Life Rewired (Aspen Friends, Book 3) (33 page)

I came up and slipped my arms around her. She leaned back and sighed while whisking the eggs in a bowl. Her face turned to nuzzle my neck. She was awfully good at multitasking.

“I was so tired last night I forgot to tell you my work news.” She set the whisk in the sink and turned to face me. Her eyes slipped down my front and graced me with the coveted flare. A quick grin stretched her lips wide. She slid her hands onto my hips and plucked a finger under my waistband, running it slowly along my abdomen.

I could have stood here all day sharing this simple touch with her. Ridiculous, really, but damn it made me happy. I glanced up, remembering that she’d started to tell me something. “What news?”

“Hmm?” she asked in a dazed voice, her eyes still transfixed by the glide of her finger. She always looked so beautiful when she was distracted. “Oh, yeah. Nat told me that big reno we start Monday will go seven days a week.”

I frowned. That would suck. We already didn’t get to see each other as much as other couples because I didn’t get weekends off. “That sounds like too much work.”

She smiled and shook her head. “No. It means we’re all rotating days off. I get to pick my days.”

I think I yelped, excitedly reaching to lift her off her feet. She started laughing as I guessed what she would choose, “Tuesdays and Wednesdays?”

“I thought it might be nice to have the same days off for six months.”

“It’ll be awesome.” I set her down and basked in the wonderful news.

She pressed a hand to my cheek. “Glad you approve.”

I more than approved. We’d get to wake up late and spend an entire day or two together if we wanted. I never thought I’d consider that an extravagance, but with her it would be.

She turned to pour the eggs into a pan and place the bacon onto paper towels. It was something I could envision watching every morning for years to come.

“Want toast,” I asked to be helpful. “Smoothie?”

“Please, to both.”

I put the fruit, yogurt, milk, and protein mix into the blender. Before meeting Falyn, I’d never made a smoothie before. Never even used a blender, but now I was becoming an expert at making them because it was one of her preferred breakfast staples.

“What’s this?” I noticed a small brown bag on the island counter.

She glanced over her shoulder. “Got that for you.”

I popped the bread into the toaster, brushed off my hands, and went over to the bag. My heart tripped as I pulled it open. I reached in and took out a new set of headphones for my iPod.

“How did you…why would you…?” I was at a loss for what to say. Not one of the women I’d dated would get me something like this. I had a few rich tourist trysts try to buy me expensive earrings or necklaces. I never accepted them. The girlfriends I had would buy clothes they’d rather see me wear or gift certificates because they couldn’t be bothered to figure out what they should get me for Christmas or my birthday. No one would have thought to get me something both useful and thoughtful just because.

“You said the pair you had kept cutting in and out, and you have that camping trip tonight. I know how much the iPod saves your nights on those trips.”

“Falyn,” I breathed out in wonder. “Thank you.”

She looked surprised by how grateful I sounded. “It’s nothing big, Molly.”

No. It wasn’t as big as her changing her work schedule to match mine, but it was a big deal to me. Every big gift had a purpose like softening me up for something I wouldn’t like or apologizing for something I wasn’t happy about. Little gifts or gestures said she was thinking of me when she was doing something else, when she didn’t need to be thinking of me. “It’s not my birthday.”

“I know.” Her mouth quirked up. “Do I need a reason to pick up something for you?”

“No one’s ever done that for me.”

“Well, get used to it.” She smiled and gripped my hand. “I don’t ever want to take you for granted. You have to promise to tell me if you feel that way.”

I went to her for a hug. Her face tucked in against mine. “I will as long as you tell me the same.”

“And no keeping score, either.”

I smiled because she guessed one of my habits with friends. If Vivian or Dwight paid for dinner twice in a row, it made me antsy. Yeah, they made a lot more than I did, but I wanted things to be even between us. “Yes, ma’am.”

She laughed. “I am okay with being the boss, though.”

I joined her merriment. “In your dreams. That we will be keeping score on.”

“Share it?”

I nodded. “Yeah, we can work with that.”

Her teeth pulled her bottom lip in for a tantalizing three seconds. “I wouldn’t think of sharing control with just anyone, you know?”

“Same for me.”

“So…” Her hand came up and waved two fingers back and forth between us. “It’s love then, is it?”

My heart sped up as an amazed laugh escaped. The way she finally said it was as original as the rest of her. She wasn’t telling me she loved me. She was saying it for both of us, and it wasn’t really a question.

“Yeah,” I agreed, pulling her to me. “It’s love.”

“The kind that sticks.” She smiled and nipped my lips.

“For a long, long time.” I captured her teasing lips in a smoldering kiss to seal my promise.

Please enjoy excerpts from Lynn Galli’s other novels,
Mending Defects, Something So Grand, Wasted Heart, Imagining Reality, Uncommon Emotions, Blessed Twice, Full Court Pressure,
and
Finally,
all currently available.

“You’ve never been married?” Lena asked.

I grinned at her. I wondered if she realized this was the first really personal question she’d asked me. I had just asked her the same thing, but she almost never brought up topics from our pasts. “Nope.”

“Not the marrying kind?” she teased.

“Never really thought about it.”

“The woman from the bar? She’s not your Ms. Right?”

I laughed, but her confused expression made me stop. “No. We were friends. I was her diversion.”

“You’re not anymore?”

“No. I hope to be her friend again, but the diversion is done.”

“Didn’t bring her enough baked goods?”

I shot a sly look at her. “I’ve never baked anything for her.”

“Save those for special people only?”

She thought she was teasing, but I answered honestly. “You can tell a lot about a person from her baked goods. She and I were never that close.”

An involuntary sound left her mouth. She was surprised by it and chose to lean down and pet her dog for the distraction. I smiled, knowing I’d just tossed a flirting lob her way. It was dangerous territory, I knew, but sometimes I liked testing boundaries.

“Did you find anyone special at Club Di?”

She snickered softly. “About twenty fourteen-year-olds. God, were we really that young in college?” She glanced at me. “What am I saying? You still are.”

“Hey, I’m way past my teen drama years, thank you very much.”

“Not by much,” she muttered and gave her other dog the same treatment.

“I do have drama queen tendencies,” I said.

“Ha! You’re the most laidback person I’ve ever met. If you were any more laidback you’d be in a coma.”

“That’s only because you’re so uptight.”

“I am not!” she screeched, standing in protest.

I laughed, making a point of sliding my gaze from her once occupied seat to her now indignant stance. “I think it’s admirable. Honestly. I would love to get wound up about so many things.”

“Oh, shut up!” She swiped my shoulder before huffing a bit more and dropping back into her seat. A long moment passed before she asked, “Do you know Molly? She works at some outfitter shop?”

“Yes.” I felt my fingers cross behind my back hoping that Molly wasn’t Lena’s type. Then again, I didn’t have any right to care if she were.

“Any reason you’d know of that she’d have my number and call to ask me out?”

My head shook and pulled back. What exactly was she asking me? “Like maybe I told her you were in need of a date? I’d never do that. Your relationship status is not for me to advertise.”

“I figured, but I asked Joanna and Brandy and they denied telling her anything.”

That sounded right. Even if the ski instructors had told Molly, they probably wouldn’t own up to it. They were a bit mischievous and liked starting things.

“Are you upset that some people know?”

“I just don’t like being set up.”

“No one does, or if they do, they’re nuts.” I thought for a moment, wondering if I should tell her that as soon as she told Terry, she’d told the whole town.

“Definitely nuts,” she agreed.

“One piece of advice?” I waited for her hesitant nod. “If you’re not interested in dating Molly, you need to tell her. Otherwise she’ll just think you’re playing hard to get.”

“Oh, jeez.” She snuck a glance at me. “You’ve been there?”

“Her asking me out? Yes. Been with her? No. But she’s a really nice lady. She can also wear you out on a mountain trail and will never get lost.”

“As opposed to you,” she shot. A second later her hand clamped over her mouth.

Before she could apologize for giving me a hard time about not being able to keep up on a hiking trail, I said, “I could have let you get lost, you know.”

She smiled gratefully. “I appreciate that you didn’t.”

“You might find you have a lot in common with her.”

“Not sure if dating in this town is a good idea. Joanna warned me against it. Kirsten, too.” Her eyebrows rose in question as if I might give her insight.

“It is hard not to run into them at the supermarket.”

“Think Natalie will start her own business?” Molly asked seemingly as interested in having Natalie get her own construction crew as I was.

“I don’t know.”

“What’s she like?”

“Kind and considerate. She hasn’t talked a lot, but she seems great.” Amazing, actually. Far better than any contractor I’d ever worked with in addition to being a nice person.

Molly inclined her head. Light danced in her brown eyes. “Could she be family?”

“Anyone could be family, Mol. You know that.”

“For you, anyone would be, yeah,” Molly joked. “Realistically though, think she might be? She works construction.”

“Molly!” I admonished.

“What?”