Page 61 of Fighting for Lucy
His sweet words made her blush. She was hardly the most beautiful woman in the world. Her hair was twisted up into a messy bun, she wasn’t wearing any makeup, and she was dressed in jeans and her favorite old hoodie, with a simple pair of white sneakers on her feet. While clean, she still kind of felt like the same bedraggled waif she’d been out in the Mexican jungle.
“I’d love to go out to dinner, but I'm going to need to go home to shower and change,” she said, already running through outfits in her mind. Outfits that would make her look even half as pretty as Zander seemed to think she was.
“You look perfect just as you are.”
“Are you patronizing me, Zandy?” she demanded, deliberately using Scarlett’s childhood nickname for her brother because she knew she’d get a reaction out of him.
As predicted, his eyes narrowed and he leaned in close, his hands braced on either side of the doorframe as he crowded her. “What did you call me, sassy girl?”
“You prefer ghost man instead?” she asked with a sweetly innocent smile. While she knew the nickname had bothered him at first, she also knew that things had changed and it wouldn’t hurt him any longer. It was weird, but in a good way, being able to read someone so clearly.
“You’re going to pay for that one, baby girl.” With that, his hands moved so fast they were nothing but blurs, and then they were on the sides of her stomach tickling her.
There was only one way he could know that she was ticklish, and her friend was going to pay for passing along that little tidbit to her twin brother.
“Stop!” she squealed as she squirmed in her seat, laughing hysterically as she tried to squiggle out of the way of Zander’s relentless fingers.
“Not so funny now, are you, sassy girl?” Zander teased as he continued tickling her.
“Okay, okay! You win, I won't call you Zandy anymore!”
“Oh, that was too easy, baby girl. I thought you'd put up so much more of a fight.” Zander’s fingertips caught the tears of laughter streaming down her cheeks.
“I only promised not to call you Zandy, I’m sure I can think up plenty of other fun nicknames,” she said, throwing him a grin.
“You think you're so smart don’t you? You're going to be a challenge every step of the way, aren't you, my sassy girl?”
“The best things in life are always a challenge,” she shot back.
Smoothing a stray lock of hair off her cheek, he tucked it behind her ear, then palmed her cheek. “You couldn’t be more right. And I think I just found the best thing I could ever have hoped for.”
With those sweet words his lips met hers, searing them with a claiming kiss that stirred up fire in her body. Lucy felt the same way, she’d been given something so special in this man and she didn't want to lose it.
Please, God, don’t let anyone—not even Zander himself—take him from me.
January 26th
8:59 P.M.
Lucy was gigglingas he unlocked his front door, and honestly, Zander couldn’t think of a more beautiful sound.
All afternoon her smile had just grown and grown.
The date he’d planned had been simple and fun. They’d been through some heavy stuff in the last week, and he wanted this to be the complete opposite. While he had every intention of making their next date super romantic, this one had just been about letting go of all the stress they were both carrying.
First, he’d taken her to an indoor trampoline park where she’d wowed him with her ability to flip and turn like she’d been doing it all her life. Lucy had admitted she’d taken gymnastics as a kid, after a lot of begging and pleading on her part because her parents were worried that she might have a seizure while inthe middle of performing on the beam or bars. Even though she said she hadn't done any gymnastics since she quit when she was fifteen, she was still really good.
Next up was skateboarding. While she claimed she’d never done it before, Lucy had picked it up quickly and even mastered a couple of easy tricks. Skating had been his dirty little secret as a kid. It wasn’t something his parents and grandparents approved of, since in their minds it had served no practical purpose. But he’d done it anyway, saved his allowance and bought the skateboard, and kept it hidden in a back corner of the shed, since he was in charge of tending to the garden nobody else went out there anyway.
The woman never ceased to amaze him with her skills and ability to pick things up quickly. What had taken him weeks as a preteen to master, Lucy had managed in just a couple of hours.
He also loved that she hadn’t cared that he didn't take her to a fancy restaurant. She was perfectly content with pizza and soda, sitting in his truck watching the waves crash on the shore. Every time he looked at her, Zander wondered how he’d gotten this lucky because he sure as hell had never done a thing in his life that made him worthy of Lucy Elrod.
Now he had her home and with her twinkling eyes and bright smile there was no way he could resist dragging her into his arms a second longer.
“You're stunning, do you know that?” he whispered against her ear as he swung his door shut and pressed her up against it.
Her sharp intake of air and the widening eyes were enough to know she was every bit as anxious as he was to be alone.