Emily

EMILY

“WHY DIDN’T ANY OF you tell me I had a tomato stain on my sweatshirt?” I asked with a loud groan.

“I did just now,” Noah said around a mouth full of grilled cheese.

“I thought you knew,” my mother responded as she put another sandwich on Noah’s plate. It hadn’t taken any convincing for my mom to make Noah grilled cheese as soon as we got home from the game.

“From now on, let’s just assume I don’t know anything and you should always go ahead and tell me.” I scrubbed at the stain with a wet dish towel trying to get it out. The only thing I seemed to accomplish was creating a giant wet spot in addition to the red stain. I knew the tomato sandwich before the game wasn’t my best idea. I couldn’t seem to eat anything without spilling it on myself.

“I’m going to go to my room and change,” I announced with a sigh as I tossed the towel on the counter in defeat.

I walked down the hallway and to my room. When Noah and I first arrived, I was surprised to find the room looked almost exactly like it did when I was in high school. Over the past several weeks, I’d taken down the boy band posters which had exposed how faded the pink floral wallpaper had grown over time. When I turned on the overhead light, I was greeted with the white canopy bed with a matching desk, dresser, and side tables. I couldn’t help but smile when I remembered how excited I was to get the set for my twelfth birthday.

I made my way across the room to the dresser and was ready to grab a clean sweatshirt when I heard a noise. I froze, waiting to see if I heard it again. Sure enough, there it was a second time, a soft tapping at my window. There was no way…it couldn’t be. Then I heard it again. How? Why? I couldn’t be hearing things. It had to be him.

It only took me a few steps to reach the window. I quickly pushed back the curtains, undid the lock, and slid the window up. It was a little stickier than it had been twenty years ago, but I imagine it hadn’t been opened as much as it once had. “Levi?” I whispered into the cold night air.

“Em?” I heard a rustle as Levi stepped away from the side of the house. My bedroom was on the first floor, which meant Levi was only about six feet below me. He was still wearing the same suit he’d had on at the game but the tie was gone and his shirt was unbuttoned at the neck. The moonlight cast a soft glow over him and he looked even more handsome than I remembered from just an hour before when we were at the gym.

“What are you doing? It’s cold out!” I bit my lower lip trying to hold back a smile and a giggle. Part of me couldn’t believe that he was standing just outside my bedroom window–but a greater part felt just as giddy as I had when he used to do the exact thing all those years ago.

Levi grinned and held up something in his hand. “I brought you a sweatshirt.”

I felt my cheeks flush. It felt like I was sixteen again and coming out of the lunchroom with ketchup on my new pink shirt. Levi had lent me one of his sweatshirts so I wouldn’t have to go through the rest of the day wearing a stained shirt. Come to think of it, he’d actually done that several times while we were in high school. He had always done so many thoughtful things for me–I don’t think I’d fully understood at the time how special that was.

“So, you noticed the tomato splotch on my shirt,” I said, trying to be cool and play it off like I wasn’t a thirty-eight-year-old woman who still couldn’t eat a sandwich without wearing part of it.

The smile fell off Levi's face. “Em, I’ve always noticed everything about you.” His voice had gone from soft and flirty to so deep it almost sounded like a growl. As a burst of heat flooded through my body, I realized it was a feeling that hadn’t been there for a long time. Too long. I gripped the window ledge until my knuckles turned white. “I noticed you before that first tutoring session in the library.”

I swore my heart stopped beating for a moment then started up again double time. I didn’t know how to respond, so I took the easy way out and completely changed the subject. “You could’ve come to the front door.”

Levi chuckled as the seriousness of the moment lifted. “What would be the fun in that?” He walked a few steps closer and held the sweatshirt up. I leaned forward and took the soft, neatly folded shirt from him. As I did, our fingers brushed together and I was hit with an instant longing—not for the boy I once knew, but for the man he’d become. Levi cleared his throat. “Looks like I got here just in time.” He nodded toward me and I presumed he was referring to the giant wet spot on my sweatshirt.

I looked down at the mess I was wearing, but didn’t feel embarrassed. It was Levi. He’d never made me feel embarrassed about anything. He’d only ever made me feel loved and cherished. Suddenly I couldn’t remember why eighteen-year-old me hadn’t tried harder for us to stay together all those years ago, or at least stay in touch. Being with Levi had always felt so good…so right.

I turned my gaze back up to Levi, and without saying anything, I grabbed the bottom of my sweatshirt and pulled it up over my head. I was wearing a snug fitting tank top that left very little to the imagination under it and I could hear Levi get out a low groan as I tossed my messy sweatshirt aside. My body had changed over the years, especially after having Noah, but I fully embraced my curves. I pulled Levi’s sweatshirt over my head and closed my eyes as I inhaled the scent embedded in the fabric. A hint of his cologne, a hint of his laundry soap, and a scent that was all man. There was such a size difference between the two of us, the fabric of his sweatshirt swallowed me up with the sleeves going down past my hands. The feeling of being fully engulfed by Levi made me happy. In high school, every time I borrowed a sweatshirt from him, I’d sleep in it just so I could feel like he was with me.

“Looks just as good on you now as it did then. Hell, maybe even better.” Levi’s voice had taken on that rough quality again that made my heart feel like it was in my throat. “Give me a second shot, Em.”

“What?” I whispered back, not sure I’d heard him correctly.

He stepped right up to the window. “This might seem like way too much too soon…” Levi trailed off as he took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “The one regret I have in life is letting go of you, Em. I know it was difficult and we were young, and we thought we were doing the right thing, but seeing you tonight,” Levi paused and ran his hand over his short dark hair. “Seeing you tonight, everything came back. All the feelings. They were there like they’d never left. We feel unfinished.”

Levi’s gaze turned up to meet mine. The moonlight combined with the light from my bedroom and provided the perfect glow to fully see his eyes. No one had ever looked at me the way Levi did. My hand fluttered up to my chest where I could feel my heart beating faster than it ever had before. I was just out of a messy divorce, but my marriage had been over long before the divorce was finalized. In hindsight, we’d spend years leading separate lives—me with Noah in our modest but comfortable apartment in the city, him on “business trips” to the suburbs where he stayed in a three-bedroom house with his new family.

It was only when Levi spoke again, that I realized there had been silence hanging in the air between us. “Tell me I’m wrong, Em. Tell me I’m crazy. Say something.” Levi’s voice was pleading.

“You're not wrong,” I said back softly. Without thinking, I swung one leg up over the window sill, and shimmied forward until I could get the other one out as well. It had been much easier to climb out the window when I was a teenager. However, just like when we were younger, Levi was waiting right there to catch me as I jumped down into his arms.

“Emily, I…”

I stopped the words coming out of Levi’s mouth by pressing my lips to his. There were a few seconds of surprise before he began to kiss me back. We instantly fell into a perfect rhythm as his large hands gripped my sides and pulled me closer to him. I closed my eyes so that I could just feel . Feel his soft lips caress mine. Feel the sensation of his tongue swiping across my lower lip. Feel the way his hands roamed over my sides and back until one came to rest at the nape of my neck and the other right above my butt. Feel the ridges of his muscles as my hand ran up and down his arms. Feel the whispers of his breath as his lips briefly parted from mine so we could breathe before resuming the kiss. Feel my body relax into his.

Feel like after all this time, I’d finally come home.

Time seemed to have lost all meaning. I had no idea how long Levi and I stood in my parents’ front yard, right below my bedroom window making out like a couple of horny teenagers. When we finally parted, Levi ran his hand tenderly down the side of my face before resting it on my shoulder. “What do you say, Em?”

“Humm?” I asked, still feeling light headed and starry eyed from the hottest kiss I’d ever had in my life.

Levi tipped his head down so that we were almost nose to nose. “You going to give me a second shot?”

I didn’t even have to think about it. I nodded my head. “I think we deserve to give us a second shot.”

Levi’s face broke out in a smile so big, I couldn’t help but give him one back. He reached up and gently cupped the side of my face. “Let me take you out. On a date. Friday night.”

“Okay,” I whispered back. Like I could possibly anything else. “But how about you use the front door instead of coming to my window?”

Levi let out a chuckle. I was pressed so closely to him, I could feel it rumble in his broad chest. “Deal. Just tell your dad to go easy on me.”

I smiled up at him and patted his chest. Damn it was solid. “I don’t think it’s so much my dad you have to worry about any more. I suspect it’s Noah that’s going to give you a hard time.”

Levi’s eyes went wide. “Noah! I didn’t think…”

I reached up and pressed my finger to his lips. “Don’t worry about Noah. I’ll talk to him. He’s a good kid and I think he’ll understand.” I thought back to our conversation in the car on our way here when Noah had asked if I’d be dating and I told him no, especially not in Autumn Springs. It looked like I’d be eating my words.

Levi nodded before lowering his head to brush his lips across mine. “I’ll see you Friday.”

“See you Friday,” I whispered back. I wrapped my arms around him and leaned into his chest for a hug. He immediately returned the gesture. We stood there embracing each other for a few minutes before I pulled away. “You should get home.” I pressed my palm to his chest one last time. “You have school tomorrow.”

I could feel the rumble of his laugh in his chest through my palm. “Good night, Em,” he replied, putting his hand over mine.

“Good night, Levi.” I couldn’t help the big smile on my face. Even my voice sounded lighter.

Levi gently pulled my hand away from his chest and brought it to his lips. “Sweet dreams,” he whispered before placing a soft kiss on the back of my hand before gently lowering it to my side.

“Sweet dreams to you too.” I could still feel the spot on my hand where my lips had been.

Levi winked at me before he turned away. He took a couple of steps before spinning around to face me and started to walk backwards. “Don’t worry about that. After tonight, they couldn’t be anything but sweet.”

I laughed and covered my face with both my hands so he couldn’t see the love struck schoolgirl expression I knew was there. When I moved my hands away, I saw Levi still walking backwards down the sidewalk. He gave me a wave, which I returned, before he spun back around and was soon out of view.

I stood in the yard for a few moments trying to figure out if I was in a dream or if everything had actually just happened. I looked down at the oversized Autumn Spring Eagles Basketball sweatshirt I was wearing and acknowledged that the evening had in fact been very real.

For a brief moment, I contemplated climbing back in through the window, but Levi wasn’t there to give me the boost I’d needed as a teenager, so I knew there was no way I was going to make it on my own now.

As I walked around the side of the house, I realized I felt happier than I had in a long time. Maybe coming back to Autumn Springs was exactly the thing Noah and I had needed. He seemed to have a good group of friends, was doing well in his classes, and really loved being a part of the basketball team. What had started out as a temporary move was starting to feel anything but temporary.

As I reached for the door knob to the front door, I decided my conversation with Noah was going to include more than just Levi. I was going to include us staying in Autumn Springs and looking for a house to call our own. My parents had been incredible, but I was sure they’d like to have their space back and I knew I’d like to have a little more privacy, especially with Levi back in my life.

My face broke out into another one of those ridiculously huge grins as I turned the knob and pushed the door open. Levi. I felt like I was going to swoon every time I said his name. I couldn’t wait for our date on Friday night, and our second shot at love.