“No!” My answer is loud enough to make him squint in surprise. If I’m not careful, he’ll figure out what’s going on. I definitely wasn’t working a shift at The Book Bar this morning like I told him I was. Kiara and I both got jobs there after graduation. But I wasn’t on the clock today.
Clearing my throat, I shift around in the passenger seat. “I’ve been looking forward to this all week. You know Book Bar dates are my favorite.”
“I thought nights in were your favorite. We could read together just as well from my bed.” His crooked smile makes my skin tingle with warmth, and the hand he runs up my thigh almost has me agreeing with him.
“We can’t just stay in bed all the time.”
“Says who?” He leans across the console and trails slow, sultry kisses along my jaw and down my neck. “And why would we have to stay in bed? There’re lots of places we still haven’t christened in my apartment.”
It’s becoming harder to focus, but I have to keep us on track. There are people waiting for us. I have to convince him not to abandon the plan for the evening. Maybe we can just take a brief detour.
I slide my hand up his arm and into his hair. Head massages are his kryptonite. His rumbling moan vibrates against the soft skin of my neck. “We could christen the car instead. Maybe cross something else off that romance book bucket list?”
“Hmmm, I like that idea.” He slides his seat back as far as it’ll go, and I climb over the console into his lap.
His mischievous smile slips into another familiar expression. Tender. Gentle. His eyes shine as they meet mine. “I love you, Hazel Berton.”
“I love you, too, Cosmos Romero.” We’ve said these exact words so many times, but it still feels like magic.
I move closer, slipping my fingers between us to undo the button on his jeans, taking control. “Don’t look away.”
“Never.”
With time frozen around us, we kiss, reveling in each other for a moment before taking things further. Holding eye contact is more comfortable now than it used to be. He’s my safe place, and I never want to look away.
We’ve never figured out why we can stop time, or why it didn’t work when Mom died. Cosmos thinks whatever force gave us these abilities took them away as a gift. We needed that time without magic in order to know that this is real. He likes thinking we’re fated and the whole thing was just some test to prove it.
Personally, I don’t like feeling played with by some all-powerful force. I think it didn’t work when Mom died, because nothing worked. I closed myself off from everything. Even when Cosmos and I first met, and I was keeping him at arm’s length, I was still open to the idea, the possibility of something. I had my walls up, but they were cracked.
That changed when Mom collapsed. I locked myself in a steel safe and swallowed the key. I think that affected the magic. It was only once I let hope back in and opened myself to the world around me that our ability returned.
It doesn’t really matter, though. Maybe it’ll stop working again tomorrow. Maybe it’ll last the rest of our lives. In the meantime, we’re going to get the most out of it while we can.
An eternity and a minute later, we walk into The Book Bar holding hands, ready for our reading date.
“Surprise!” a chorus of voices yell.
Cosmos stops dead in his tracks, mouth dropping open. He looks around with an expression of utter awe. His mom and sisters are here, standing next to Kiara and Sullivan—who are joined at the hip these days. Aunt Joan and her family came down, too. They’ve practically adopted Cosmos and me. Aunt Joan’s boys worship the ground Cosmos walks on. All of Cosmos’ closest friends from the hospital are here, and his best friend from college even flew in from out of state.
He turns back to me, grinning like a schoolboy. “You did all this?”
I lift onto my toes and kiss him. “Happy birthday, love. This is just the beginning.”
He knows I’m not just talking about the party.
“Uncle Cosmos, open my gift first!” Riley shoves a bright blue bag in his hands before we’ve even made it all the way into the room. I’ve never seen her so excited. She’s bouncing from foot to foot and watching him with zero patience.
“Okay, pipsqueak, give me a minute to say hello to everyone.”
“You might want to open it now,” Julia says, placing a calming hand on Riley’s shoulder. “She’s been fixating on it all week.”
Cosmos removes the tissue paper and pulls out a little black frame with a poem inside. A haiku, written in a child’s messy handwriting.
You, my favorite
A smile that makes me shout out
The best uncle, yay!
