I laughed. “Yeah, pretty good, right?”
“Better than sex,” she said, leaning over to get a bigger bite and giving me a clear shot down the front of her V-neck.
I glanced away, not wanting to intrude on her privacy, but as her delighted sounds of culinary rapture filled the room, I shifted in my seat trying to quell the ache inside me—the need to hear her moaning and gasping for me instead of some second-rate cheeseburger.
“Have you thought any more about hitting the slopes?” I muttered, grappling for a safe topic of conversation.
She shook her head, straightening again. “No way. I stand by my decision. Skiing is a death trap.”
“I think you’d like it if you just gave it a chance.”
“There are a lot of things I might like that I’ll never try. Sky diving. Base jumping. Swimming with hungry sharks.”
“Why do the sharks have to be hungry?”
“Because what’s the fun of well-fed sharks?” she shot back. “But, on that note, that reminds me.” She pushed away from the table, food forgotten, and rose to her feet. “I brought something with me. I know you said I should wait until your birthday and all, but, well, now it’s sort of a thank you gift. For everything you’ve done for me. And it kind of makes more sense to have it now than later.”
She rooted around in her bag and pulled out a red gift bag with crisp blue tissue paper.
“New York Giants’ colors.” I smiled.
“Always.” She handed the bag to me. “Now open up. I think you’ll be able to use them.”
I sifted through the tissue to find a brand new pair of ski gloves and a matching knitted hat, both in blue and red—my team colors.
“I was thinking you’ve had your other set for a long while and you might need something new. The gloves are supposed to be the top of the line and I, uh, knitted the hat.”
“Shut up,” I demanded, staring at the hat in my hands in genuine awe. It even looked like a hat, sort of. And given the fact that Maggie had been attempting to learn to knit since the day we’d met, with a closet full of failures that could have graced even the most horrific Pinterest “nailed it” board to show for it, I knew exactly how meaningful this gift was.
I stood and took her in my arms without a second thought. “This is amazing. Thank you.”
Her arms snaked around my waist easily, filling me with her warmth as she lay her head against my chest.
“No, thank you, Sam. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
She pulled back a little and looked up into my eyes. That same softness from before had returned and my heart ticked faster in my chest, sending blood thrumming to my ears, my wrists, and lower.
“S-Sam?” she murmured, her voice little more than a whisper, and in that moment I knew this was my chance.
Bending low, I cupped her cheek with one hand and brought my mouth close to hers. She didn’t pull away, and taking it as a sign of approval, I pressed my lips to hers.
The kiss was hesitant at first. Searching. A question more than an answer, but as her lashes fluttered closed, I wrapped my arms around her tighter.
And in that moment? It was everything and more. All the fantasies I’d had over the course of all those years sprang to life as she fell apart in my arms, pliable and responsive and sweet. Her tongue swept out to meet mine and I groaned as need pulsed through me.
I pulled her closer, angling my body against hers, reveling in the feel of her soft curves pressed against me. Jesus, she felt just like I knew she would. Like the missing puzzle piece in my life. Like she was meant to be in my arms. Like—
A shrill sound rent the air and, for a second, I thought it was just the blood rushing in my ears. But as it continued, I realized it was a phone.
Maggie’s phone.
I pulled away and she stared up at me, eyes wide, breath coming from us both in gasps.
A second later, the ringing stopped but the damage was done. I’d awakened from what felt like a dream and had been hit in the face with a dose of reality.
All of a sudden, after years of waiting, Maggie wanted to kiss me and I just accepted it. It was like I’d never seen a rom-com before. Never witnessed a rebound in action. But here I was, the big, lovable friend, setting myself up for an audience-groan-worthy fall. And I had no one to blame but myself.
“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice still raspy with unquenched need. “I… I need a minute.”
Shoving my hands in my pocket, I tore from the room just as quickly as my legs would carry me, leaving an open-mouthed Maggie in my wake.
Chapter Nine
Maggie
I shot a glance at the clock and groaned, flopping back onto the bed.
What had happened? I mean, I knew what had happened. Sam had kissed me and then the phone interrupted us, but dang it… Why did he have to leave?
Sick of staring at the door and waiting for it to open, I clicked on the TV and watched the crowd of onlookers in Times Square.
There were exactly twenty minutes left until the ball dropped. The only question now was whether Sam would still be gone when it happened. After all, it had already been almost half an hour since he’d rushed out of here like his ass was on fire.
I guess I couldn’t blame him. It had blindsided me too.
The passion and intensity in that kiss were almost overwhelming.
The words of everyone who’d spoken to me in the past few days flooded through my mind. The woman on the plane, the lady in the shop, even my own best girlfriend. They’d all been able to see something I hadn’t.
And now that it was here, staring me in the face?
I couldn’t figure out how I’d never noticed it before.
The way Sam looked at me, the way he attended to me and kept me safe. The way he made me laugh. Now that we’d kissed? It seemed so obvious that we were two halves of one whole and I had just been too stupid—or too distracted—to notice. Yolanda, Trevor, Dee…probably even Frick and Frack a few rooms down the hall knew it before I did.
But now that I knew? Now that I sat here with the imprint of his warm lips still searing into my skin? I didn’t care about anything else. I just wanted to make up for lost time.
The rest of my worries had been burned into oblivion by the heat between us. I no longer cared how this would affect our friendship, or how I’d wasted eight years when the right man had been in front of me all along. I wanted Sam and the only questions that remained were where he’d gone, when he’d be back, and, most importantly, if he’d kiss me like that again.
Heart thrumming in my chest, I grabbed my phone from the bedside table and stared down at the number of the missed call.
Fucking Trevor, still messing my life up, only long distance now. I thumbed past his name and typed Dee’s number into a message.
Sam kissed me.
I stared at the simple words, my heart leaping like I was sixteen again and kissing was the most wonderful thing I could imagine.
With a deep breath, I sent the message, and then flopped back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.