Page 133 of The Great Dating Fake Off
“Sounds like a plan to me.” I pull him closer by the scruff of his shirt and seal it with a kiss.
He leads me to our table. I arrange my flowers in the vase, setting the ambiance. “You’ve really outdone yourself.”
“You haven’t even seen the best part.” He plucks a white bag off one of the chairs.
My stomach growls with both hunger and fear. “Did we get first dibs on the official wedding dinner?”
God, I hope that lamb thing was a joke.
“Nah.” He unveils a giant Styrofoam bowl with a smudged Lou’s Tavern receipt, some to-go silverware, and a carton of mango Italian ice that is sweating to death. “I opted for the special girlfriend menu.”
I free his hands of the carton, launch myself into his arms, and pull his bottom lip into my mouth. In his arms, I’m exactly where I belong. “Great. Time to taste all my favorite things.”
Epilogue
I wake Nora with a kiss to her neck, curled up behind her in my bed. Her body stirs before she does, arching into me as a drowsy sleep-smile lifts her lips.Moonlight beaming in from the window bathes her skin in a silver glow.
It’s been five weeks since I’ve seen her, the longest stretch of time since my Nebraska contract started. We usually make it three max before I fly home or she flies to me. I’ve missed her down to my marrow.
She’s lived in Nella’s house this last month since her lease ended, waiting for my contract to end, too.
It finally, mercifully has.
I move to her shoulder, biting just hard enough to wake her, but not hard enough to make her cry out in that way I like.
Her eyes flutter open.
And then she jolts onto her back, terror flashing in her eyes.
“Shh. It’s just me, baby.”
She blinks fast and lays a hand on my cheek. “Seb?”
I cover her with my body weight. “Who else were you expecting to show up in my childhood bedroom?”
Her expression becomes progressively more alert until she’s smiling. “What are you doing here? I thought you wouldn’t get in until tomorrow afternoon!”
“I decided not to sleep at a hotel and drove straight through. I couldn’t be away from you another night.”
Her eyes soften. “I missed you so much.”
I try to hug her, but she fumbles toward the nightstand and puts two tiny Listerine strips on her tongue instead.
“Nora.” I shake my head, biting back a laugh. “I know what you taste like all hours of the day. We’ve been together for almost a year.”
She holds up a finger as she waits for them to dissolve.
“There.” She curls up beside me. “Minty fresh for our first real kiss in weeks.”
“You’re ridiculous.” I slant my mouth over hers. The tingling of mint spreads across my tongue as I reacquaint myself with her lips. As usual, the touch of her hand anywhere on my body reduces my thoughts to a string of single words.
Home. Mine. Love. Need.
I slip my hand down her side and into her shirt. “Finally, home for good.”
She breaks the kiss and glances down at her torso. “Wait. I didn’t prepare for this homecoming. These are my ugliest pajamas and even uglier underwear, and my hair is a tangled nest. I was going to spend tomorrow morning—”
“You are perfect as is.” I tug her shirt up and off, and then her bottoms. “There, ugly pajama problem solved.” I kiss her like we have all the time in the world, even while my hands roam like impatient beasts with minds of their own. They journey down the center line of her chest, across her stomach, up her ribs, sneaking behind her back to start a new circuit.
