that a picture or painting speaks to them, but they have their hands over their ears.”
“Is that what you’re doing to me? Lying. Saying whatever you think I want to hear so you can read some stupid story I wrote when I was thirteen?”
“So, you’re calling me out then? Which means I’ll have to give you proof of what I say to you and how I mean it.”
“Or just tell me your story,” Amelia said. “For my own mind. To keep me feeling more and more wordy.”
I pushed from the counter and walked around it to her. I had no problem putting a foot between us and standing there to give her a chance to be the one to make the decision this time. The decision to walk away. Run away. The decision to stay away.
Seconds ticked and like pulling the pin on a grenade, there was only so much time.
My right hand gently touched her face.
In my eyes and mind, she flashed back and forth from the young girl in dire need of love to the real woman in dire need of… me.
Maybe I was a little cocky, but I wasn’t afraid.
As my hand slipped through the thick and knotty curls of her hair, I pulled her in and met her halfway, kissing her like I knew she had never been kissed before.
The taste of her lips, familiar from the other night in the restaurant. The flicker of my tongue against those lips, a gentle yet commanding notice that we weren’t quite done yet.
As Amelia’s lips parted, she sighed with a relief I knew was coming.
Her hands touched my shirt.
She didn’t push me away.
She gripped my shirt.
My left hand touched the perfect curve of her waist and I turned her, her back facing the counter. Then in a quick move, I pressed my body against hers and grabbed the back of her leg and pulled. The kiss broke and she let out a breathless groan as I lifted her at the exact same moment she jumped.
Now she was on