Key To Your Heart

19

Lisa

I wake up wrapped around Roseanne like I'm a child snuggling with my favorite teddy bear. Her torso curves into mine, my legs framing the backs of hers. I've got an arm draped over her shoulder and my hand covers hers completely, our fingers linked.

She smells like the lilacs that grow down by the lake, and she feels like heaven.

She feels like home.

She feels like she's finally mine.

I shut my eyes and nuzzle down into her neck, trailing the tip of my nose over the shell of her ear. Breathing her in. I want so badly to drift back to sleep, to spend all day like this.

But there's a subtle buzzing going on somewhere in the room. Annoying, like a fly buzzing around my head. Intruding on our peace just enough that agitation flares inside me. And then concern takes hold as I think about Lucy and whether anything could be wrong.

She's mine but not. Bearing the burden of safeguarding her until her mother recovers is an immense pressure. And it's that stress that pulls me from the warmth of the bed and the comfort of Roseanne's sleeping body.

She stirs as I search the room. We were in such a frenzy last night that I'm not sure where our phones are. Her tiny, pearl-encrusted clutch is dropped by the front door, but when I touch it, it's not vibrating.

The buzzing stops, then picks up again, and worry flares inside me. I turn, heading toward the pile of clothes that are actually an expensive tuxedo. The jacket is tangled up in the pants, and my fingers scramble to separate it as the noise grows louder. I lift the jacket and shove a hand into the inside pocket, my gut dropping hard and fast when I see my lawyer's name flashing on the screen.

The heavy, gasping way I suck in a breath has Roseanne's eyes flipping open as every worst-case scenario flashes through my mind. Which is why I'm equal parts relieved and surprised when I pick up with a "What?" and Belinda answers with, "Why are you ignoring your calls? Felix Park got arrested last night, and I've been trying to get ahold of you for hours."

Roseanne sits up in the bed, not bothering to cover herself. She's stunning. All warm and rumpled and wearing a bite mark on her left breast from last night.

It's a shame she's about to be really fucking mad at me.

While my lawyer chews me out about how I need to get my ass to Vancouver and help my friend because some asshole named Steve is hell-bent on pressing charges, I soak Roseanne in, not fully listening.

Pleading with the universe for this to not be something she holds against me for too long.

"Got it," I say back to her. "We're on our way." I hang up and take in the confused expression lining Roseanne's face.

"What's going on? Is Lucy okay?"

My heart thuds heavily against my ribs, knowing what I'm about to tell her and feeling even more in love with her for asking about Lucy before anything else.

"Lucy is fine. But..." I scrub a hand on jaw and let loose a muttered, "Fuck."

"Lisa." Roseanne tugs the sheet up over herself, like a layer of protection. Like she's already anticipating some sort of blow. "What's wrong?"

"Felix got arrested. We need to go to Vancouver."

She rears back ever so slightly-this wasn't what she was expecting. We both know her bother has stayed out of trouble since having kids. They seemed to soothe some of that reckless abandon in him. That ferocity.

But now I'm the one who pushed him too far.

"For what? And why the hell was he in Vancouver?"

She pushes up onto her knees, gathering the sheet higher, almost wrapping it around herself, reading my face-my body.