It’s intentional.
It’s our feelings laid out in front of us. There’s no hiding from them, or purposely choosing to not talk about them.
It’s a big freaking deal.
In an effort to appear like I’m not anxious as all hell, I meander into the kitchen and grab a cheese stick from the fridge while I wait for Graham to walk through the front door. I’m hungry, but I don’t want to eat too much because I’m sure part of our date includes dinner. Graham has a whole night planned that he hasn’t shared with me, and I’m going out of my mind with wonder. Normally, I don’t like surprises, but it’s kind of fun going into this not knowing anything.
When the front door opens, my gaze darts in that direction, and my breath catches. I was in the shower when they left, so I didn’t get to see what he was wearing, and wow… Graham cleans up nice. The lilac, short-sleeve, knit, button-down Polo compliments his tan skin and his tattoos, and he’s got on a pair of white Chinos that I don’t think I’ve ever seen him wear before. They come to right above his ankles and fit like they were made for him and him alone. With a beautiful bouquet of sunflowers in hand, Graham’s face lights up as our eyes meet across the house.
A smile spreads across my face, my cheeks heating, as he runs his gaze over the length of my body. “Hey,” I murmur softly.
“Hey, Sunny.” My stomach flutters as he approaches, and when I catch a whiff of his cologne, and he presses a kiss to my lips, my heart nearly bursts out of my chest. Giving me another shameless once-over, his mouth ticks up on one side as he adds, “My god, look at you… You’re beautiful.”
“Thank you. You’re looking pretty good yourself.” I smirk. “Pretty flowers you got there,” I murmur, tipping my chin toward the flowers in his hand.
Holding them up, Graham says, “Pretty flowers for a pretty girl.”
The flush in my cheeks spreads to my ears and down my neck as the butterflies in my stomach double in size. “What’s the plan for tonight?”
A smirk curves his lips as he hooks his arm around my waist, pulling me into him. “You’ll see,” he drawls. “Ready to go?”
I nod, nearly bouncing on my toes. “Yeah, let me grab my things.”
“Mini putt, huh?”I drawl as we make our way onto the nine-hole miniature golf course. “So, what you’re saying is, you want to get your ass kicked by me tonight?”
Graham chuckles, turning his head to meet my gaze. “Don’t you mean I will be kickingyourass?”
“Ha! We’ll see about that.” Playfully shoving him on the arm, I add, “I was the putt-putt queen in college, and twenty-seven weeks pregnant or not, I’ve still got it.”
“Alright, Sunny.”
I wrinkle my nose and bite back a smile as we walk through the building toward our first hole. “This place is cool. I didn’t even know this was here.”
“Yeah, it just opened last month, I think.”
When Graham drove us here, I had no idea what to expect. It’s located right outside of town, and I’m not too familiar with anything in this area. It’s all indoors, which is nice, consideringplaying mini golf in the hot South Carolina heat while nearly in my third trimester sounds terrible. There’s music playing, the whole place lit with black lights, and there are tons of animatronic monsters all over the place. It’s cooler than any mini putt I’ve been to before.
Graham takes the first shot, and I can tell he thinks he’s got it in the bag based on the smirk he flashes me before I go.
“Oh, would you look at that,” I drawl. “Mine just got alittttlecloser now, didn’t it?”
“Beginner’s luck,” he replies, a twitch to the corner of his mouth.
“Mmhmm, right. We’ll go with that.”
It’s a Saturday night, and it doesn’t take long for the place to get packed. We make our way around the course, and the score is close the whole time, but I’m pretty sure I’ve got it in the bag.
“Damn, how did I not know you were so competitive?” Graham asks with a laugh about three quarters of the way through.
“Well, probably because we’ve never really played any games together.”
“That’s wild to think about,” he murmurs, glancing over at me. “That we’ve known each other as long as we have, yet we’ve never done something as simple as play a board game or go bowling.”
“Okay, well, you’d probably beat me in bowling, easily.” I giggle before taking the next shot at our next hole.
Graham snorts. “Do you remember when my parents were on a bowling league when we were kids?”
Chuckling, I nod. “Yes, and I’d come along with y’all to the alley every weekend. Your sisters and I would spend every last bit of our allowances on those sticker machines and candy from the vending machine while you spent the entire time in the arcade.”
