Between Hello and Goodbye(45)

Faith rolled her eyes and hopped up onto the sink. “Yes, you’re very smart. And handsome.” Her fingers trailed over my chest. “And sexy…”

She leaned in to kiss me, but I pulled away. “Faith…”

“Asher.”

The air was thick between us. A cloud of residual heat and desire from last night that was ready to re-ignite, tinged with emotions neither of us was equipped to deal with.

My phone rang from the bedside table.

Faith cocked her head. “You going to get that?”

I didn’t budge but she held my gaze unflinchingly, unwilling to break. Another ring, and she gave me a gentle push.

“Go.”

I frowned and crossed my bedroom. I snatched up the phone, jabbed the green answer button. “What?”

“My brother, ladies and gentlemen.” Morgan laughed. “Just calling to remind you that the Friends and Family picnic at Kal’s school starts in an hour.”

“Shit, that’s today? I forgot.”

“Which is why I called. Problem?”

I turned my back to the bathroom and lowered my voice, bracing myself. “Faith is here.” I held the phone from my ear until there was a break in the ensuing crowing and hollering. “Are you done?”

“No, just catching my breath.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes. “I’m going to be late to the picnic. I have to drive Faith back and then—”

“Drive her where? Bring her, you jackass.”

“It’s a family thing.”

“It’s a friends and family thing. Faith is officially our friend for her advice about the business, and she’s yours for…other reasons. Friends with benefits, apparently. Finally.”

I glanced over my shoulder at Faith, still perched on the sink and still topless, lost in thought. Her fingers toyed with the quartz pendant.

“I’ll ask.”

I hung up before Morgan could add more commentary and rejoined Faith at the sink.

“Ask me what?”

“Kal has a school picnic thing today. Kind of like a mini carnival with pony rides and games and all that shit.”

“All that shit sounds cute. When’s it start?”

“Soon.”

“Then we’d better hurry.”

She gingerly hopped off the sink and climbed back into bed, stretching her long, lithe body on my sheets. As if a magnetic switch had flipped on, I automatically moved to join her. I pulled her close so that I could feel every inch of her naked skin on mine.

“Give me a little bit more time with you,” she said, kissing my chin, her hands in my hair. “Then I’ll Uber back to my place and you can go to Kal’s picnic.”

“If we don’t do Waimea today, you might not get there. You could come to the picnic with me and then we’ll hit the canyon.”

Faith’s expression stiffened and she looked away, her eyes on her fingertips that traced the lines of my neck. “I don’t know. Seems more like a family thing.”

My argument exactly, yet I held her tighter to me.

“Morgan invited you. I’m inviting you.”

Faith hesitated, then smiled, though it looked forced. “Maybe I should put in an appearance. I won’t have another chance to say goodbye to them before I go.”

Fuck.

Our eyes met and then she lunged at me, kissed me hard. Kissing me instead of talking about all the shit we didn’t want to face. I’d said too much at the restaurant last night. I’d kicked open doors that needed to stay shut.

I kissed her back just as urgently, rolling her onto her back and settling myself on top of her, as if I could weigh her down and keep her where she was…with me.

A condom was procured, and we fell into each other, trying to burn out our feelings with every feverish touch. I drove into her hard and fast, mindless in my want of her. She wrapped her arms and legs around me tightly, holding me deep inside her while the orgasms came—white-hot and more intense than they’d ever been with anyone.

After, she showered, and I gave her one of my button-downs to wear over that pale blue scrap of nothing she called a dress. I took my turn in the shower, standing in a spray of hot water until it became cold.

Didn’t help.

I dressed and made us coffee that we drank in my kitchen, hardly saying a word. Everything we needed to say hung between us in a cloud of heated need that wanted to crash us together. On top of everything else, I’d never been with a woman as sexually compatible as Faith. She took everything I wanted to give her and gave back just as intensely. I wanted nothing more than to spend all day in bed with her, fucking and talking and then fucking some more, until we both passed out and I could just hold her…

Jesus, I am truly screwed…



At Hanalei Elementary, the front walk was festooned with a giant banner that read Friends & Family Day Jubilee! and decorated with multi-colored little handprints.

“How cute,” Faith said without much energy.

It was more than either of us had said on the ten-minute drive. I parked and strode to the passenger side just as she got out, bracketing her against the Jeep before she could slip away again.

She sighed and pressed her forehead into my chest. “Asher…”

“I don’t know what to do, Faith.”