Atonement(50)
Colin sat up and crossed his legs, Indian-style, as he handed my pre-made ham and cheese baguette sandwich to me while he grabbed his tuna baguette sandwich. “So, it doesn’t bother you in the slightest my brother is a hard core player who might be playing your sister? I’ve never known him to have one meaningful relationship in his life. He’s just not wired that way.”
“As I said before, it’s not my concern.” I bit into my crisp baguette sandwich and chewed, savoring the delicious flavor of the ham, the bitter-sweet accents from the cheese and creamy butter which had been added to the sandwich in lieu of mayonnaise.
“You seem pretty blasé about the whole situation. I mean she is your younger sister,” he finally responded after an interminable silence between the two of us.
“Jesus, what the hell is this, the Spanish Inquisition?” I finally snapped. “Liam is into Cait and Cait is definitely into Liam—case closed. She doesn’t date often and she’s definitely not the one-night-stand type.” Unlike me, I almost added but then again, neither was I. Liam was definitely an anomaly and the one night we spent together would certainly never happen again.
“Listen, I didn’t bring all this shit up for you to get angry. When you speak to her again just warn her, all right? My brother is nothing like he appears to be and that’s the problem. He seems cool and happy-go-lucky but that couldn’t be further from the truth. He’s got some demons he’s been wrestling with and I don’t want your sister to get hurt, okay? Furthermore, I don’t want him dicking around your sister to cost us what we have so I am speaking from a purely selfish motive,” he said in a tender voice.
It immediately soothed my anger and I set my sandwich down, leaned over and wrapped my arms around his neck. “Listen, what ever happens between Cait and Liam doesn’t have anything to do with us. I wouldn’t dump you just because they didn’t work out. That’s not the way I operate. Unfortunately, I fell for you the first night Drew brought you by and I have been fighting these feelings all this time. I won’t go as far to say I love you…yet…but if you keep workin’ that magic, I will and there’s nothing anyone can say about it. Remember, I’ve been over twenty-one for a while too.”
Colin looked more relieved than anything before he brought me closer and kissed me. When our lips met, the feeling was gentle and tentative at first but the moment his tongue touched mine, all rational thought left my mind and I was there, in that moment.
We finally came up for air but not before kissing each other again with quick pecks on the lips meant to satisfy and sate a pleasure not yet experienced. We had a while to be on the Promenade and no way were we giving up our prized seats that quickly.
“You drive me crazy, woman,” he whispered.
“Same to you,” I said in a quiet voice. “I don’t know what the hell kind of mojo you’re working but it’s definitely done something to me and I don’t want it to stop, ever.”
“If I had my way, it wouldn’t ever stop. You’re the one and you know how hard that is for me to say? I am so scared you will think about us and this and realize it is just some vacation thing and when we get back to Seattle, everything will be different. I don’t want to be apart from you and I definitely know something…and someone real when I meet them. This is no phony, pit of my stomach thing, Deirdre, you’re the real deal.”
I laughed out loud as we separated. “I better be because I’m not the type who takes relationships lightly and I don’t do the ‘vacation romance’. It’s not how I’m wired. It’s great we get to spend so much time together because the more I get to know you, the more I want to be with you and there’s nothing wrong with what we have. It’s perfect.”
Colin refilled both our glasses with Chardonnay and we finished off our sandwiches before we lay out again and held hands like an old married couple. The warm touch from his palm radiated through me and caused a slight tingle to settle all over my flesh but I was exactly where I wanted to be and that made all the difference in the world.
Chapter Fourteen
TIME FLIES WHEN you’re having fun and after a few blissful days in Nice, we traded in the beach for the more calming atmosphere of Berlin. We were definitely hopping around but we’d decided to play it by ear and the feeling felt great.
Instead of a great apartment overlooking the beach, we had a studio apartment in the heart of the city. I wouldn’t have wanted to exaggerate but I loved the feel of Berlin mostly because it was just so different from the south of France. Colin and I settled into the city quickly and by the second day, we had enjoyed a tour of east Berlin though it was considered dangerous due to the skinhead and neo-Nazi activity, he was willing to risk it for me. Despite my degrees, I’d always had an intense love with photography and thus we had a whole photo album to put together when we finally made it back to the States.