I set the vase on the coffee table, the midday sun draping the blooms in bright light, and turned to smile up at him. “They’re beautiful.”
“They smell like you.”
I breathed in a slow breath through my nose. “My shampoo and conditioner.”
“I love it.”
Don’t do it, girl.
“Thanks.” I went to slip my phone in my pocket, only to remember the dress I was wearing didn’t have any. Gesturing toward the door behind him, I said, “Let’s go get the wedding flowers.”
“Do...you have anything planned for the rest of the day?” He blinked twice in quick succession. I’d never seen him this nervous and it was making me a little nervous too.
“Just the rehearsal dinner.”
“So, you can sneak away with me for a couple of hours?”
My logical self was doing a fantastic job not over thinking, but my emotional self was not doing a great job not over feeling. “Why?”
He brushed his fingers across his lips. “I’d just . . . like to . . . be alone with you, for a while if . . . that’s okay.”
“Sure.” It was more than I would allow myself to fantasize about, and also very much not okay.
“Good.” The shy twitch of his lips was doing unfortunate things to me. “You look beautiful.”
“Thank you,” I mumbled down at my toes.
“I remember that dress.”
It might have been a bad idea, but I looked up at him through my eyelashes. “You do?”
“You wore it one of the last hot days—late summer early fall—and the sun went down, and I knew you’d be cold walking back to your place, so I got us an Uber.”
“I remember that. I was so confused because it was just a couple of blocks.”
“I didn’t want you to be cold.”
I hesitated for just a moment before taking the couple of steps between us to wrap my arms around him and rest my cheek on his chest. He pulled me even tighter, hugging me back. I closed my eyes and for a dangerous moment, I let myself live in the dream. That he could be mine. That he could love me the way I so desperately wanted him to.
He hooked his finger under my chin to press the sweetest kiss to my lips—like sugar on my tongue, it carried me on a high that would easily melt and leave me crashing.
***
“So that’s why your glowing,” I said, a smile so big it filled my whole face. The sun overhead might have been too hot if not for the breeze off the ocean.
Jamison had taken me for tacos at a food truck parked at the edge of town. Just as the concierge had promised him, it was possibly the best taco I’d ever had. From inside of the truck, Latin pop music played, and the smell of spices wafted in the wind. Everything about this place was perfect, including the creaky plastic chairs facing the incredible view of endless blue water and sky.
“I don’t know what they had in that cream, but my skin has never felt this good.” He wiped the corner of his mouth with a paper napkin and spoke around a bite. With a silly shrug he added, “I’m a spa head now.”
Snorting, I shook my head. “I don’t think that’s an actual phrase.”
“This iswho I am, Sadie. You have to accept me this way.”
“Turns out you’re a man of expensive pleasure, and amazing skin.”
He held his arms out wide. “This is me.”
“You’re so brave.”
