Page 181 of ClickBack

Goodbyes take longer than I expect. Nina hugs me and tells us breakfast is at ten tomorrow, if we want to come.

“Ten?” Jacqueline looks from Nina to the pitcher on the table. “Are you sure? With what you’ve been pouring these women?”

“You had three,” Bellamy tells her.

“And I’m asking for all of us.”

Denise lifts her glass. “Eleven would be considerate.”

Nina laughs. “Come when you get up. I’ll leave something on.”

“We’ll be there,” I promise.

“Shrimp and grits,” Bellamy tells me. “Don’t let him talk you out of it.”

“He wouldn’t dare.”

Jarrett looks between us. “I didn’t say anything.”

“Keep that going,” Bellamy says, and kisses my cheek.

He takes my hand for the stairs. Behind us, Bellamy starts the song over, and I turn to wave before he leads me through the door.

Chapter 32

Jarrett

Giselle stops me on the first landing and kisses me like we have been apart all evening.

I get my hand around her waist and let the door close behind us. Music comes through the wall. Somebody upstairs laughs, and she draws me closer instead of turning to see whether anybody followed.

When she lets me breathe, I look at her.

“You been saving that?”

“You were occupied.”

“With you.”

She smiles and starts down the next flight. I follow, still holding her hand, still thinking about the railing and the way she looked at me after she said it.

I had worked out what I wanted to tell her. Not every word, but enough. I wanted her away from the trade and the family and the part of this weekend that belonged to everyone else. Then she looked at me and said she loved me, and I nearly laughed in her face because I had spent so much time waiting for a better place to stand.

She has been beside me all day.

I pull her back toward me before she reaches the turn. She braces her free hand against my chest, laughing when I kiss her again.

“That one was you,” she says.

“I’m not denying mine.”

She turns to go down. Her heel catches at the edge of the next step. I tighten my hold and brace my other hand on the rail before she has time to fall.

“Hold up.”

“I’m fine.”

“Give me a second.”