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“I still can’t believe you bid that much on my lifetime coffee card,” I say as Garrett and I walk back from the fundraiser.
He bid twenty-five thousand dollars for a card he won’t even be in town to use that often.
“I figure if I’m a card-carrying member of your coffee club, then you have to be nice to me when I come into the café from now on,” he states.
“No. The terms of the card are, you get one free coffee drink and pastry per day. It makes no promises for service with a smile,” I tease.
He laughs.
As we round the corner, passing town hall, he halts mid-step.
“What are we doing?”
He grabs my hand and pulls me to the sidewalk that leads up to the door, and then he stops in front of the impression in the pavement. The town redid the front of the hall when we were in high school, and one night after a bonfire, we snuck up onto the wet cement and sat down, leaving a permanent stamp of our backsides.
“Those are our asses. Forever cemented beside each other at town hall. If that doesn’t say fate, I don’t know what does,” he tells me.
“It says idiots—that’s what it says,” I disagree.
“That was a fun night. Admit it.”
I shrug.
“We were young and wild.”
“We’re still young,” I say as we continue on to Market Square. “And one of us is still wild, but seriously, thank you for being such a good sport tonight. I know it wasn’t exactly the date night you had in mind, but the library means a lot to the community, and gregarious auction bids aside, your mere presence helped to raise an enormous amount of money tonight.”
“It was my pleasure. I love this town as much as anyone. Besides, there is one thing you can do to show me your appreciation,” he says as we approach the front of the café.
I narrow my eyes at him.
He lifts his hands in the air. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Miss Humphries. I just want a do-over date. You owe me that much,” he proposes.
I take my key from my clutch and unlock the door. Then, I turn back to him.
One minute, I’m about to answer him, and the next, he has me backed against the door.
“Garrett,” I warn.
He brings his face to mine and circles my nose with his. “Yes?”
“I have to go inside,” I whisper.
“I know.”
He doesn’t budge an inch as he lays his forehead against mine. His hands move from the small of my back and slide down my hips.
“Did I tell you how amazing you look in this dress?” he asks.
I shake my head.
“I swear, I didn’t think you could be any more beautiful than you were back in high school, but I was wrong. You’re a fucking stunning woman, Ansley.”
I can feel my heartbeat start to race, and the knot in my stomach grows tight.
When he leans in to kiss me, I don’t turn away, as I did with Kevin. I hold my breath until his lips touch mine, and I melt into his arms.
This kiss is different than the one we shared in my closet the other night. This one is soft and sweet and somehow much scarier than the passionate one. One of his hands comes up to caress my cheek, and I drop my purse to the ground and clutch the sides of his blazer.
Garrett pulls back, and still holding my face, he places a peck on my nose and steps back.
“Tomorrow?” he asks again.
“Okay,” I answer without thinking, my mind still whirling from the kiss.
He grins. Then, he reaches down and retrieves my bag and hands it to me.
“Now, go inside before I strip that sexy little dress off and ravage you,” he commands.
“Okay,” I say again, clenching my bag to my chest. I grab the door handle, pull the door open, and slide inside.
I turn the dead bolt while he watches me. When he hears the click of the lock, he waves, and then he trots off to his Land Rover.
I remove my heels and climb the stairs to my apartment on shaky legs.
I take out my phone to see several missed calls from Erin.
Dialing her number and hitting speaker, I toss the phone on the bed and remove my dress.
“How’d it go?” she answers sleepily.
