Saugatuck Summer (Saugatuck, #1)(65)

There was humor in his voice, and he offered his phone to me. Geoff’s name was at the top of the screen.

@hospital. Lings in labor. Topher has wknd off paid. Prob open shops Tues or Weds. Will txt later.

I burst into excited laughter. “Oh my God. Awesome! What should we do? Do we, like, buy cigars? Go sit in the waiting room with them?”

Jace shook his head, chuckling, and rolled out of bed to grab his laptop case.

“Right now it should be just family there. They’re great friends, but it’s not quite at that level, you know?”

“Ah, yeah.” I nodded, embarrassed at having gotten carried away. “Me either.”

“I’m going to send a balloon bouquet. You want your name on the card?”

“Yeah, please!” I couldn’t help but smile. It wasn’t my family or my baby, but I was still overjoyed for them. While Jace shopped for the balloon arrangement, I grabbed my phone and responded to the text message they’d sent. I congratulated them and wished them luck, then grabbed the supplies Geoff had sent home with me the night before and went into the bathroom to run through the piercing care regimen he’d prescribed.

When I came out, Jace had set his laptop aside. He lay on the bed, sucking on his cheek thoughtfully. I peered outside, around the curtain, at the driving rain.

“Guess I won’t have to worry about swimming today. At least not unless I want to drag myself up to Holland.” Guilt tried to creep in about that, especially since I’d missed my morning workout the day before, but I stomped on it ruthlessly. Most of my teammates wouldn’t put any more effort into swimming over the summer than it took to dunk their friends in a pool. I was the one pushing myself to be in shape for the upcoming season, and missing a day or two wasn’t a catastrophe. It was just the critical voices of the past—the ones that told me I never tried hard enough—that made me feel like I was being insufferably lazy.

“I guess not.” He caught my hand, tugging me down onto the bed beside him. I tried to be careful of my nipples, but they were already aching a little less, so I decided to dare curling up against him. “So. You have at least three days off.”

“Yeah, I do. Why?” I flashed him a flirty grin, rubbing my groin against his thigh. I was perfectly willing to pick up where we’d left off before the texts had arrived. “Thinking of staying in town a couple days longer?”

“Actually”—he flipped, rolling me onto my back and lying above me, careful to keep any weight off my chest—“I had a different idea. Wanna spend a few days in Chicago?”

I blinked at him. Then I threw my head back and laughed with the sort of delight known only to adventure-seeking, small-city suburbanites faced with the opportunity to visit a real city.

“Oh, f*ck yeah.”





I’m almost sick of trying to wade through this

I should be fine and over it

—Casey Stratton, “You Were My Religion”

It took us a while to get on the road. First because we had sex again, then because we fell asleep, and then because the whole shower and clothes and breakfast ritual had to take place. The thunderstorm had passed by the time we were finally in the car, and as we drove along Lakeshore Drive, Lake Michigan was that hazy, tranquil gray-blue it only seems to be after the rain. I leaned my head against the headrest and closed my eyes with a sigh. I wasn’t quite tired enough to fall asleep, but relaxing during the nearly three-hour drive sounded like a nifty idea because I had no idea what we’d be doing once we arrived in Chicago.

Interestingly, I didn’t feel the need to fill the silence in the car with chatter, and wasn’t that strange? No awkward silence; it was completely comfortable for me and Jace. After he merged onto the Gerald R. Ford, his hand landed on my knee, caressing just for the sake of touching me. As if, like he’d said, it felt more natural to have his hands on me than to keep them to himself.

“If you want music, feel free to play with the radio.” There was something satisfied and affectionate in his voice, as though he was really, truly happy to have me there with him. “There’s a plug-in for your iPod if you want it.”

I grinned, reaching into the rear seat for my backpack and trying not to whimper as the movement tugged at my new piercings. “Oh, you’re so gonna regret that offer.”

“Yeah? Why’s that?”

“Because I’m one of those obnoxious people who has to have music on a road trip, and because the selections tend to be more along the lines of show tunes and indie artists no one has heard of than anything most people would rock out to in the car.”

“Go ahead, do your worst.”

I plugged in my iPod and browsed through the menus for a moment, then leaned back again when a tinkling piano line swelled into the oceanic melody of “For Reasons Unexplained.” It rose and fell gently, flooding from the speakers to swirl around us. A moment later, an androgynous voice with a soaring vibrato joined it.

Jace listened attentively for a moment, his eyes widening. “Holy shit. What is this?”

I smiled, pleased with his reaction. “My idol. Casey Stratton.”

He shook his head, his eyes on the road. “I’ve never heard of him.”

“Not many people have. He’s been mostly indie his whole career.”

“How did you discover him?”