Georgie, All Along (68)

“Cuuuuuuuuute,” I say, wriggling again, and he sets his palms on my thighs.

“Anyway, one time I asked him about it, and he knew about this adult degree program W&M had. So I took a biology class there one semester.”

“Oh, I see. ‘So I took a biology class,’” I mimic, playing up the no big deal way he’s told me about it. But it must’ve been a big deal. It probably took a lot for Levi—quiet, contained Levi—to ask some guy in his accounting class about biology courses. “Probably you got an A, huh?”

His lips quirk. “I got an A plus.”

“You’re disgusting!” I swat at his arm, and he gently digs his fingers into my sides, tickling me. When I drop onto his chest, yelping, he nibbles at my neck again.

“Quit teasing,” he grumbles, but I think he likes my teasing.

I shift, moving off his lap and tucking myself close against his side, looking up at the line of his jaw, his still-mussed beard.

“An A plus!” I repeat, but I’m not teasing anymore. I’m genuinely impressed.

“I had a good teacher. I still collect samples for her sometimes. She’s a friend.”

“What kind of samples?”

“River and creek water, but sometimes plant cuttings, too. She mostly studies algal blooms and what they’re doing to the bay. She taught me a lot about sustainability, climate change stuff. It’s been useful to know for doing my work in the right way.”

I stifle a cringe, thinking of my conversation with Evan and Bel and Harry this morning, Evan’s insistence that Levi wouldn’t build them a dock. I don’t know if I should mention to Levi that I’ve already caught wind of the way he cares about sustainability.

I decide not to risk it, not now. “That’s really cool,” I say instead.

He brushes off the compliment, redirects it. “She’s brilliant. She lobbied the state legislature last year about regulation. She walks the walk.”

“Is she pretty?” I blurt.

He looks down at me. “What?”

I can’t pretend I said something else; I don’t know any biology terms that rhyme with “pretty.” Actually, I don’t know if I know any biology terms. Either way, it doesn’t matter. I’m still mostly naked on this man’s couch and among the infinite things I’m interested in knowing about him is everyone he’s ever dated, including if one of them is a brilliant professor who’s now become a friend.

“You know. Hot for teacher pretty.”

He makes a face, laughs. “I don’t know. I’ve never thought of it. I know she’s not pretty like you,” he says, and I flush.

“What’s pretty like me?”

He lifts a hand, runs his index finger gently down my forehead, over my nose and the rise and fall of my lips, along the curve of my chin. “Like this. Everything I’m looking at.”

He leans in, captures my lips, kisses me long and languid before pulling away again, sliding a hand up my thigh, finally getting beneath the hem of his hoodie.

I shift, trying to get his fingers closer to where I want them. “You’re pretty, too,” I whisper.

“Yeah?”

I nod and kiss him how he kissed me, slow and deep, and this time, we get caught up in it. Before long I’m beneath him, his hand tugging down my zipper.

Then there’s a tongue on my ankle, and I nearly knee Levi right in his sensitive parts.

“Hank’s done eating,” he says, deadpan, and then groans in frustration. “He needs a walk.”

“Ah.” I scoot back, disappointed. It’s a break in the glowy aftermath, and what we do next is undetermined. It’s early evening now, and it’s got the feel of a shift change—one thing ending, the next one beginning.

But I find I want this shift to keep going and going.

“Walk with us?” he asks, keeping hold of me.

“You don’t think he’d mind?” I’m not really asking about Hank.

“Nah,” he says, and I know he’s not answering for Hank, either. “He likes you as part of his routine.”

“Okay.” I try not to crack my face open with my smile. “I can stay for a walk.”

“And then for dinner,” Levi says, his tone more demanding than requesting.

“And then for dinner.”

He leans down for another kiss, pressing the hardness in between his legs against the space between mine. “And then after,” he adds.

I nod and agree again, counting each one of his afters. I make sure to remind myself that they’re not infinite.





Chapter 16


Levi


“Don’t move.”

Beside me, Georgie stops the restless fidgeting she’s been doing for the last five minutes—bouncing on her toes, shaking out her hands, lowering the bill of her ball cap only to adjust it higher on her head after a few seconds.

“Did you hear something?” she whispers, sounding more excited than is probably right for the potential of what she’s asking about. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be good for either one of us if a cop caught us under the bleachers of the Harris County High School football stadium at two o’clock in the morning on a Thursday night.

Still, I can’t help smiling, even as I keep my eyes out and my ears open.