AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We do?” she asks with a mouthful of pineapple.
“Mm, hmm. We are going to Central Park and hit a wine bar I got a tip about.”
“Oh, that sounds wonderful.” She digs into her breakfast, and so do I. The steak and eggs leave me glad we have so much walking planned for the day. When we dress for our excursion, however, I’m enticed to skip it. I sneak a pinch of her perfect ass while she dresses and receive a playful smack for my troubles. “Watch those fingers, mister.”
I smirk at her. “Couldn’t be helped. Your ass is too adorable.”
She giggles, and we head out for the day. Holding hands like a pair of teenagers, we enter Central Park. We wander around the Hallett Nature Sanctuary for a while—being four acres, it’s a shady and relatively quiet place to relax. Though it’s early for the leaves to turn, some of them have already yellowed, and when Autumn stands in front of them, it’s like she’s glowing.
She always glows.
I don’t know how I got so lucky twice in my life. I’d thought Stacy was my one true love, the only person I was destined to be with for the rest of our lives. When she died, I thought that was the end of love for me, and I was destined to be alone forever. But seeing Autumn glow, I realize the wholeone true lovething isn’t real at all. Love is too powerful to be limited like that.
“You’re staring,” she says with a smile.
I walk up to her and kiss her forehead. “You glow. I couldn’t stop myself if I had tried.”
“You are the sweetest man.”
“Oh, I don’t know about all that. I booked a carriage ride for later, but only for me, so you’ll have to hang out and wait for us to get back.”
She snorts a laugh and rolls her eyes. “Yes, well, I hope you and the horse are very happy with each other.”
“I don’t know if we ever could be. Whenever I talk about our future, all she ever says is, ‘neigh.’”
Autumn laughs hard and loud, without inhibition. I love that about her. When she takes my hand and leads me to the Gapstow Bridge for the view, I learn something new about her. Every turn, every sight, it’s all fascinating for Autumn. Of course, her camera is out every once in a while—can’t pry it out of her sightseeing hands. But I don’t mind until she asks me to pose with some trees.
I’ve gotten used to the random posing requests. Mostly. I’ve always hated having my picture taken. Not sure why. Autumn swears she’s just using me for scale, but I suspect she just wants to make me do things I don’t like doing. Or she wants pictures of me. I’m not sure which.
She passes it off to a stranger to take our picture, and to my shock, they don’t run off with her extremely expensive camera. They politely take our photo on the bridge, then pass it back to her. I smile, still surprised she did that. “I can’t believe you trusted him.”
“I could outrun that guy. No problem,” she says confidently.
I grin. “Yeah, you could have. And what would you have done once you caught him?”
She thinks for a beat. “Pounced on him and waited for you to catch up to us to beat the crap out of him.”
I laugh. “Oh, so I’m in on it too? I didn’t sign up for that.”
“Yes, you did. The moment you decided we were a thing.”
“You got me there. Alright, I’m officially up for anything except what might get me arrested. My children will thank you.”
“Okay, that’s fair. Only marginally illegal plans from now on.”
“Marginally?”
She smirks. “Maybe just a teensy assault charge?”
But I shake my head.
“Or possibly,” she steps closer and pulls me down to her ear, “another public indecency charge like you had at Disney?”
I laugh. “Um—
“Relax. Not here.” She lets me stand up. “And not at Disney. But I’ll have to figure out a way for us to outdo that adventure.”
“Times Square, as the ball drops?”
