The Secret of You and Me - Melissa Lenhardt Page 0,67

“Hi, Charlie. Alima and I work together. She came to help me with Ray’s house.” The explanation was rushed, almost apologetic, but Charlie didn’t seem to notice.

“Sophie told me. What a friend. Come on, Alima. Let me introduce you around, get you something to drink. Nora, you want something?”

“I’m good,” Nora said. “Thanks.”

Alima and Charlie went out to the patio where a group had formed.

“That was smooth,” I said with raised eyebrows.

“Did you hear how my voice went up at the end? I sounded like a teenager trying to lie to her parents.”

“Charlie’s too distracted to notice.”

Nora studied me. “You okay?”

“Great.”

“You’re a shitty liar.”

“Don’t say that when I’m about to spend the next four hours lying my ass off to everyone in this room.” Alima had her back to us, and everyone was crowded around her, listening to her with fascinated expressions. “Come on. Let’s put your cake up.” I walked off down the hall toward the laundry room.

I was closing the refrigerator when Nora walked in.

“My God, this laundry room is bigger than my first apartment,” Nora said, looking around the massive room in awe.

I turned the dryer on. “I know. It’s pretentious. I love it.”

I pushed the laundry room door closed and backed Nora against it. “This is as close to sneaking off as we’re going to get tonight.”

Nora’s hands went to my hips and she pulled me to her. “This is how I want all of our conversations to start, and end, from now on.”

“Stop talking.” I cupped her face and kissed her, slowly, remembering the languid makeout sessions we would have in her room. Her dad never at home, we didn’t have to worry about being caught by my helicopter mother. Nora’s lips were still soft and kissing her was the most natural thing in the world.

She whispered my name.

“I know.” I placed her hand over my racing heart. “It remembers.”

Nora kissed the back of my hand holding hers, then moved her lips to my collarbone, my neck. I leaned my head back, and her lips traveled to my jaw, behind my ear.

My voice was husky when I spoke. “Seeing you walk in the door with Alima...it shattered my resolve to keep my distance. That was my plan, you know. To let you go once and for all. I can’t. I’m jealous of every person you’ve known, you’ve been with since you left. I know I have no right to be.”

“I’m glad you’re jealous.”

Nora slipped a spaghetti strap off my shoulder and cupped my breast. “You look beautiful,” she whispered. “I always loved you in blue.”

“I know.”

She held my gaze as she ran a finger beneath the other spaghetti strap, pulling it slowly off my shoulder. It was all I could do not to let the rest of my dress fall to the floor, to remind myself of the guests not thirty feet away.

“We can’t,” I said, pushing the strap up.

“We used to,” she said, gently pulling it down again. “We were very good at being quiet, remember?”

I inhaled a shaky breath, as Nora kissed my shoulder and moved her lips slowly down my chest. Yes, I remembered the thrill of possibly being caught, how good it was when we were doing what we shouldn’t only a few feet away from my parents, or the school hallway, or in the locker room at the club, Comanche Springs. I really hadn’t thought through bringing Nora back here. I should have known where it would lead. That not only my heart but my body would remember. But, I couldn’t, we couldn’t. The time wasn’t right. And when this happened, if it happened, I wanted plenty of time.

“When does Alima leave?”

Nora stopped. Alima’s name threw cold water on her, like I knew it would. “I’m not sure.”

“When she does, we need to talk.”

“Talk?” She rubbed her thumb across my bare nipple. I let out a frustrated moan, pulled back and straightened my dress.

Guests. Amends. No relationship rule.

“Before anything happens, I have to make amends.”

“Sophie, you don’t need to...”

“Yes, I do.”

She sighed. “Okay. But, after you talk, we are finishing this.” Nora rubbed the edges of my mouth. “Your lipstick is smudged.”

I did the same for her. “And you have some on now.” We stopped and stared at each other for a long moment. I knew, in that instant, that what I felt for her wasn’t just physical, it wouldn’t go away after she left. It had never gone away. All these years when I’d consoled myself with the idea