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“Baseball?”
“No … Wisconsin. This city. Your home.”
He looked briefly surprised by the question, and she wondered if anyone from New York had ever seen this side of him, the small-town boy.
“I love coming back,” he said finally. “There’s always that moment when the plane descends and I see that familiar landscape, and the warmth I get when I pull into my parents driveway and see my family for the first time in months. But it’s not home. Not anymore.”
“But New York is?”
He hesitated. “For now.”
“You have plans to leave the city?” She kept her voice light even as her heart felt heavy at the thought of New York with no Jake Malone. It seemed wrong somehow.
Jake’s head turned so that he was looking at her. “I didn’t bring you here to talk, you know.”
“Am I not as good a conversationalist as Hannah Tanner?”
“Oh, you’re a better conversationalist, all right. I seem to remember her being overly fond of the phrase ‘Oh, totally!’ But let me tell you … Hannah Tanner knew a thing or two about kissing.”
“Did she now?”
His eyes were on her lips. “Mmm-hmm.”
“Well, where is this stellar kisser now?”
“Twice married, once divorced. Three kids. Lives on the outskirts of town. Still says ‘Oh, totally’ from what I’m told.”
“However did you let her get away?”
“Guess I was destined to kiss someone else.”
“Or someones else,” she said, trying to keep it light. “Do you keep a rating system written down in your underwear drawer?”
He tapped his temple. “All up here. It’s like a kissing vault.”
“I see. And where do I rank?”
Grace 2.0 rolled her eyes.
Jake scrunched up his face as though trying to place her. “You know, I remember it being pretty damn good, but—”
“You really want to but a woman who can destroy your entire reputation with a few carefully chosen words on a blog?”
He grinned. “But our kissing encounters have been few and far between. I really can’t properly evaluate you without more research.”
“More research.”
“Yup.”
“And what do I get out of this so-called research?”
Jake’s teeth flashed, white in the dark night. “Come over here and find out.”
Grace knew what he was doing. He was putting the ball in her court. Putting the decision in her hands. If she wanted him, she’d have to go to him.
So she did.
He didn’t move, not when she leaned across the middle console, not when she shifted so she was sitting on one leg to get better leverage. Not even when she pressed her mouth to his, tasting him.
