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“Maybe you’ll get to find out…” I say with a wink.
“Maybe…”
The topics flow easily, and I discover nothing is off-limits with her. There’s a comfort that I’ve never experienced, and yet, I feel like I already know her. She’s completely honest, open, not hedging to see what I like before saying what she does, and that’s refreshing. I don’t want a carbon copy of me. I want someone who can decide for themselves what they want.
I slip some more candied bacon into the oven when we agree that two pieces are a ridiculous serving size and six are much more reasonable.
We have the same taste in music. Movies make us recite lines back and forth together. Then we come to past relationships. She’s had a few boyfriends, one longer term. I almost got engaged, but in the end, I realized it wasn’t forever. She said the same. It was mutual.
But Nicklin’s first kiss has me gobsmacked. Katie Burns.
Katie… Burns? Is Katie a guy’s name and I’ve never heard it?
“It was a dare on the playground in fifth grade. Turns out not so much a dare as a fantasy for Katie, who is married to Sibyl now and we’re still good friends to this day. But Danny Smythe caught up with me right after school and kissed me behind Mrs. Cyrus’s oak tree. The old lady came outside brandishing her cane and calling us all kinds of unfriendly names.”
“Your first kisses certainly were memorable.”
“They were that.”
We have the same travel list of places to see and experience. We want to try rock climbing, zip lining, and hiking trails. So much we have in common. I can’t help but feel like I won the jackpot without buying a ticket.
She takes another drink of her mimosa and giggles. “I’m on some meds, and I probably shouldn’t have more of this, good doctor, or I might want to kiss you.”
I lean over the corner of the table. “Promise?”
She follows suit. “Dare me?”
“Double dog.”
Her lips land on mine. My body does a mental fist pump. I just start to slide my hand behind her neck to keep the magic alive and angels sing, or no, they screech?
What’s that noise?
I lift my head from her pillow-soft lips, and my eyes widen at the realization. The smoke alarm goes off.
“Shit! I forgot about the bacon in the oven!”
I rocket myself out of my chair and rush into the kitchen. Smoke pools from the oven like mist rolling over the Blue Ridge Mountains. I grab the fire extinguisher in the pantry and spray the fire out quickly.
Nicklin follows on my heels, rockets all the kitchen windows open, and waves her arms around as if she can direct the smoke to follow her cues like an airline attendant.
She shivers in the chilly, February mountain air, and I wrap my arms around her and pull her into my body heat.
I whisper in her ear. “I’d love for you to stay, but if you want me to take you home, I will. I mean, smoke doesn’t really say romantic.”
Her body rocks against mine.
5
Nicklin
I bite my bottom lip and lean into him. “Riggs, I think you should know something. I had a really nasty car accident last year, and I’m still recovering. I haven’t had sex in alongtime.”
He pulls me in tighter and gazes into my eyes. “I’m sorry to hear that. Are you okay?”
I press my hands into his chest. “I’m getting there. Honestly, with you, I feel like I can forget the last year even happened. I get lost when I’m with you.”
“Wow, that’s kind of… poetic.”
