Time stopped as Andie came into focus on my doorstep. I was gripping the door, mouth open, breath frozen, heart pounding.
I blinked, and blinked again.
It couldn’t be her. She was supposed to be half a world away, and yet she was here, standing a foot away from me and waving a small British flag back and forth in front of her chest.
I couldn’t quite wrap my head around her being here. In London. At my flat. Her luggage was tucked behind her and she was wearing a small, tentative smile. Her gray eyes were gleaming with hope and her hand was shaking around the flag. Her pale blonde hair was falling out of a messy bun and she had on jeans and a wrinkled white blouse. She should have looked weary from her flight, but she was radiant. I wanted to reach out to touch her, but I was scared she’d disappear like a mirage.
“Andie?” I asked, hearing the hope in my voice.
Question after question sprang to mind (How did you get here? When did you plan this? Where are you staying? How long will you be here?), but I settled on a simple statement. “You’re here.”
A loud crash sounded in the kitchen and her smile dropped. Her eyes scanned past me, trying to find the source of the commotion. “Is this a bad time?”
I shook my head and pulled the door open wider. “No, it’s just Georgie. Come in.”
We hadn’t touched. She’d been on my doorstep for one whole minute and I hadn’t kissed her and I wanted to kiss her.
I held the door open and she stepped inside with a hesitant laugh. I reached for her suitcase before she could and rolled it in the foyer for the time being.
“Pretend like I’m not even here!” Georgie shouted from somewhere in the flat just before a door slammed. I had no clue what she was up to, but I didn’t care. I closed the front door and focused on Andie as she inspected the photos hanging in the foyer.
“So this your place,” she said, leaning forward on her toes to inspect a photo of Georgie and me from when we were little. Georgie had urged me to hire a decorator after I’d purchased the flat a few years back; as Andie turned to take in the living room, I made a mental note to thank her. “It’s really nice, Freddie.”
How had I still not touched her? She was walking around the place, smiling at the furniture when she should have been smiling at me. I stepped forward to break the separation and give her the greeting I should have at the door, but suddenly her face contorted as we both caught a whiff of air freshener coming from the kitchen. No, not a whiff. A plume of the noxious gas nearly knocked us off our feet. Georgie had sprayed enough of it that it smelled like a Febreeze factory had exploded in my flat.
Andie coughed and waved her hand in front of her face. “What in the world is that?”
“That will have been Georgie. She came around to tidy up just before you got here. It’s supposed to smell like…” I checked the spray bottle. “Summer citrus.”
She laughed. “It smells like shitrus.”
I shook my head and walked over to push open the balcony door. It was a bit chilly out, but we’d have to make do until the flat aired out.
I waved for Andie to follow me out onto the balcony and I watched in wonder as she took in the view of London. I’d grown accustomed to it over the years, but seeing it through her eyes reminded me how overwhelming it could be at first. She leaned against the railing and stared out at the London Eye.
“Georgie knew I was coming,” she admitted, peering over at me from the corner of her eyes. “That’s why she came to clean up, I think.”
I stepped closer. “You called her, but not me?”
Her cheeks flushed. “I wanted it to be a surprise,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself to keep warm. I stepped forward and rubbed my hand up and down her back, warming her skin beneath her blouse.
“It’s a wonderful surprise,” I assured her. I was still in shock.
She tilted her head to look at me over her shoulder. For a moment we hovered there with my hand on her back and her eyes pinned on my mouth.
“Typically when one makes a grand romantic gesture like this, they get kissed,” she said wistfully.
“I still can’t believe you’re here. My lips haven’t caught up with my eyes,” I said, skimming my hand up her back so I could cup the base of her neck and tilt her mouth to mine.
“Well tell them to hurry.”
It hadn’t even been a month since she’d left me in that hotel in Rio, but as I bent down and pressed my lips to hers, it felt like years had separated us. Her hand pressed to my chest, gripping my shirt. She tugged me closer and I cradled her head, bringing her body closer to mine so I could bring her bottom lip into my mouth and show her how much I’d missed her.
She moaned against me and I pushed her back against the balcony railing. I knew the metal would bite into her back, but she didn’t care. She was lost in the kiss as much as I was.
When I finally pulled back to catch my breath, she fit herself against me so her head was tucked beneath my chin and her cheek was pressed against my chest. “I read the article today. I read it and I got on a plane an hour later.”
I smiled.
“Is that crazy?” she asked.
Crazy?
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.”
Andie smiled. “That will be really fun.”
She said it as though she’d be a part of the fun, like she’d be staying in London when Georgie moved down the street.
“How long can you stay?”
She glanced down as she dropped the lemon back onto my bed. “Actually I have a meeting tomorrow with Chelsea.”
“The ladies football club?”
She nodded. “They offered me a spot before the games and—”
I crashed my lips against hers and stole the end of her sentence.
When I pulled back, she laughed and shook her head. “Nothing’s been signed, and there’s a real chance they won’t want me after my physical, because of the wrist.”
I shook my head. “They’ll want you.”
She’d just helped the best team in the world secure a gold medal in the Olympics. There wasn’t a better keeper out there.
“If I do make the team,” she continued, “then London might be seeing a lot more of me.”
I inhaled her words, trying not to look as if they were the best thing I’d heard in a decade. I’d already thought over all our options. I’d worked myself up to the idea of flying to L.A. once or twice a month to see her, but this? Her moving to London was something I hadn’t dared imagine.
I cupped her cheeks in my palms and leaned down to steal another kiss.
“Something is buzzing,” she said, jumping back.
“Oh god, what else did Georgie buy?”
She laughed and shook her head. “No, it’s your phone.”
It was buzzing on the nightstand and when Andie handed it over to me, a text from Georgie lit up the screen. I read it aloud.
“Georgie says, ‘Oops might want to check the bath. Forgot to turn off the faucet before I left.’”
Andie spun for the bathroom. “Oh shit!”
Oh shit was right. There was water and bubbles everywhere. Water sloshed over the sides of the bathtub, making the marble around it a slippery hazard zone. The faucet was still running, and there were enough foamy bubbles to make it impossible to see Andie as she bent down to turn it off. I reached for a few towels beneath the sink and dropped them on the floor right as my mobile buzzed again.
Georgie: Oh! And I poured an entire bottle of bubble bath in the tub. I’ve always wanted to do that… :)
“I’ll kill her,” I said, tossing my mobile onto the sink and getting to work soaking up the water.
Andie laughed. “It’s kind of fun.” She pushed around one of the towels with her feet. “It reminds me of foam parties back in college.
I scrunched my brows. “Foam parties?”
“You’ve never been?!”
I shook my head and bent down to push around one of the towels, blowing bubbles out of my path so I could actually see what I was doing. Andie bent down beside me and we worked together, mopping up the floor as best as possible. Our shoulders bumped together and she sent a smile my way. I shook my head, thinking of all the ways I’d murder Georgie in the morning.
I picked up one of the towels and carried it over to the sink to wring it out. Just as I started to twist it in my hands, Andie’s white blouse landed with a splat on the counter beside me. I stared at it for a second and then glanced up to meet her reflection in the mirror. She was half hidden in the mass of bubbles, but her wicked smile was easy to see.
“Is this what happens at those parties?” I teased.
She fingered the straps of her bra and I watched, enraptured.
“Not quite…at least not while I was there.”
She was being shy, taking her time with her bra. She met my eyes in the mirror as she pushed the straps off her shoulders. Her chest rose and fell with her nervous breath, straining against the top of her bra.
“Take it off,” I said with a subtle nod.
She twisted her hand behind her back and unhooked the clasp. The creamy lace slid away and a second later, her bra landed beside her blouse.
The bathroom was full of steam and bubbles and water and the scent of that damn bubble bath. I turned from the sink and she bent to push off her jeans.
“Andie…”
She looked up through the veil of the bubbles. “Will the water ruin your floors?”
I shook my head. “I don’t care.”
“Then I see no reason to let this bubble bath go to waste.”
She let her jeans fall to the floor, and then she was gloriously naked. The bubbles shrouded her tan skin as she stepped back and put one leg in the tub.
“Mmm,” she hummed, drawing a finger out and trying to lure me closer. “It’s warm.”
I reached behind my neck and pulled my shirt off over my head with one smooth pull.
“Coming in?” she asked as she bent and disappeared behind the bubbles. More water splashed out over the sides and I knew I’d displace even more when I joined her. We’d have quite a cleanup job, but I had a singular focus. My jeans hit the floor and my boxer briefs went next. I walked to the tub and Andie po
pped her head out of the bubbles. I had to hold back a laugh as I stepped in and sank into the warm water.
I could barely make her out on the other side of the mountain of bubbles.
“Where are you?” she asked, reaching out for me under the water. Her hand hit my upper thigh and I hissed and reached for it. I brought her palm to my mouth and pressed my lips to the very center.
“This bath won’t last very long if you touch me there.”
She laughed and scooted closer. I pushed some of the bubbles out of the way just as her chest fell against mine.
“You’re right. Hop out and grab a few of those Jesus candles to keep us chaste.”
I laughed and pulled her down onto me. My hands slid up her back and her chest hit mine. She was so warm and soft and wet. Her legs wound around my waist and her lips found mine. She was complete fucking heaven and I knew I’d let the whole bathroom flood if only I could keep her there with me forever.
“Andie?” I whispered as I broke our kiss.
She nuzzled her head against my neck. “Hmm?”
I tangled my hands in her hair and pulled her head back so I could look her in the eye. “I want you to stay in London regardless of the meeting tomorrow. I know it’s fast, but I want you to stay here. The flat is big and there’s more than enough room for your things.”
I thought I saw her nod but it was hard to see through the bubbles.
“Andie?”
She cursed under breath.
“What’s wrong?”
No one should be upset in bubbles.
“This is supposed to be a happy moment,” I said, bringing her against my chest and soothing her back.
“It is,” she insisted, hugging me back just as fiercely. “I’m so happy but also…I lost a bet I made with Kinsley.”
I laughed. “What bet?”
She tilted her head back and let out a heavy sigh.
“When she dropped me off at the airport, I told her I’d see her in a week, but she bet me a million dollars I wouldn’t be coming back.”