“You’re sweet, and have been sorely missed.” Sarah held on to Emory for several long moments. Pulling back, she grinned, her eyes shining brightly. “Happy birthday.”
“Thank you.” Emory took her hand and led them to the baggage terminal. As they walked, her heart soared. She’d found her balance in the world again.
“Can you not go away anymore?” Sarah asked as they stared at each other lazily a few minutes later, waiting on Emory’s bag to make its way around on the carousel.
“Already working on it. But in more pressing matters, what should we do tonight?” Emory asked with delicious anticipation of the evening. “And where’s Grace? I thought for sure she’d have talked her way into making announcements over the PA by now.”
“Grace is being well cared for. You see, it’s somewhat of an important day I’m told, so I took the liberty of making reservations for the adults to celebrate at Donovan’s Downtown. My treat. I hope that’s okay. I know you said no party, but I wanted the night to be special. Thoughts?” Sarah looked nervous that she’d made the right call. But in all honesty, Emory didn’t care what they did as long as they did it together. But now that she thought about it, Donovan’s would actually make for a really nice evening.
“That sounds like the best offer I’ve had in a long time. You, me, and some amazing food.” Emory pulled Sarah’s hand to her lips and kissed the back of it. “Are you sure you don’t want Grace to come with us? She’s welcome.”
“Nope. She’s blissfully happy roughhousing with Carmen and her boys tonight, her idea of a walk on the wild side. She did send a gift for you, however, which I will give you later.”
“Now?” Emory asked hopefully, her right eyebrow arched.
“Later.” Sarah shook her head at Emory’s attempt to appear disappointed. “So incredibly demanding.”
Thirty minutes later, they pulled into the drive of Emory’s house. The idea was to make just a brief stop so Emory could change into something more appropriate for dinner and say a quick hello to Walter, who’d been tended to daily by Lucy in her absence. By the time they actually arrived, however, Emory was beginning to have other ideas. A passion had been lit when she’d first laid eyes on Sarah at the airport and that slow building fire was now going strong. She’d stolen glances at Sarah throughout their time in the car and just couldn’t get past how wonderful she looked in that dress. The occasional placement of Sarah’s hand on her thigh as they drove hadn’t helped her plight all that much either. “What time is our reservation?” she asked nonchalantly as they made their way up the walk.
Sarah glanced over at her suspiciously. “Why?”
“Just wondering how much time we had.”
A knowing smile took shape on Sarah’s face and she brought them to a stop on Emory’s front porch. “I know that look.”
“I have a look?”
“You have the best look. There’s this hunger that shades your eyes and every time I see it, it floods me with…”
“Floods you with?”
“All kinds of thoughts about you, us, together.” Sarah took a step into Emory’s space, her gaze taking on the heat Emory already felt. She slipped her hands under the front of Emory’s shirt and delicately moved her thumbs in circles across the planes of her stomach, not once breaking eye contact. “The reservations aren’t until eight o’clock. We have a little time, if you want to, you know, explore those thoughts I mentioned. God, you’re so warm.”
“Mhmm,” Emory murmured absently in response. “A lot of time between now and eight. A practical lifetime.” Emory closed her eyes, unable to take much more of Sarah’s teasing thumbs and the tidal wave of arousal they were unleashing. There was need coursing through her body and she had to act on it. She reached blindly for Sarah, catching her by the waist and pulling her in tightly until their bodies met. Sarah gasped and captured Emory’s mouth aggressively with her own.
Emory slid into the kiss.
Into lilac and cinnamon.
It had been too long, she thought, too long since she’d held Sarah this way, felt her all over like this. Emory took control, deepening the kiss all the while fumbling with her keys to get them inside quicker. “Damn it,” she whispered when her coordination continued to fail her over and over again.
“I’ve got it.” Sarah took the keys and easily let them in.
Emory followed her into the darkened house, and after only a few steps, wrapped her arms around Sarah’s waist, and she kissed her neck from behind. She snaked one hand up to cover Sarah’s breast, and with her other hand moved her hair to the side for better access to that neck.
“Baby,” Sarah breathed.
Stifled laughter emanated from somewhere across the darkened room. Emory froze. Sarah froze. The lights above them flashed to full illumination and a house full of seventy-five smiling faces screamed in unison, “Surprise!”
“Fuck,” Emory whispered.
“Oh wow,” Sarah echoed.
Emory took a moment to process the scene, pulling her hands from their blatant placement on Sarah’s body. There was a “Happy Birthday, Emory” banner across the mantle and a large, gourmet birthday cake on a table in the corner. Her closest friends and co-workers stood smiling in celebration of her, along with a few faces she was only vaguely familiar with. She managed to smile back at her unexpected guests and whisper to Sarah at the same time, “Did you know about this?”
“Not a clue,” Sarah whispered back, doing her best to straighten her dress.
What an embarrassing entrance they’d just made.
Lucy emerged from the crowd grinning. “Sorry to interrupt, lovebirds, but we have some celebrating to do.” That earned a collective chuckle from the crowd. Emory registered that music was now playing from her stereo system.
“Surprised?” Lucy asked. She pulled Emory into an energetic hug.
“You have no concept of how much. Was this your idea?” she murmured in Lucy’s ear.
“Guilty.” Lucy pulled Sarah into a similar embrace. “This dress is beautiful on you, Sarah.”
“Thanks.” Sarah smiled but still looked a bit off balance.
“And about the party, I would have called to warn you, but I didn’t have your number. Plus, Emory informed me last we spoke that she’d be home to feed Walter before going anywhere tonight. I knew she’d also want to freshen up after the flight. If nothing else, that part was a sure thing.”
“That’s okay.” Sarah decided it wasn’t necessary to point out to Lucy that she could have easily called over to Immaculate Home if she were serious about getting in touch with her, or that the press release she’d sent out with the Global Newswire listed her name, phone number, and e-mail address under the contact information. Instead, she decided to look on the bright side of things and take advantage of this opportunity to get to know Emory’s friends. So this wasn’t what she had planned for the evening, big deal, but she could still make the night into something special. And she would.
“Speaking of freshening up,” Emory said uneasily, “I think I’ll head upstairs and get changed. Will you be okay?”
“Of course.”
Emory met her eyes apologetically and squeezed her hand once before heading further into the house and up the stairs.
“I laid out an outfit for you that I thought you’d like,” Lucy called after her. “And there’s a handsome someone up there who’s dying to say hi, but hurry back.” Emory shot a wary glance at Lucy as she ascended the stairs.
Lucy then turned to Sarah. “Come on, let me introduce you to some women you’re bound to spend lots of time with in the future. Most of these girls Emory went to school with. We sort of hang out in a group, but don’t let that intimidate you. Stick with me.”