I tilted back to get a good look at her. Her lips were full, bright red, and so bloody kissable I couldn’t help leaning forward and stealing a quick peck. I knew that wasn’t what she wanted though. Her wide eyes were vulnerable and her heart was right there, splayed across her features. She was waiting for an answer, but I didn’t want to scare her away. I didn’t want to tell her the last few days without her had been miserable. I didn’t want to tell her she was the reason I suddenly felt like life was more than races and medals and records. She was the reason I wanted more and if I told her that, I was scared she’d fight it, saying a month wasn’t enough time to fall in love, but I was in love.
“You’re not crazy,” I promised. “If I hadn’t heard from you by tomorrow, I was going to fly to L.A. I already had my ticket.”
She smiled. “This is better.”
I nodded. “Much better.”
I brushed away a few strands of hair the wind had blown across her cheek. She fell into my touch, closing her eyes and inhaling the moment as much as I was. When she glanced back up at me a few seconds later, there was a playful edge to her smile.
“You know, there was one thing you left out in the article.”
“Oh?”
She nodded. “You said you wanted another chance with me, but you weren’t very explicit about your feelings.”
I smiled and traced my knuckle back and forth across her cheek.
“I told you how I felt the night before you left Rio.”
She sighed. “Yes, but that was in the moment, in the magic of Rio and the games…” She sighed. “I wondered whether you would feel the same in the light of day.”
I bent down so I was at her eye level and spoke the next few words as clearly as I could. “Andie, I love you.”
She grinned. “Okay, just checking.”
I laughed. “That’s it?”
I needed to hear her say it just as badly.
“Well, I’m here,” she said, sweeping her hand across the London skyline. “Obviously that counts for something…and I do like your flat…and this view is pretty killer.”
“Andie…”
Her eyes gleamed with mischief as she glanced back up to me. “And okay, fine. Frederick Archibald, though your name is slightly pretentious, I love you.”
Georgie whipped my bedroom door open then, and we both turned to watch her walking out of my bedroom with one hand covering her eyes and the other stuck out straight, trying to keep from tripping over my living room furniture.
“La la la, I’m not here!” she sang. “I wasn’t listening very much, and I only heard the last bit about how you two love each other. It was all very nauseating and I nearly puked up my dinner in Fred’s room.”
“Georgie—”
She cut me off. “I’m leaving! Can’t you see I’m leaving?!”
I watched her move through the living room with her hand over her eyes and just before she made it to the door, she tripped over the bag of rubbish she’d left by the kitchen island with an audible “oomph!”
I pushed down a laugh and moved to help her out, but she waved me away.
“Don’t let me ruin your night. I just set up a few items in your room and now I’m going to see myself out.”
Andie laughed. “What do you mean? A few items?”
She turned back and parted the fingers she was using to cover her eyes. She peeked through them to look at us and shrugged. “Oh, you know, just some stuff to get the romance going. Seeing as how my brother is dreadfully naff, I had to take things into my own hands—though I was fairly limited. The corner shop I went to hardly had anything to…how shall I say…” She waved her hand in the air. “Set the mood.”
I groaned. “I don’t really want to know what you’ve done in there, G.”
“You should be thanking me!” she shouted as she grabbed her purse from the kitchen island and headed for the door. “I drew a bath because you stink—even if Andie is too polite to say so!”
Andie laughed as Georgie slipped out of the door. “BYE! We’ll get breakfast in the morning and then pop into Chloé for that bag you promised!”
Once she was gone and I’d locked the door after her, Andie met me outside my bedroom door.
“Your sister is insane,” she said with a laugh.
I nodded. “But you can’t argue with her results.”
She nodded toward my room. “C’mon, let’s go see what she’s done.”
Andie pushed my door open and I prepared myself for the worst; turned out I hadn’t been far off. As my gaze swept across the space, I hadn’t a clue where to begin. There were cheap chocolates strewn around the room—not with any sort of rhyme or reason, just there, scattered so that you could hardly walk without stepping on one.
On the base of the bed, she’d taken a few dozen lemons and arranged them so they spelled out S-N-O-G.
“Lemons?” Andie asked as she stepped closer, sidestepping the candy minefield on the ground.
That wasn’t even the worst of it. She’d tried to set the mood with a few candles lit on the bedside tables, but apparently the shop she’d gone to was out of standard tea candles. Instead, she’d purchased a dozen of those tall religious candles with Jesus, Mary, and a few other saintly blokes I probably should have known splayed out on the sides. Apparently, according to Georgie, the illuminated figure of a crucified Jesus was supposed to set the mood.
“In all fairness, she did say the shop was lacking a romantic selection,” Andie said, picking up one of the lemons and glancing over to me.
I laughed and stepped closer to wrap my arms around her.
“Is this what life will be like?” she asked.
I smiled. “I’m afraid so. She used to live on the estate with my mum, but now that she’s almost eighteen, she’ll be getting a flat in the city.”