Page 38 of The Scent of Happiness

“You said your nose tells you things. How do you base your decisions on something so fleeting? If you can’t hold onto it, how do you know it’s real?”

“I don’t have to hold onto it,” Brooke said. “I get a gut feeling and I act.”

“What’s your gut telling you now?” Theo moved closer to her. Closer yet, until their legs were touching and his face filled her field of vision. “Mine is telling me something I can’t quite believe.”

“What is it telling you?” She could barely get the words out. How could she think when she had this persistent flutter in her chest? A pleasurable shiver traveled from her belly to points lower. She wanted nothing more than to bring her lips to his, to see what he tasted like. She arched her back and leaned toward him, gazing into eyes that looked like brown sugar and toffee and everything good in the world.

Theo’s lips hovered inches from hers. “My gut, my intuition, whatever you want to call it. It’s telling me I should kiss you. Should I?”

“Yes.” Brooke couldn’t stand it a minute longer. She cupped his jaw with her hands and moved toward him.

And bumped his nose with hers.

“Oops.” She giggled uncomfortably and backed off. No, no, no. I’m ruining this moment.

She inhaled sharply and tried again. She slowly, carefully, tilted her head one way. Theo tilted his the other. His arms slid around her. She closed her eyes and moved toward him.

Their tentative care lasted only a moment, because as soon as their lips met, Brooke felt like her whole body was on fire, melting and merging into him. He must have felt the same because he pulled her closer and deepened the kiss, parting her lips and moving his tongue in ways that set her head spinning.

One hand was in her hair, the other moved across her shoulder and down her back while his tongue teased and tasted. She tasted him in turn, not caring that they were in public, not caring if anyone saw. They’d lost their minds and Brooke didn’t care one bit.

When they finally broke apart, they put their foreheads together and caught their breath. Brooke’s glasses were getting steamed up, but what did that matter? All she wanted to do was inhale great gulps of Theo. “Wow,” she whispered.

“Yeah. Wow,” Theo said. “Brooke, I don’t think we—”

The alarm on Brooke’s phone blared into the silence. She swore and scrambled into the bottom of her bag and dragged it out, then groaned when she looked at the screen. Dinner at Mom and Dad’s. She’d completely forgotten.

“What is it?” Theo asked.

She stood. “I was supposed to be home for dinner. My parents—their store is closed on Mondays and Mom likes to cook. I said I’d eat with them today.”

“If you have to go—”

“I can skip it. I…” Brooke took one step away from the bench where Theo was still sitting, and then back again. She brought both hands to her cheeks, finally processing what had happened. I kissed my lawyer. There were rules about that, right? She didn’t know what they were, but there were definitely rules about that.

Theo’s arms were slack at his sides and he stared at his upturned palms as if there were answers there. He got to his feet. “I’ll uh…I’ll walk you to your car.”

“No…I don’t have a car. I came by bus. But I don’t—” Her thoughts were all over the place. I kissed my lawyer. I kissed Theo Chambers. I kissed the hottest man in Cannondale. She shouldn’t have done it, but if he put his arms around her right now she would kiss him again. And again. One bit of encouragement and she’d be all over him.

She couldn’t do that. She needed to walk away right now. She needed to somehow forget that she and Theo had shared a toe-tingling kiss. “I’m sorry, Theo. We shouldn’t have…we should have talked about sports or politics instead.”

“Or law?” Theo asked. He’d crossed his arms and was rubbing them up and down as if he was cold, even though it was eighty degrees in here.

“Can we pretend that never happened? That’s what we should do, isn’t it?”

Theo’s head bobbed in a jerking motion. “Yes.”

She needed to go home. She needed to sit at her parents’ kitchen table and let her mother pile food on her plate while her dad made bad puns. She needed to dodge their questions and act like everything was normal.

She flicked through apps on her phone. “The bus takes too long. I’ll get a Lyft.”

“Nonsense,” Theo said. His expression was unreadable. “I’ll drive you.”

Chapter Twelve

Awkward silence infused the car as Theo drove Brooke home. It was an easy ten-minute drive on side streets, but it seemed to take forever. He kept checking his speedometer, sure he was driving too slowly. Shouldn’t they be there by now?

What am I doing? That thought pounded in his skull and made his stomach churn. Bad enough that he’d kissed Brooke. Even worse that he wanted to do it again. Over and over. Everything Stephen had told him this afternoon had seemed theoretical. But now he understood. Stephen had given him the precedent and made the case.