“Have fun, MeeMaw. I love you.”
“Tell Shelly I said hi, will you? I do like that girl.”
“I’ll tell her.” I smiled as MeeMaw hung up.
I looked up to find Shelly standing in the doorway of the kitchen. “Everything okay?” she asked.
I showed her the phone that was still in my hand. “MeeMaw called.”
Shelly’s brow furrowed. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. Aunt Edna is forcing her to get out and walk some. It’s making her a little crazy.”
“Did I hear you talking about condoms?” Shelly asked.
My face immediately flushed with heat. “Um…” I scratched the end of my nose, but then I laughed out loud, because there was no way around it. I had to tell her, since she’d probably heard my half of the conversation. “Yeah.”
“Wait.” She grinned, pointing a finger at me. “MeeMaw buys your condoms?”
“No,” I began, but Shelly’s grin caught me off guard. “Well, sort of.” I looked down at the floor and breathed “Fuck!” very quietly.
Shelly’s eyebrows rose up toward her forehead.
“It’s kind of a running joke,” I stumbled to explain. “I mean…of course I can and do buy my own condoms. But MeeMaw sometimes buys a box and puts them in my glove box. As a running joke.” Well, sometimes it was a joke. Sometimes it was a reminder. Sometimes it was just to get on my fucking nerves.
Shelly laughed. “I can’t believe your MeeMaw buys you condoms.”
“Believe it. She’s one of a kind.” Or at least I hoped so. “She said to tell you hello.”
“Tell her I said hi the next time she calls, will you?”
I nodded as I pulled the hot bag of popcorn out of the microwave and dumped it into a bowl. Then I followed Shelly back to the bedroom, watching her ass sway in those teeny-tiny shorts. She climbed back onto my bed, settling against the pillows propped on the headboard. “Did you pick a movie?”
“Yeah. Press play.”
I picked up the remote and pressed play. She’d picked the latest action flick, which was one I’d been wanting to see. “Lights on or off?” I asked.
“Off,” she said, so I reached over and switched off the bedside lamp as the opening credits began.
I laid a pillow in my lap and patted it. “Want to lie on me?”
I nearly died when she accepted the offer, and she gently laid her head on the pillow, her palm tucked under her cheek. And every time something happened in the movie, she would grip my thigh or jerk against my lap, and I nearly died again. And again. And again. And when she rolled to look up at me after the credits played, and said, “Thank you for the great night,” I felt something shift inside me. It was something tangible, yet I couldn’t touch it. It was something real, but I couldn’t define it. It was something I’d never felt before with anyone. It was all Shelly. She yawned and closed her eyes.
I threaded my fingers through the hair at her temple and very quietly asked, “Is this all right?” She nodded her head and made a mewling sound in her throat, and when I knew she was more than half asleep, I took a deep breath, reached over, and my hand shook a little as I reached into my bedside table and pulled out the gift I’d put there earlier.
I’d spent almost an hour looking for the right thing for Shelly. I’d gone to two jewelry stores, but I couldn’t find the perfect thing. We’d been talking about the necklace that she’d loved to borrow from Lynn for all the wrong reasons. Then I’d seen it. I’d walked by a craft store and, right there in the window, I’d seen the perfect present for Shelly. There, leaning in the store window, was a kids’ friendship bracelet kit, the kind with the strands that you have to thread together. I’d spent the whole afternoon locked in my office making the damn thing. I’d picked blue to match her eyes, and I’d woven it with whites and pinks, because I knew Shelly wore pink a lot. It had a couple of lumps in the threads where I’d made mistakes while braiding, but I didn’t think Shelly would mind. It was a stupid present, and she would probably take it off as soon as she woke up, but I still put it on her wrist for her to find in the morning.
I took Shelly’s glasses off her face and laid them on the bedside table. Then I scooted Shelly off my lap and up onto the pillows at the head of the bed, and then I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into the crook of my body. She made a little noise as she settled against me, but she didn’t try to pull away. I took that as encouragement, and I brushed her hair down between us and held her close, and I wondered why the fuck this felt so right. No answers came to me. Not a single one.
Chapter 33
Shelly
I woke up to find myself alone in Will’s bed. I reached back to find the place behind me still warm, so he had to have just gotten up. The sound of running water filtered from the crack in the bathroom door.
I sat up and brushed my hair back from my face. I’d slept with Will. Like slept with him slept with him. I didn’t fuck him. I slept in the same bed with him wrapped around me all night. I’d woken once during the night, slick with sweat where our bodies were pressed together. I’d rolled away, but he’d pulled me back against him with a protest and a heavy breath against my neck. He’d pressed his lips to my shoulder, and I’d liked it. No, I’d loved it. I’d loved it so much that I’d stayed there, stuck to him, wondering why I’d never done this before. But I knew the answer. It was because I’d never met Will before. I wasn’t sure I could ever do this with anyone else. I was pretty sure I didn’t want to.
I lifted my arms to brush my hair back again, and I noticed brightly colored thread against my skin. I reached for my glasses on the bedside table and pulled them on. I ran my finger under the brightly colored bracelet, tugging on it gently. It was secured to my wrist with a sturdy plastic catch.