A Love Like Ours

Chapter 28

I leaned in close to her, squeezed her hand. "Do you want a drink?"

Madelyn's smile softened at the edges. "No thanks."

It wasn't the first time she'd surprised me tonight. When she'd walked down the stairs at her mother's house, a shimmering black dress hugging every curve of her body, the back of it tapering to a point on her bare lower back, my jaw had dropped. But this... now that we were out, waiting to count down to midnight and ring in the new year together, my surprise was more of the confused kind.

It was the second time she'd turned down a drink, and there was a moment of panic as to why while I studied her.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "We've only got a little while left until midnight. Don't you want to—"

"I'm sure," she said, smiling more broadly at me again, but there was a gentleness to her eyes, too. Maybe she saw the hint of fear in mine—we hadn't had sex yet, and the first thing I thought of when she denied that second drink was that she was pregnant—because she leaned in, and I got another whiff of her shampoo, tinged with just a hint of her Burberry perfume in the thick, humid air. I curled my fingers around her waist and squeezed, pulled her closer, begged her without words to set me straight. "I just don't really drink anymore."

I looked at her, her lips close to mine, her eyes wide and sort of amused, and my first instinct was to ask her to repeat herself, but I'd heard her over the music. "You - you don't?"

Mads shook her head, took my hand in hers and rested both on my knee. "No."

Maybe I should have asked why, but I had a feeling I already knew, and Emily and Mark came back over then anyway, smiling and laughing enough that they distracted me for the moment.

"Where are Will and Jenny?" Mads asked, yelling over the music.

"They're still out there," Em said, holding her long blonde hair up and fanning her neck as Mark set two fresh drinks down on the table in front of us.

"Are you two gonna sit here all night?" Emily asked, pulling Mark down onto a couch beside her. Her forehead was already glistening with sweat, and she pulled up the strap of her silver dress as his hand slid over her knee. "Cause we didn't ask you to come so you could sit around all night!"

It was clear she was already drunk, and as she lifted the fresh drink to her lips, I felt Mads look at me, and smiled at Emily. 

"Alright, chill out," I said. "I need a few drinks in me before I can work up the courage to dance."

"Is that why you haven't asked me yet?" Mads asked, surprising me for the third time tonight with her boldness. She winked when I met her eye.

Mark piped up then. "Don't do it, man. Be strong for the both of us. Ow."

It was clear when I glanced their way again that Emily had just smacked him—where? I couldn't tell. But he was doing his best to glare at her without laughing, and Emily was doing her best to maintain a stern expression without cracking a smile. When he pulled her closer, his fingers tickling at her side, Emily failed beautifully, and Mark pressed a kiss to her temple as she smiled, all of which made my heart ache with longing for the woman beside me.

I squeezed her hand. "Would you like to dance?"

Mads leaned in close to me, rested her chin on my shoulder. "You said you needed a couple drinks first."

I'd already had one, so I kissed the tip of her nose. "If you're not drinking, I don't need to drink either."

She backed up, and her eyes went strangely serious. "Harry... you don't—"