Everything by Jeri Williams

hand and kissing it.
    “I thought you were tired,” I accused.
    He gave me a knowing look. “I’m never too tired to perform to the best of my abilities,” he said, then got out of the truck, leaving me to process that.
    I scrambled from the truck to catch up to him as he unlocked the door to his small and modest home he shared with his mother. He had never known his father, as he had died when Trevor was very young, so it had always been just his mother and him, and his mother worked all the time. He had told her that because he had the job at the animal clinic now, she didn’t have to work so much, to which she retorted that she liked to keep busy. She worked as a librarian, and even though the public library closed at eight, she always stayed well past then, doing some project or another or organizing and cataloging books.
    “I’m guessing your mom is not home?” I asked.
    He closed the door and pinned me to it, giving me a kiss that said, “Would I kiss you like that if she were?” The kiss told me all I needed to know.  
    I kissed him back eagerly while his hands eased down my side and hiked my legs up around his waist, picking me up off the floor. We moved into the interior of the house, down a small hallway that led to his bedroom.
    “This is a promising start to the floor show,” I said breathlessly when he broke the kiss to open the door to his room.  
    He set me down on my feet long enough to close and lock the door behind him, then he turned to me with that look in his eye I knew all too well.
    “Shhh, there is no talking during the floor show,” He said, and he crushed his mouth back to mine.  
    I lived for when he kissed me like this. These kisses were fervent and soft rolled into one, and they made me feel as though I was the only person in the world he gave them to, which, for his sake, I had better be. “Okay,” I said breathlessly, “I won’t talk during the floor show, but I just want to say I love you.”
    He paused and studied me for a moment, enough to make me feel slightly uncomfortable, before saying, “And it goes without saying that I love you. Now shhh.” And I didn’t utter an identifiable word the rest of the night.

Chapter 3

    I awoke at about five thirty in the morning, tension-free. I looked over at Trevor and kept myself from laughing as I always did when I woke up before he did. Trevor was a mouth breather, so his mouth was wide open like he was trying to catch flies, as Opal would probably say. Sometimes, just to mess with him, I would stick my finger in his mouth and just let it hover there to see if he would somehow feel it and wake up, but he never did and I would always wake him up by shaking with silent laughter.
    I reached over and brushed his hair back from his forehead, the movement causing him to stir.
    “I love that your touch is the first thing I feel in the morning,” he said, his voice heavy with sleep.
    “Is that really the first thing you feel?” I asked, looking pointedly south of the covers.
    “Besides that, smart ass.”
    “Me too. I wish I could do this every morning,” I sighed.
    “You could. We could get our own place, you know.”
    This wasn’t the first time this conversation had come up. He had been pushing the issue for about three months now, but with school and Opal, I just didn’t think it was a good idea to move in together at the moment.
    “Babe...” I began.
    “I know, I know. Forget I brought it up,” he said moodily.
    I hated that he thought I didn’t want to move in with him for any other reason than I just wasn’t ready. I wanted to go into it further, but he got up to go use the bathroom. I got up to put my clothes on and head back to the dorms. I always hated feeling like I was doing the walk of shame in his house. I didn’t want to run into his mom. It’s not like she didn’t know I was here most nights. If Trevor was here, then she knew I was too, but I felt like a ho because we spent the night in the same room