Page 46 of Forever By Morning
Lure him back in.“One more for the road?”
Yeah, that sounded like a ridiculous scene from a shitty movie.
Did I just get dressed and call an Uber?
Was that a thing on an orchard?
Oh, hey. What’s the address, my guy?
How very New York City of me. Except I’d never been that girl, even living most of my life in Manhattan. At least there was a cab or the subway available for a walk of shame.
Not that I could do that even if I wanted to. I didn’t have my purse or phone, for God’s sake.
I really sucked at this one-night stand stuff.
Epically sucked.
“Just go out there. Be an adult,” I whispered.
There was no walk of shame because I wasn’t ashamed, dammit. I was a grown ass woman who’d decided to take a lover.
Okay, that sounded pretentious as all get out, but it was the truth. I’d never allowed myself to just go with the flow with anything until yesterday. Even if the flow was more like a raging river of emotional meltdowns to start.
The rest of it had been amazing.
I wasn’t going to ruin it by being an idiot now.
I inched off the bed, taking the sheet with me in lieu of fighting my way back into the sweatpants from the night before. I shuffled across the living area, marveling at the view.
The orchard was in shadow with just the barest hint of butter yellow painting the edges of the dark. Trees surrounded his house, cloaking his balcony in liquid gray.
Beckett was an inky shadow leaning against the railing. He tipped his head back and a plume of smoke floated above him.
Smoking?
I’d been intimate with every part of him yesterday and no part of him had smelled, or tasted, like an ashtray.
“I thought you were going back to sleep.”
“Didn’t know you were a smoker.”
He looked down at his hand, then back out to the view. “I gave it up years ago.”
“Except for your emergency pack?”
“Takes one to know one?”
I came up beside him. “No. My brother has quit a dozen times, though.”
He grunted and took one last drag, the cherry end glowing bright. He filled his lungs and held it before using the underside of the railing to put out the half finished cigarette, then dropped it into a cup on the ground. He let out another stream with something akin to a sigh. “It will always taste better than it should.”
“Why did you need your emergency stash?”
He looked down at me. “Because you taste the same.”
I swallowed. I wasn’t quite sure what to say to that one.
He lifted his hand to my face. The morning mist clung to his fingertips as he tucked my hair around my ear. “I should get you back to The Lodge before people are everywhere.”