Dinner finished cooking just as dusk settled outside. We plated everything, but neither of us moved to the table.
The kids wouldn’t be back for hours, so we stayed in the kitchen, eating pasta from oversized bowls. She only took a few bites, claiming she’d eaten while I was napping upstairs.
“This is nice,” I admitted quietly.
Winnie glanced toward me over her wineglass. “It is.”
Evening deepened beyond the windows, and spring rain had started, pattering faintly against the windows.
Winnie reached for the wine bottle beside me at the same moment I moved for it. Our hands bumped. Then stayed there.
Neither of us pulled away.
I looked down at her fingers beneath mine. For one absurd second, my brain imagined us together many years into the future. Then I dismissed that, because it was insane.
Winnie looked up slowly.
And there it was again. That feeling. That unbearable awareness pulling tighter and tighter between us every day.
She didn’t move away. Neither did I.
My pulse thudded heavily in my throat. “You know,” I said quietly, “I’ve been trying very hard not to do something stupid.”
Her gaze flicked to my mouth. “That makes two of us.”
That was all it took.
I kissed her.
That thing that had been building between us for weeks stopped pretending to be something else. Her lips were cool, even softer than I expected, and then suddenly she was kissing me back with enough feeling to make my head spin harder than the migraine had.
My hand moved instinctively to her waist.
A small sound escaped her as she stepped closer, her lips parting against mine. Her taste… Intoxicating. Red wine and herbs and something sweet underneath.
Everything inside me tightened.
God.
I kissed her again, deeper this time, and she gripped the front of my shirt tight enough to wrinkle the fabric.
The kitchen disappeared.
The rain disappeared.
There was only her.
Then reality crashed back in all at once. Winnie pulled back first. Barely, only enough for air. We both stared at each other, breathing harder than either of us probably should’ve been from one kiss.
Her cheeks were flushed, pupils blown wide. I had never seen anyone look at me the way Winnie was looking at me.
Like she wanted something badly enough to fear it.
“Oh,” I said stupidly.
Winnie laughed breathlessly once.
“Yes,” she whispered.
