Now, I’m ready for it.
Holden squeezes my waist lightly. “What’re you thinking about?”
I smile before kissing him one more time, quick and easy.
“Us,” I say simply. “And how damn happy I am that you asked me on that date.”
He smiles slow and warm. “We can never remind Hattie of her role in this.”
I snort. “Ever.” I kiss him. “Love you.”
He doesn’t say it back, but he doesn’t need to.
I take his hand and turn toward the lake. “Come on.”
28
HOLDEN
Two weeks after the campout, Korie is standing in my kitchen arguing passionately with my refrigerator.
“I’m telling you,” they say, pointing accusingly at the produce drawer, “we absolutely need more strawberries.”
“We bought strawberries yesterday.”
“And?”
“And there are still strawberries.”
Korie shuts the drawer dramatically. “Holden. Be serious. That’s barely enough strawberries for two people.”
I look up slowly from where I’m chopping vegetables at the counter.
Two people.
Damn, they can be oblivious to how easily they knock my world off its axis sometimes.
Korie keeps talking. “And we’re out of yogurt again, so I think we should pick up our groceries tonight before the rush hits.”
Ourgroceries.
Jesus Christ.
I bite back a grin before they can see it.
Don’t make it weird.
Donotmake it weird.
Because if I point it out, they’ll realize what they said and immediately combust from embarrassment.
Nope. It’s too tempting. The red-faced Korie is too good to resist.
I wipe my hands on a towel and lean against the counter. “Our groceries, huh?”
They freeze for exactly half a second, then recover suspiciously fast.
“Well, yeah,” they say casually. Too casually. “You eat all the yogurt like a criminal. It’s always gone at my place too.”
