“It wouldn’t be a mistake to kiss me.”
My heart rams into my ribs. “It wouldn’t?”
“No. In fact, I think we should kiss because I could use the practice.”
“Annie, practicing dating is one thing but—”
“I want to change our original terms too.” She shifts on her feet, and her eyes continue to flit back and forth between my eyes and my mouth. “This whole thing started off with me wanting to get good at dating, but…the more time I spend with you, the more I feel something coming to life inside me. Something I can’t quite pinpoint but I don’t want to lose either. You make me feel different, and I like it. I feel free with you—adventurous and curious.”
She pauses and I don’t dare say anything. I need to hear where this is going without inserting any ideas of my own.
“So I was wondering if you’d be the someone to help me practice taking risks with, doing new things, and…maybe finding who I am now?”
“Be your all-encompassing practice someone?” I ask, letting my thumb drag against her bottom lip.
“If it’s not too much to ask,” she says in a quiet whisper.
“And tonight…you want to practice kissing?”
Her chest fills with a heavy breath and she nods. “I haven’t done it in a few years. I need to shake out the cobwebs. See if I’m any good at it.”
This news is astounding to me.
Even as I’m wrapping my arm around her and splaying my hand against her lower back to pull her up close to me, I ask, “No one has kissed you in years, Annie? How is that possible?” I’ve wanted to kiss her every second since I met her.
I feel her tremble against me. “Maybe there’s something wrong with me. No one ever tries. Even my college boyfriend broke up with me after three weeks without ever really touching me. I think my reputation makes people think I don’t like this stuff.”
“There’s nothing wrong with you.” I push back the hair that’s falling around her face and do what I’ve been dying to do for days—sink my fingers into the mass of blonde hair behind her head. I bend down and whisper against the corner of her mouth, “Nothing.”
“I might be bad at this,” she warns with her eyes wide open, watching me as I tease the corners of her mouth.
“I’m prepared.” And then just as I’m about to finally close the gap, an idea hits me and I pull away. She looks disappointed, like she thinks I’m changing my mind. No damn way. “In light of what happened at the restaurant, I think we should have a clear cue for when we’re in practice mode. So there’s no confusion.”
She looks relieved. “Good idea. Like…time in and time out?”
I hum. “Perfect.”
The tension between us is crackling, and I can tell she wants me to rush this and kiss her already, but the truth is, I love drawing it out. I love taking my time and torturing us both. And if Annie hasn’t been kissed in years, I want to make this one really count.
I sink my face down to her throat and lay one soft kiss at the base. Her breath catches and I move to kiss under her jaw, opening my mouth to feel her warm skin against my tongue. She shivers, and I smile, moving up to kiss the corner of her jaw and then her mouth. The moment her warm, plush lips press into mine, my world tilts. Any finesse or control I feel dissolves, and suddenly I am at her mercy.
Her body sways toward mine, and even though I’m not taking it further than a press of our lips, it feels outrageously good. I slide my hand a little deeper into the back of her hair and force myself to keep this light despite a frantic need building below the surface.
I only intended for it to be quick. A luxurious kiss on the mouth to make her body heat. But damn. Her lips respond to mine as she rises up to wrap her hands around my neck and my blood thrums under my skin. My fingers curl into her hair and the back of her sweatshirt until I’m unconsciously pulling her flush against me. She’s so damn soft, and as I slant the kiss, I can’t help but taste her mouth just once, letting my tongue glide lightly across her bottom lip.
Annie sighs a moan and parts her lips and that’s when I drop my hands under her thighs and hoist her up. She wraps her legs around my waist and our kiss quickly turns from chaste to devouring. I’m carrying her to the storage room, head swirling like I’ve had four shots of tequila and savoring every sigh, every flick of her tongue, every intentional press of her mouth. And as I adjust to walk through the doorframe, my shoulder knocks against it and shocks me back to reality. What the hell am I doing? I can’t take Annie in there. This was only supposed to be a kiss. I want so much more than a kiss from her, though, and that’s why I break the kiss and slowly lower her to the ground. She doesn’t protest, seeming to agree with my thoughts.
“Time out,” I say, when I release her and pace away a few steps, rubbing the back of my neck, trying to settle my body and clear my head.
Get a grip, Will. It was just a kiss. Just practice.
“Was that okay?” Annie asks, self-consciously, and the very question is as absurd to me as the fact that she feels any reason to doubt her skill.
With my hand still hooked around my neck, I look over at her knowing she can plainly see on my face how absolutely wrecked I am by that kiss. I give her one scoffing laugh. “Yeah. It was great.”
Annie turns away a fraction and smiles to herself, and then does something so open, so honest it tears my cynical, terrified heart in half. She rests the tips of her fingers against her smiling mouth.
Before she has time to notice, I pull out my phone and snap a picture of her standing there in the warm overhead lights of her shop.
“Out of curiosity,” I ask later as she’s locking up and I’m walking her to her truck. “What is your favorite flower?”
She drops her gaze to her white Converses and smiles. “Magnolias.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Annie
I park my truck right next to my siblings’ trucks in the town’s communal parking lot. It’s a rainbow of burnt orange (Noah’s rusty old truck), powder-blue and white (mine), red and black (Emily’s), and olive-green (Madison’s). It’s an unwritten rule in this town that if you share our zip code, you must drive a truck. Doesn’t matter if it’s new or an old dinosaur, you’ve just gotta have one.
As I walk toward The Pie Shop, where I’m meeting my siblings for our weekly Saturday night hearts tournament, everything feels so familiar and comforting. The hot summer night licking at my skin, the darkened town square empty of busybodies, and avoiding the same large sidewalk crack that’s been there for a decade.