I slid out of bed without turning on the light and crossed the room on bare feet. I could feel my heartbeat in my ears making the whooshing sound of the ocean. I told myself it was nothing. A skunk on the deck railing. A branch. One of the neighbor’s cats that liked to patrol the upper deck in search of a mouse.
I prayed for strength because if I had to face a critter, I was going to need it. I pulled back the edge of the curtain and peered out. Colt Anderson was standing on my upper deck.
I made a sound that was somewhere between a shriek and a gasp and clapped both hands over my mouth. He was right there, leaning against the outer wall with one shoulder, like he was waiting for a bus and not hanging off the second story of someone else’s house at one in the morning. He was still wearing the dark green henley from dinner. His hair was slightly disheveled.
He smiled when he saw my face appear in the window. That same damn smile that had ruined my life seven years ago in the best way possible. I yanked the window open the rest of the way.
“What are you doing?” I whispered. The words came out sharper than I intended. My heart was still trying to punch through my sternum. “You scared me half to death. How did you even get up here?”
“The lattice on the south side,” he said quietly. “It held. Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
He glanced downward and then back up at me with an expression that said we probably didn’t want to inspect the lattice too closely in the morning light. A few years ago, the lattice had been a lot stronger. His shimmies up the lattice back then had been much less dangerous.
“I wanted to thank you again,” he said. “For dinner. For your family. For all of it.”
I stared at him. “You could have texted.”
“I could have.” He shifted slightly, moving a fraction closer to the open window. The deck boards creaked softly under his weight. “But that’s not really what I came for.”
My stomach dropped as he pulled the screen from the window, something he’d done many times. The poor thing was bent from the many removals over the years.
“What did you come for?” I asked. I knew the answer. I could see it in the way he was looking at me. But I wanted to hear him say it.
“I left without what I actually wanted tonight,” he said. His voice was barely a whisper. “I tried to tell myself not to come over, but I’ve been sitting alone in the dark and decided fuck it. I know what I want.”
I swallowed. “What do you want?”
He leaned in, one forearm braced against the window frame, bringing his face level with mine through the open window.
“A proper goodbye,” he said softly. “A kiss. Just one.”
“You climbed a lattice,” I whispered.
“I would have climbed the whole house,” he said simply.
“You’re not a teenager.”
“Wasn’t a teenager when I climbed before. I survived. I’ll replace the lattice, maybe something made from steel just in case I put on a few pounds. Of muscle, of course.”
I laughed softly, finding the man ridiculous but so damn irresistible. I grabbed his shirt and yanked him hard, nearly banging his head against the bottom half of the window.
I gave him the kiss he came for. Maybe a bit aggressive. Like a succubus latching on. My tongue slashed against his.
When he started to pull away I grabbed the front of his henley.
He made a low sound of surprise that dissolved into a quiet laugh against my mouth. “Summer.”
“Don’t go,” I murmured. I decided I didn’t care if it sounded desperate. I was done making sensible choices tonight. I felt like I was going to spontaneously combust if I didn’t get that man on top of me. Inside me. It had been too long and my body and I were done waiting. I was taking what he offered before.
“Yeah?” he breathed.
“Get in here,” I said.
He grinned against my mouth. I stepped back, dropping my hand from his shirt. He got one leg through the window without any trouble. Then his shoulder caught the frame and he misjudged the height of the sill. He reached out, trying to hold on to something, and fell forward, knocking down the framed picture of the beach at sunset. I lunged and caught it before it could hit the floor but I ended up slamming into the wall with a loud thud.
We both froze. Him half in the window, me cradling the picture. I didn’t dare take a breath. Silence. The house stayed quiet.