Page 149 of Just One More Thing

Garlic goes in next.

Then parmesan.

The smell fills the whole kitchen almost immediately.

At one point, without even thinking about it, she opens the cabinet beside the stove and grabs the bowls.

Doesn’t hesitate. Just reaches automatically like she does this every day.

It shouldn’t hit me the way it does. It’s bowls. That’s all. But watching her move around my kitchen like she belongs there rattles me enough I have to look down at the shrimp and pretend they suddenly need my full attention.

“You okay over there?” she asks.

“Fine.”

“You’re staring at the shrimp like it insulted you.”

“It knows what it did.”

She laughs and squeezes past me to grab the salt. Her hip brushes mine. Enough to make my entire body take notice.

I catch the salt pig before she can and hold it out. “Here.” Our fingers brush. She looks up. I look down.

Then she dips a spoon into the Alfredo sauce and holds it toward me. “Taste.”

I lean down and take it from the spoon.

Her eyes stay on mine while I swallow. “How is it?” she asks.

“Good.”

“Just good?”

I shake my head once. “Better.” I take the spoon from her hand, dip it back into the sauce, then hold it out toward her.

She watches me for a second before leaning in and wrapping her mouth around the spoon.

Her eyes lift to mine slowly.

I set the spoon down on the counter.

My hand slides to her waist. Then the other.

I pull her closer until there’s barely any space left between us, and for one quiet second, with my mouth hovering above hers, I just look at her. The softness around her eyes. The way she’s looking back at me.

“Jake,” she says softly.

I kiss her slowly first. Just the brush of my mouth against hers. Then again.

Her fingers curl lightly into my shirt, and that little bit of pressure sends heat straight through me.

Because slow isn’t enough for either of us anymore, I deepen the kiss, one hand steady at her waist while the other braces against the counter beside her.

She makes the softest sound against my mouth.

Fuck.

I kiss her like I’ve got nowhere else to be for the rest of my life.