The Real Thing (27 page)

Em pulls me against her, and my feet slide a little in the tub. She hides her face in the crook of my neck as she bites back her growing fit of giggles.

“Yeah, a diversion would be good.”

Tolani chuckles, Isaac says, “I did it!” and we hear the toilet flush. Before they leave, my brother says, “Hope you guys are done in there, because I’m going to distract Mom starting now, and I can only promise about two minutes.”

The door clicks shut and I tickle Em’s stomach. “This is not that funny,” I tell her, but I’m grinning. “I was cock-blocked by a three-year-old.”

“I’m sorry.” She tickles me back. “I thought they weren’t coming till tonight.”

“I should’ve known my family wouldn’t have the time right.” I swipe her wet hair from her face as she runs her nails across my abdomen.

“Help me get out of here?”

I shut off the water and get the towel on the back of the toilet. She snuggles into it as I wrap it around her shoulders. Her cheeks are pink and shiny, and she looks gorgeous as hell as her eyes turn to mine. I know I shouldn’t lose focus, so instead of kissing those lips, I opt for kissing her forehead.

“You look good wet,” I say, and her smile widens.

“I’m wet a lot around you.” She attempts to wink, and I laugh and tighten the towel around her.

“Later.”

“Later?” There’s breathless hope in her voice. My eyes drop to her parted lips, her flushed neck, over the fuzzy towel to her dripping legs. I step toward her, tucking a wet piece of hair back to her ponytail.

“I’d like to try.” I can’t stop my mouth from meeting hers briefly. “As soon as I get rid of my family. And well … get some protection.”

Her teeth come out over her lip and I watch her cheeks turn red. “I’m already on top of that.”

I raise an eyebrow and stop rubbing the towel. “In what way?”

“I have an IUD.” She presses against me, and I have to remember that we aren’t alone. “I also got some condoms after we made things official between us. But if you haven’t … I mean, I’m clean, so we don’t exactly need them.”

My heart’s pounding a little too hard. I think Em knows I’m going haywire with all the visuals that are flitting into my head, because she leans forward, warm breath hits the bottom of my chin, and she opens the towel and tucks me in with her. “I love you.”

“Love you, too,” I say as my breathing calms.

“Now get me out of here without your mom seeing.”

I smile against her hair and nod. “Stay behind me.”

“Manuia lou Aso Fanau, my Esekielu!”

My mom squishes my cheeks and then wraps a leafy green
ula
around my neck. My eyes dart down the hall to Em’s room, then I turn them back to my family so I don’t look as jumpy as I feel.

“Thanks,
Tin’a
,” I say and kiss her on the cheek. She pats my shoulder and starts passing around the less extravagant garlands to my brother and his wife. There’s an extra one sitting on her arm after she’s done.

“Uh, who’s that for?”

My mom’s smile pushes her plump cheeks up enough to almost close her eyes. It’s one of the most beautiful things about her, and I’ve told her that, but she hits me when I use the word “plump.”

“Emilia.”

I shoot a glare at Tolani, who has his hands up like he didn’t say shit. But it doesn’t stop that stupid-ass grin he’s got, like he knows I’m getting some, even if I’m not, and I reach over and sock him. Mom laughs and pulls me down to her level for another hug, squeezing the air out of me.

“I’m not mad, Esekielu.”

Oh, I wasn’t worried about her getting mad, but I hug her back as if that’s what it was, and suppress a groan.

As soon as my
tin’a
lets me breathe, my sister-in-law, Candace, adjusts Baby Mason on her hip and wraps me into a one-armed hug. She whispers in my ear, “Tolani is a horrible actor.”

I let out that groan, and she kisses my cheek before pulling back. I stop Mom as she half dances down the hallway to get to my girlfriend.

“Will you at least let me warn her before you go crashing into her room?”

“Oh, she’ll be fine. It’s just me.” She waves me off and keeps going. I raise my voice because once she starts it’s hard to stop her.

“Mom, I’m not sure if Em is ready for …”

Her hand wraps around the doorknob and she does her classic “knock then open the door before you have a chance to say anything.” Em yelps, and my eyes bulge when I see her stuff something long and cylindrical under her pillow. Her face is the brightest red I’ve ever seen, and she seems to have lost the ability to use her voice.

I open my mouth, but look at that … my voice is gone, too.

“Oh! You were right, baby,” Mom says and pushes on my stomach to get me to move out of the doorway. “We’ll give you a minute, sweetheart.” She takes the
ula
off her arm and slides it onto Em’s doorknob, then gives her a smile and a wave that Em only sort of returns before she shuts the door.

Mom’s laughing as she heads back to the living room. I get halfway before I turn around and lock myself in Em’s bedroom with her. She’s sitting on her bed with her mouth wide open as she shakes her head at me. I’m not sure what to say, not even sure why I ran back in here, but Em’s mouth spreads into a smile and she covers her face and falls onto the mattress.

“Oh my gosh,” she says, and her back shakes with laughter.

It undoes me. Seeing her laugh about what could quite possibly be the most embarrassing thing that could happen has me sliding on the bed with her, laughing and kissing the top of her head and wanting to touch and tease and just
be
with her, and not just now. But for … well, for forever.

She leans up, face still tomato red as she brushes hair from her face. “I thought you guys were gone. You know, giving me a chance to ‘get home’ when you’re not here.”

“That probably would’ve been a good idea.”

“Yeah.”

“Can I ask what you were doing?” I tease her.

She glares at me, crossing her arms. “You know what I was doing. Stop that.”

“Just want to know why.”

“You know why, too. You weren’t the only one who was cock-blocked.” She pinches my knee and I jerk back. “Just because it’s your birthday doesn’t mean you can pick on me.” She pulls her knees to her chest. “Now I have to go out there after
that.
”

I grab her hand and weave our fingers together. “Em, Mom’s not going to say anything.”

“But now she’ll look at me and think about … ack! This is horrible.”

“You don’t need to worry. Trust me, she was planning our wedding five years ago.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. So, stop. We’ll go out there together and you can say hi to my brother. And Candace’s here.”

“Oh, I like her.”

“And if things get awkward, you can play with the baby.”

She smiles and wraps her arms around my neck. “Okay. But you have to promise to never talk about this again.”

I laugh and kiss her temple. But I don’t promise anything. Because she can bet her ass I’m bringing this up again.

I spend most of the day listening to Em, Candace, and Mom talk about
Vampire Diaries
and some book called
Divergent.
Mom seems creepily excited about some guy named Damon and how he needs to have his shirt off in more episodes. Then she makes some comment about how a certain something is named Damon, and she winks at Em, who goes red and bursts out laughing.

I shake my head, control my gag reflex, and play with the only guy in the place who isn’t sleeping … Mason.

“I know, Bubba,” I say as the girls giggle from the kitchen table. “My mom’s talking about some dude with a six-pack, too. It’s like they don’t even know they’re scarring us for life.”

Mom waves a hand at me and goes back to her conversation. I catch Em’s eye and return her smile before rocking on my back to the floor, holding my nephew over my head.

“Don’t you worry, though,” I tell him in a quiet voice that no one can hear over Candace’s laughter. “The right girl will like ya even if you end up with the Matua chubby gene. And don’t you dare let her go when you find her.”

Mason’s toothless grin widens, then his stomach rumbles and he lets out a giant burp. I don’t move in time to avoid getting soaked with spit-up.

“Unngh,” I groan and rock up to my butt, holding Mason out like he’ll blow again. He’s grinning at me, cute little brat.

The girls are laughing, and Candace takes him from my arms as Em tosses me a burp rag. “I think it’s time for cake,” she says, and suddenly Tolani’s up from his nap on the couch.

Em’s two-night bag is the size of the whole-life bag I packed when I moved back to the States. I heave the thing into the Camaro and wipe the sweat from my forehead. As soon as I shut the trunk Em hurries into my arms.

“I don’t want to go.”

“Even after spending a full day with my family?”

“Especially after that.” Her hands grip each other behind my back. “Do you know how sexy you look holding a baby?”

“Weren’t you just talking about how you weren’t ready for all that?” I chuckle.

“Doesn’t mean that you playing with Mason wasn’t a major turn-on.”

I nip at her nose, and she shoves my face away. But I hold her tight because I don’t want her to go. It’s only three hours away, for two days, but there’s still this pang in my gut at the thought that it’s just a preview of what’ll happen at the end of the summer. Unless I say something that I’m having a real hard time getting past the lump in my throat.

“I have to ask you something.”

She tilts her face up. “Ask away.”

“I’m nervous,” I say, and damn it, the croaks that came out with those two words were sure smooth.

“Now I’m curious.” She shifts in my arms, her shirt lifting up by her waist. My fingers hit warm skin that puckers with goose bumps.

“You, uh … you go back to school in what? Three weeks?”

“Four.” She sighs. “And a half.”

“Well, I um …”
Get the damn words out, Eric.
“I just wanted to—”

“You know this isn’t a summer fling, right?” she blurts out. “I’m not one of those girls who fall in love over the summer, then say ‘Thanks for the fun! I’m off to the real world now.’ I want to be with you, no matter where we are.”

My lips turn up, and my nerves come down a notch. “That’s not what I was going to ask.”

“Oh.” Her cheeks redden. “Whoops!”

I laugh and run my fingers over the dips in her lower back. “My job here is temporary. I should probably start looking for somewhere to work since I’m done at the end of August. I was wondering, well, if it’d be okay if I looked … by you.”

“Really?” She starts bouncing on her toes. “Yes!” She plants dozens of kisses on my face, and I try to catch some of them as we laugh like idiots. “Oh this is great. While I’m there I’ll scope out for Help Wanted signs and get you applications and text you phone numbers and—”

“You don’t have to do that. Just be with Eve.”

“Eric, seriously, this is so perfect. I was preparing for a new dorm mate, since Eve’s going to be a momma, but now I don’t have to. Here I was worried about someone who might smell weird or won’t be cool with my laundry all over the place. Come to think of it, Eve was never really cool with that …”

She starts trailing off, but I’m still trying to calm myself down after hearing what she’s saying.

“Wait, you … you want to live together?”

“I didn’t want to push it, you know, since that’s a lot faster than I usually move,” I tell her honestly, even though,
hell yes
, I want to live with her.

“Eric …” Her voice lowers and she crosses her arms with a light smile on her face. “We’re living together
now.
”

“But we both knew that was temporary.” I reach back and scratch my neck. “I didn’t know if you wanted to make that permanent.”

“Yes, please.”

I catch the playfulness in her expression, but I also see a hopeful spark in her eyes, and even if I didn’t want to live together, I’d be packing both our things and writing the security-deposit check.

“I guess you better look for apartment listings while you’re there, too.”

She throws her arms back around me, and I make sure to put my hands right back where they were on her waist. “I’ll get a bunch of those pamphlet thingies, and we’ll pick the place with the biggest shower that’s in our budget.”

“The biggest shower, huh?”

“Yes. And I’ll get us his and her loofahs.”

I laugh, then bite at her chin. She tightens her grip on my shoulders and I get about a one-second warning before she jumps up and wraps her legs around my waist. I turn her around to get the Camaro’s help while I kiss her senseless.

My head’s spinning, but not in a bad way. Not in a bad way
at all.
My heart rate skyrocketing, my hands shaking, my brow beading with sweat, my entire nervous system short-circuiting—none of it has anything to do with anxiety. I feel
happy.
Happier than I’ve been in a long damn time. This girl, my frickin’ best friend, loves me, wants to spend a life with me, and I want it, too. All that shit about her phone seems so stupid right now, because she’s in
my
arms. She’s kissing
me.
And that’s the moment I decide that I do trust her. I trust her with my heart, with my mind, my body, with
everything.

“Hey! Wrap it up!” Tolani yells from the condo window. Em laughs around my mouth, and I dip her low, letting my tongue glide across hers, and sucking the laughter away, replacing it with sexy moans from deep in her throat. She grasps the bottom of my shirt. Her hands sneak underneath the fabric and run up over my stomach and chest. I let my heart pound against her palms, and I get harder by the minute. I can’t help but grind into her, and part of my brain registers that we aren’t alone, and my airway locks up.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. You’re in love. But you’re twenty-one today! And you still have to have a beer!”

We break apart and she drops her hands from under my shirt. My breathing evens out, and I smile because,
hell yeah.
I think I can do this.

“Now I really don’t want to go,” she says.