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  I can feel myself tighten around him as the buildup ramps up until I reach the top. And then it happens. I yell his name over and over as I free-fall into the best orgasm of my life. Whether he is still going or having his own, I don’t even know. Everything around me fades away, and all I can feel is wave after wave hitting me, each one with more intensity than the last.

  Holy shit.

  How the hell can anyone ever top that?

  * * *

  I move quietly, slipping out from underneath his tight grip. The heaviness in my chest wants to break free, but I don’t let it. Instead I expertly move throughout the room, grabbing each item of clothing that was dropped and quickly getting dressed. With my shoes in hand, I take one last look at the gorgeous man lying fast asleep on the bed, and I say my own goodbye.

  As I step down into his kitchen, I don’t think twice as I take my keys out of my purse and lay them on the counter. Pulling up the transportation app on my phone, I see there’s a car a few miles away and put in the request to be picked up. My bag is still by the front door where we left it, and I turn to give one last glance around Anders’ house. This could have been our home together, but now I’ll never get to experience that. I say a silent goodbye with my luggage in hand, and I lock the house behind me.

  As I exit, I let the tears fall from my eyes, and this time I don’t stop them. I release the love I had, the love we could have had. I release anything and everything I’ve held in and forever felt for Anders. It took more than fifteen years before he finally let himself touch me, and I’m only giving myself fifteen minutes to forget him.

  When the car finally pulls up to the curb and the middle-aged man loads my bag into the trunk, I let the sobs come to a close. This is the first day of the rest of my life, and I won’t waste another minute of it pining away for a man who doesn’t love me. As the small sedan pulls away from the sidewalk, I ask the driver to take me to the airport and I refuse to look back. This chapter of my life is closed for good, and I can’t wait for the fresh start of the next one.

  Chapter Two

  Anders

  The sun warms my skin as I slowly come to. Raising my arms above my head, I’m surprised at the tightness and soreness in my muscles. I skipped my workout yesterday, so I shouldn’t be feeling this way at all. I rack my mind trying to figure out what I did yesterday to cause this strain on my body.

  Everything from last night comes crashing to the forefront of my mind, and I can’t help the grin that takes over my entire face. I never thought it would ever happen, let alone twice, but it did. It one hundred percent happened, and I’m ready for round three. I roll over and reach for Giselle. When my arms hit the mattress, I pop my eyes open and frown at the empty side of the bed.

  She must have gone to the bathroom.

  Stretching my arms above my head again, I feel cracks and pops in a lot of the joints in my body. I haven’t been making it to the gym as much as I should lately. Most days, if I’m not at the restaurant, I’m at the bar. If there’s one thing that’s for sure, it’s that I don’t have the kind of balance in my life that I wish I had. That’s all going to change soon. Rolling onto my side, I prop my head up on my hands, waiting for Giselle. She’ll be out in a few minutes and then we’ll go at it again and only leave this bed long enough to eat today. I’ve had my first taste and now I’m never letting her go. The pillow, the sheets—even my skin is saturated in her scent. I could get used to waking up with my room smelling like her.

  I wonder what could be taking her so long. Hopping out of bed, I locate my boxer briefs in a ball by the door. Hobbling over, I slide them on, heading out on a mission to find my girl.

  Stopping by the bathroom, I knock on the door. “Giselle, babe, are you in there?”

  I wait a few seconds and knock again. When I don’t hear a response, I open the door to the very empty bathroom. Well, shit. Maybe she went downstairs to get a drink or something to eat.

  It takes me all of fifteen seconds before my bare feet are hitting the cold hardwood floors of my living room, and that’s when I find it—or at least spot an empty area where her bag used to be, where I left it last night before we eagerly made our way up to my bedroom.

  This cannot be happening. I turn back around and race up the stairs. My phone is in my hand so fast and I immediately shoot off a text to her.

  Me: Where did you go?

  Staring daggers, I wait and wait for a response to come through, but those little gray dots never pop up. It sounds childish and immature, but I send off a multitude of messages hoping she’ll at least get annoyed with me and text me back to leave her alone.

  Me: Call me back please.

  Me: Babe

  Me: Hey

  Me: Giselle

  I feel like an idiot. I run my hand through my hair while sitting on my bed. Where the hell could she be right now? She wouldn’t have just left without saying anything to me about it first…would she? Anger fills me and I send off another slew of texts that will no doubt go unanswered like all the other ones.

  Me: Giselle text me back.

  Me: I can do this all day.

  Me: Seriously, this isn’t funny.

  Me: You can’t ignore me forever.

  Me: Where are you?

  Me: Please just tell me you’re okay.

  Why is she ignoring me right now? I don’t even understand what’s going on. Did I do something wrong? Say something wrong? It’s not like her to avoid saying or doing what she wants.

  As much as I don’t want to bring her brother into this, the only other option I have right now is to go to Marek. Maybe I’m wrong; maybe she just went out and her phone’s dead. Even as the thought crosses my mind, I know that’s not the case. She’s gone and I don’t know when I’m going to see her again. The one thing that sticks out in my mind is the fact that she mentioned the plane ticket was one-way.

  * * *

  The front door slams against the wall as I walk in, not bothering to shut it behind me. Four sets of eyes turn my way as I walk in on the cute little Outlaw family having their breakfast at the dining room table. Marek, Tinley, little Luna, and baby Cedric look like something straight out of a freaking painting, and meanwhile my whole world is crashing down around me.

  I’m sure I look like a crazed maniac as I run my hand through my hair. I’m lucky I even made it here with how many red lights I ran—not that it would matter if she’s already gone. “Where is Giselle?”

  “Would you like me to make you a plate?” Tinley asks as she starts to get up from the table.

  I’m being an asshole interrupting their breakfast, but I don’t even care. Some things are more important than food, like where the hell Giselle is. I shake my head and turn my focus back to Marek.

  He has a strained smile on his face, and I can tell I’m testing his patience. Shaking his head, he says, “Hello to you too. What do you mean where is Giselle? If she made plans with you, they’re going to have to wait a while.”

  Wait? Why would I have to wait? “Because?”

  “She left for Paris this morning. She had a one-way ticket and didn’t say how long she’d be gone for.”

  No.

  No.

  No

  This can’t be happening right now. She couldn’t fucking still leave me after everything that happened last night. Why would she do something like that? Did it all mean so little to her?

  “Did she borrow something of yours or something? I think she has her apartment rented out, but I’m sure we could go over to her place and find it. No biggie.”

  The only problem with that is what she took from me is halfway around the world right now.

  My heart.

  How is this happening? We had the most perfect night of our lives and she pays me back by leaving. If I have to wait until she gets back to continue what we started last night, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Now that I’ve had her. I’m not giving her up. I want to book a flight and chase after her, but that’s the opposite
of what I should be doing. She left because she needed time, and I’ll give her exactly that—time away, time with her thoughts, time for her to come running back to me so we can start our lives together. Yeah, it’s just a matter of time.

  I calm my features and slowly shake my head. Running in here like a crazy person is the exact opposite of what I should be doing. I don’t even know what I was thinking coming over here. Oh right, I wasn’t thinking at all. I just acted, and I came to the last person I should have. Keeping this thing between Giselle and me a secret from Marek isn’t something I can do if I run right to him.

  Trying to recover, I say, “I found her car parked outside my house this morning, but she wasn’t answering my phone calls or texts. I was worried something happened to her.”

  “I wonder why she left her car at your house.”

  “You just told me she has someone staying at her place. Maybe she felt safer leaving it with me than at the parking garage at the airport. She probably had to empty her parking spot at home for whoever is staying there.” I don’t know where the lie comes from, but it slips right off my tongue like butter.

  “Yeah, that makes sense…although she could have just left it here.”

  I don’t want to sound too eager so, in the most nonchalant voice I can muster, I ask, “Did she tell you how long she would be gone? Just so I know how long her car will be parked at my place.”

  Marek sops up some syrup with a slice of French toast and pushes a large bite into his mouth. Talking around his food, he says, “Open-ended ticket. I think she plans on traveling for a while.”

  Dammit, Giselle.

  I nod and find myself wandering toward the table even though food is the last thing on my mind. Tinley gets up, probably to go grab me a plate. I know I need to act normal, but I’m slowly dying inside. Marek gets up and follows his wife into the kitchen. It’s still so weird for me to think of either one of us being married, but here we are.

  Luna’s little face lights up with the biggest smile when I sit down in the empty chair next to her. “Uncle Anders!”

  “How’s my favorite baby girl?”

  “I’m not a baby.” She rolls her eyes and then adds, “But I’m good. Did you know there’s a drought going on right now?”

  A drought? It was raining just yesterday. “Where did you hear that?”

  “Mommy and Daddy told me that this morning. I woke up super early and they were both taking a shower. Daddy told me we’re conserving water because there’s a drought.”

  I try not to laugh as the biggest smile forces its way onto my face at the thought of their morning nookie session getting interrupted by the five-year-old.

  Marek and Tinley walk back into the kitchen, her face rosier than before and no plate in sight. I can’t help but laugh when I ask, “A drought, huh?”

  “She told you about that?”

  “She’s five—what did you expect?”

  Luna growls next to me and says, “I am five and a half, thank you very much.”

  So much attitude. Marek is going to have his hands full with this one, especially when she becomes a teenager. I definitely do not envy him on that. It’s going to be a giant shit show. I’ll be surprised if he even lets her out of the house.

  “Yeah, well, you’re growing up way too fast and getting too smart for your own good. I don’t know what to do about it,” my best friend says.

  “Shotguns. Lots and lots of shotguns,” I tell him.

  Marek shakes his head and has the biggest smile on his face when he says, “Oh yeah, because that worked so well on you?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  I would like to think I would remember someone threatening me off their daughter with a shotgun. I’m pretty sure that never happened.

  “Your first meeting with my sister? Remember how she threatened you by saying my dad and I would beat you up? Oh, and that we had ALL the shotguns.”

  I’d completely forgotten about that conversation. She was so freaked out when I walked into the back yard of their vacation house. I didn’t know she was back there, and I was just following orders. Marek didn’t tell anyone I was coming, and he didn’t tell me that no one knew. When we got there he had a chat with his dad in the front of the house and told me to meet him out back.

  That summer was one I’ll never forget. From the minute I laid eyes on Giselle, I was sunk, even back then. She was a goddess in a very underage package. I held myself back more than I ever have in my life, and I’ve been doing it ever since—that is, until last night. I don’t know what could have caused her to hop on that plane. I thought we were finally going to be together and figure things out, but I guess we weren’t on the same page like I thought we were. I just hope she returns to me soon.

  Chapter Three

  Anders: Where did you go?

  Anders: Call me back please.

  Anders: Giselle

  Anders: Hey

  Anders: Giselle

  Anders: Giselle text me back.

  Anders: I can do this all day.

  Anders: Seriously, this isn’t funny.

  Anders: You can’t ignore me forever.

  * * *

  Nine months later

  Giselle: Hey, it’s me.

  Anders: It’s almost been a year and you’re just now texting me back?

  Anders: And all I get is a hey, it’s me? No updates about where you’ve been or what you’ve been doing???

  Giselle: Please don’t start with me. I went away to get clarity on life, to figure out where I was at and where I was going.

  Anders: And?

  Giselle: I’m coming home tomorrow. My brother isn’t answering texts, and neither is Tinley, so I was hoping you could relay the message for me.

  Anders: Third choice? I thought I ranked a lot higher than that in your life. Boy was I wrong.

  Anders: What’s the message?

  Giselle: I’m landing tomorrow evening and I was hoping my car could be there for me. Do you still have it? Or does Marek have it?

  Anders: I still have it.

  Giselle: Can you drop it off at the airport and leave it in long-term parking? That way I can drive it to the hotel tomorrow. I know I’m going to be super jetlagged and I don’t want a whole production when I get in.

  Anders: A hotel?

  Giselle: Long story, but my apartment is still booked. Coming home was sort of a last-minute decision.

  Anders: Any particular reason why you made that decision?

  Giselle: Not really. *shrug emoji*

  Anders: There’s no reason why you have to go to a hotel. You can just come stay with me. Even if you don’t want to be in my bed, I do have a guest bedroom.

  Giselle: I appreciate the offer, but I don’t want to impose on you. A hotel room is perfectly fine. I’m sure all I will do after I land is take a shower and go to bed.

  Anders: That makes absolutely no sense. Go stay with your brother then, or your parents.

  Giselle: I’m not going to argue about this. Can you please make sure my car is there tomorrow so I have a way to get home?

  Anders: You mean the hotel…not home.

  Giselle: Oh my gosh you’re infuriating.

  Giselle: Will my car be there or not?

  Anders: Yes, Princess Giselle, you will be able to get to your hotel room safe and sound.

  Giselle: Thank you.

  Anders: What time does your flight get in?

  Giselle: I’m not sure. The time keeps changing. Just drop it off when you can. Maybe midafternoon? I don’t mind paying the extra fees for it being there longer.

  Anders: Don’t worry, it’ll be there.

  Giselle: Thank you again, and I’m sorry for how things ended up between us.

  Anders: You went on a trip. Who said things are over between us?

  Giselle: I don’t think we can go back. Besides, it’s better this way. You don’t have to worry about keeping secrets from my brother or potentially ruining your friendship. We can just preten
d nothing ever happened.

  Anders: Is that really what you want?

  * * *

  Giselle: I’m boarding my flight from Chicago to Portland. I just wanted to make sure you had a chance to drop my car off at the airport, or if you haven’t yet, let you know I’ll be home soonish so you can.