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I shook my head.
“I thought it was pretty obvious, but if you don’t like me like that, then I get it. I’m just your brother’s best friend—or your best friend’s brother.” Emmett took his bottom lip between his teeth; he wasn’t the usual confident Emmett I had always known. It was my turn to surprise him.
My own confused look turned to a smile as I took my other hand to his cheek. “Em, you have never been just my brother’s best friend or best friend’s brother.”
He covered my hand with his own as his dimple appeared with his wide grin. God, I loved that dimple. I had tried for years to do things to always make him smile so it would appear. “Good, because I wanted to know if…”
He looked down at his feet nervously.
“If what, Em?”
His baby blues met mine again. “If you would be my girlfriend.”
My eyes grew big.Oh my God! Pinch me.I quickly felt a pinch and realized that I had actually said that aloud. I began to flush again but then giggled. “I didn’t mean to say that aloud.”
Forgetting we were in the middle of the ice rink, we were quickly brought back to reality when we heard my brother, Zach, skate up to us. “Will you just give him an answer already? Mom said we had to wait for you to get off the ice to eat cake!”
I quickly turned to my brother and gave him the death stare. “If you would leave, dummy, then yes, I would.” I turned back to Emmett as Zach skated off, rolling his eyes at us and flipping me the finger.
With both of my hands now in Emmett’s, I smiled at him and nodded. “Yes, Emmett Adam Hanks, I would love to be your girlfriend, although, I don’t really know what that means. I think this may have just become the best birthday ever.”
There it was—that dimple again. There was something in the way he was looking at me, as if I had just made him the happiest boy on the planet, maybe even the galaxy. That look ignited something in me that I didn’t know what it was just yet, but I couldn’t wait to find out.
“Well, for starters, I get to do this.” He put his hand behind my neck, pulled me closer to him, and kissed me gently on the lips.
“Wow! Yep, this is definitely the best birthday ever,” I managed to say as we broke apart. His grin went all the way to his eyes.
“Yeah, no kidding. I never thought my first kiss would be that…perfect.”
Wait, did he just say that I was his first kiss? I had dreamed of my first kiss for like, forever, and I had hoped one day it would be with Emmett Hanks, but I figured that was about as likely as getting kissed by Justin Timberlake. Hey, can’t a girl dream? But, he just admitted that I was his first kiss too.
Emmett looked up and began laughing. As I turned to see what was so funny, I saw my brother making kissy faces at us just before he lost his footing on his skates and fell on the ice. That made me laugh hard.
Emmett turned to me as he began to take the lead, skating me toward the exit. “Well, I guess we better get over there so you can make a birthday wish and he can feel better by shoving cake in his mouth.”
As everyone sang Happy Birthday to me, I tried to imagine a wish that was better than the reality that happened today. Emmett Hanks had asked me to be his girlfriend. Was I sure I wasn’t dreaming? Emmett leaned in to my ear and whispered, “Make a wish, beautiful.”
I looked over at him, smiled, and knew my wish was that we could have our happily ever after just like Cinderella and her Prince Charming. Closing my eyes, I made my wish and blew out my candle.
Chapter 1
Danielle
Emmett and I sit on the swing on my parents’ front porch with my feet in his lap, rocking back and forth. End of summer in Maryland is my favorite time of year. Yes, the weather can sometimes be temperamental, perfect one day, like today, the next super hot. But the leaves are getting ready to change, and there is a smell in the air that lets me know fall is just around the corner.
There is a light breeze passing by as Em runs his fingers over the dolphin anklet he gave me for my thirteenth birthday. It has a turquoise gemstone, my birthstone, in the center of the dolphin. It was that birthday that Emmett had given me my first kiss and changed my world.
I find myself lost in the memory of that day—the way my hand fit in his, the way his lips brushed against mine, and the look on his face as I opened his present. I’d started to cry because it was so beautiful, and knowing he had bought that prior to even asking me to be his girlfriend and admitting his feelings made my heart swell with emotion.
“Hey, beautiful, where were you just now?” Emmett runs his thumb over my anklet again and smiles at me. I’m not sure if the goosebumps covering my body are from his touch or from the breeze.
“I was just remembering when you gave me that anklet. That was the best day of my life.”
Em leans over to me just inches from my mouth and whispers, “Oh really? I thought the first time we…” He waggles his eyebrows at me. “…was the best night of your life.”
My cheeks heat at the thought of our first time together. Of course, my mind then goes to thinking of the last time we were together too. I love that after all this time, he can still make me blush.
I roll my eyes at him. “Yeah, that was all right,” I whisper back at him while closing the distance and placing a sweet kiss on his lips. Well, what started out as sweet soon turns passionate. I will never tire of Emmett Hanks’ kisses. I want to spend the rest of my life getting those kisses.
