Back to You

He had his hood up, his head slightly ducked against the rain as he looked up at her. She watched his eyes drop to take in her appearance before making their way back to her face { display: block; text-indent: 0%; font-size: 0.88rem; margin-top: ou"> shoulder, and she realized how ridiculous she must have looked, drenched from head to toe with swollen bloodshot eyes and mascara ru

Michael stuffed his hands in his pockets, his expression confused. “Where were you?”

Lauren swallowed. “I…,” she began, and then she exhaled heavily, wiping the saturated hair away from her face. “I was at your apartment. Looking for you.”

The confusion on his face was quickly replaced with concern. “I was taking a test. I got your message when I got out, and I called you a few times, but you weren’t picking up.”

Lauren pulled her brow together and shook her head, but then she realized that in her haste leaving the house, she’d not only left her jacket behind, but her purse and her phone as well. A tiny ember of relief lit in her belly, sending little sparks of warmth up through her chest.

“It made me nervous. That message, and then you not answering,” he said. “So…I came here.”

She knew she should say something, but her throat was growing tighter by the second. All she could do was stand there like an idiot, blinking against the rain and her impending tears.

His eyes were darting back and forth between hers. “Are you okay?” he finally asked.

She forced her body to work, nodding her head slightly. “Yes,” she managed. But then her breath caught on a sob, and she choked out, “No.”

“No?” he said, removing his hands from his pockets as he instinctively stepped toward her. But then he stopped abruptly, almost as if he realized he would be breaking a rule, and he stepped back, bringing his hands to his sides.

The look in his eyes was so heartbreaking that Lauren’s restraint instantly crumbled. She threw herself forward, wrapping her arms around him as she buried her face in his chest and burst into tears.

Immediately his arms came around her, pulling her into his body. “Hey,” he cooed softly as he ran his hand over the back of her head. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m here.”

She nodded against his chest, but she couldn’t manage anything beyond the sobs that kept bursting from her lips.

Suddenly her feet were off the floor, and then she was moving. Lauren curled up against him, tightening her hold around his neck as he carried her toward her front door. He reached behind his head, taking the keys out of her hand and opening her door, and then he placed her gently on the couch. Lauren brought her hands to her face, gulping for air as she tried to get her bearings, and she could hear the sounds of him in the bathroom, opening and closing cabinets.

When she heard him turn the light off, she looked up to see him walking toward her with one of the large, plush towels from her linen closet. He removed his jacket and tossed it on the floor in the entryway before he leaned over and wrapped the towel around her shoulders, rubbing the tops of her arms vigorously.

Lauren brought the ends of the towel up to her face, wiping away the rain and the tears, and she felt the couch dip as he sat next to her.

She turned then, crawling into his lap as she buried her face in the crook of his neck.

Michael sat back as he tucked her against his body, ru

When she finally achieved some semblance of control, she lifted her head and looked up at him. “I’m so sorry. For everything@ looked "> shoulder,” she whispered.

“Don’t,” Michael said softly. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“Yes, I do,” she said. “My reaction, the way I treated you that night, the way I’ve been treating you for the past two weeks. None of that was okay.”

“Lauren,” he said, pulling the towel a little tighter around her, “you’ve been much nicer to me in these past few months than I ever deserved. Your reaction was mild, and long overdue, if we’re being honest.”

She shook her head. “I understand why you left now. I need you to know that I forgive you.”

Michael closed his eyes as he exhaled slowly, his shoulders softening in relief before he nodded. “Just know that it killed me,” he murmured as he lifted the corner of the towel and wiped underneath one of her eyes. “Every day. I kept wanting to call you, to come back home to you, to ask you to come out to me. You have no idea how much.”

He swallowed, and Lauren gently placed her hand on his chest. “But the more I battled myself,” he continued, “the more time passed. And the longer I stayed away, the easier it was to convince myself that you’d gotten over me by then. And I thought it would be so unfair to you, to worm my way back into your life after you’d already moved on, especially since I didn’t think I could be what you needed. I painted myself into a corner, and I didn’t know how to fix it, or even if I could.”

Michael looked down at her hand, and he lifted it to his mouth, kissing her palm before he placed it back on his chest and looked up at her. “But I never stopped loving you. Not for one second.”

And then Lauren did something her heart had wanted her to do from the second she saw him standing in the vestibule of Learn and Grow holding his little girl.

She kissed him.

She felt his hand curl into a fist behind her back, gripping the towel, but his lips remained gentle as he lifted his chin and kissed her back.

The second their lips touched, every hair on her body stood on end. It felt like an electric current was ru

“I should have pushed,” she said. “I should have pursued you.” As she spoke, her lips ghosted over his. “But I thought that you didn’t want me,” she whispered. “And I was too hurt and too proud and too stupid.”

She brought her mouth back to his, and he made a small noise in the back of his throat as he kissed her again, this time with a hint of the urgency she could feel in the fist that was still clenching the towel tightly behind her back.

Lauren pulled back slightly. “So it was my fault too,” she said softly, and Michael shook his head, shifting his weight as he released his hand from the towel. He slid it up under her hair, gently winding it around his hand before he pulled lightly, forcing her to tilt her head back. When she felt the heat of his mouth on her throat, her eyes fluttered closed.

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” he whispered against her skin. “We’re right where we’re supposed to be now.”

And when Lauren brought her head back down, their mouths met in a searing kiss that confirmed what he had just reassured her of.

This was exactly where she belonged. Because the way he was holding her, the way his mouth felt on hers, made ou"> shoulder everything else she’d ever known of contentment feel like a sham.

She felt his fingertips curl under the hem of her shirt, and when he slowly slid it up her abdomen, she broke contact and lifted her arms, allowing him to peel the soaking garment from her body.

“Michael,” she breathed as she came back to him, and he exhaled heavily as his hands came to the sides of her waist.

“Should we…?” he asked, glancing down the hall.

“No,” she sighed, kissing him again. “Here. I don’t want to wait anymore.”

Michael wrapped one arm securely around her back and supported her head with the other before shifting his weight from the couch and lowering them onto the floor.

“That night with you,” he said, kissing across her collarbone. “Nothing compared to it. Nothing ever came close.”

“I know,” she breathed. And she did. Because they hadn’t done anything but kiss, and she could already feel it. The thing that was missing with every other man. The thing that made her heart come alive in her chest and her body thrum with emotion and her soul feel like it was home.