be settled down with anyone, not when he was this young. He didn’t want to do everything like Kona. God knew they were enough alike already. But as he looked down at Gia and the label bounced around in his head, the thought of it attaching him and Gia together didn’t fill him with the dread he expected it would have only a month ago.
“Yeah,” he finally said, tugging on her wrist to pull her hand away from his mouth. “I think it suits the situation.” He pulled on her waist, lifting Gia until her legs wrapped around him and Luka sat them on his bed.
“There’s one small problem,” she told him, a smile teasing him, the smallest hint of a laugh shaking her words.
“What’s that, nani?”
“This isn’t a situation.” Gia kissed him, lifting up to push Luka back onto the mattress. She hovered over him, lips soft, sweet against his neck.
“If this isn’t a situation,” he started, pulling her down, needing her against him, wanting to feel the heat of her skin next to him, not wanting any space between their bodies.
“This, my friend is an entanglement.” Another kiss as she rested on one hand, steadying herself, Gia used her free hand to lift his t-shirt up his stomach. “You and entanglements…not such a good…”
Luka stopped the explanation with a twisting movement, reversing their positions with his hands on her hips and a spin that had Gia under him and her hands in his over her head.
He got close enough to kiss her, using his tongue to open her lips and his knees to spread her legs apart, resting them over his thighs because he wanted to feel her close. He’d been thinking these thoughts for weeks. They were the same things he tried to tell himself were pointless and stupid. The kind of things Kona would say about Keira. The things Luka never believed in because he thought they’d make him weak.
“Let me be clear.” Gia did things to him no one ever had before, and it scared him. But he loved that fear. It filled him like a fire, consuming and burning. “You stand stronger than anyone I’ve ever met. You want bigger things than anyone else I know. You see hurdles and you want to clear them. You make everything look boundless, Gia. Hell, if you can pull off half the shit you want, then I’ll believe in anything. Aliens, Yeti…flying damn pigs.”
“Flying pigs?” she said through a laugh.
“Flying pigs with giant wings. That’s you, G. The boundless hurdle jumper. The woman who makes me believe in flying pigs. Of course I want entanglements with you.” Her face relaxed, but Gia moved her eyebrows together, as though she knew there would be more but didn’t know how much to expect. Luka touched her lips to keep them still in case she tried to interrupt him. “I think, maybe, I could be happily entangled with you…for the rest of my life.”
“Lu,” she whispered against his thumb before she pushed his hand away. “What are you…”
“I love you.” Once he said it, it felt real. It felt comfortable and Luka had never been comfortable anywhere in his life. Not until Gia. He shifted close, not wanting her to see what happened to his eyes when they burned like they were right then. Luka moved his forehead to hers, kissing her slowly before he inhaled. “I think this might be a forever kind of love, nani.”
“Forever is a long time, Lu.”
He kissed her again, mouth on hers, stealing her breath like he needed it just to stay tethered to the earth. “I hope so, baby. That’s how long I want with you.”
9.
GIA
“But this is ridiculous.”
“G, please. I don’t want you getting sick.” Luka didn’t sound sick, but there was a gravel-tone in his voice that reminded Gia of an old man. “It’s bad enough that your uncle is riding you because of me. If I get you sick, too, then he’ll add laps to the five hundred I’m already doing.” Luka sneezed again, and Gia stopped inside of her building lobby, debating turning back for the parking lot and driving to the team house. Her boyfriend was being ridiculous refusing, yet again to see her because he was sick.
“Isn’t this supposed to be a job I do? Take care of you?” She leaned against the lobby security stand, holding her keys between her fingers, ready to bolt.
“Lolo, when have you ever done jobs you were supposed to?” Another cough