He took his time. Savoring. Lingering.
His lips took my bottom one between his, sucking it gently before brushing his tongue against mine again.
I really, really loved the way he kissed my top lip before doing it all over again.
Zac kissed and kissed like he had all day. Like there was nothing else he would rather do either, and he gave my tongue a little suck as he held my face in those tremendous, outstanding palms. Warm, firm lips teased the corners of my mouth and chin before taking mine once more.
He loved me, and if he hadn’t already basically said the words, I would have been able to tell.
Because no one had ever kissed me like this before, and I had a feeling no one else ever would.
No, it wasn’t a feeling. It was knowledge. He was my past, but he was going to be my future too.
Zac hummed deep in his throat, the sound soothing and so pleased. His lips grazed the edge of my chin as he murmured, almost drowsy, “Mmm, darlin’. You’re gonna be the damn end of me; I can already tell.”
I pulled back a little and smiled up at him, licking my lips because, yeah, I could kiss him all day. He was good at it. Great at it.
But I wasn’t going to tell him that.
“Yeah, I think we need a little more practice first,” I told him instead.
His chuckle made me smile against his warm, wonderful mouth. “Yeah? You think so?”
I nodded, leaning forward to kiss his chin, loving the feel of the bristles of his facial hair on my lips and the way his thigh felt under my hand. “Practice makes extra perfect.”
He booped me on the nose. “Extra perfect sounds like fun.”
I took him in then as his face hovered so close, his hand stroking my shoulder all the way down to my arm.
“Are we good for now?” he asked.
“For now?”
“Yeah, we still gotta talk about a couple other things.”
We did?
“And I wanna show you somethin’.”
I made my eyes go wide. “I want to see it, but okay, perv.”
Zac burst out laughing. “I wasn’t talkin’ about that… but that too.”
I snorted, and he laughed.
“You’re comin’ to the game, right?”
“Yes.”
“And you’ll let me show you somethin’ after?”
I held my breath and nodded before leaning toward him and brushing my lips over his one more time. Because I could. Because he wanted me to. And if I had doubted it, the low moan in his throat and the hand he used to cup the back of my head would have confirmed it for me.
So I told him, “Yes.”
His lips took mine once more, and then he whispered, “Good.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“What in God’s name is on your face?”
I fully turned around and smiled up at Trev in the stands behind us, seated at the end of the row that Ms. Travis and Paw-Paw were in.
I’d already given Paw-Paw and Ms. Travis a hug. Boogie had texted me when he’d been on his way with them, and I’d headed up to wait for their arrival, before leading the way back down the steps in front to try and break Paw-Paw’s fall if he happened to lose his balance.
The older man had laughed nice and deep when he’d realized it was me standing there to greet them.
Raising both hands, I twirled the fake blue mustache that Connie had glued to my upper lip right before we’d left her house. “I don’t know, but I like it,” I told Trevor.
The man sighed and took in my sister when she turned around. Her whole face was covered with blue paint—instead of red like mine—and she had a killer white mustache that curled at the ends halfway across her cheeks. I’d called it an old prospector mustache. Her husband, Richard, on the other hand, had a white face with a red mustache. We were triplets. It was only Boogie, who was sitting in our row, who didn’t have anything on his face. He was wearing a TRAVIS jersey though, tucked into his perfectly pressed jeans. Connie and I had giggled at him, and he’d given us the middle finger.
Trevor shook his head and might have even rolled his eyes, but it just made me grin. I could tell by then that it wasn’t an ugly eye-rolling. It was his “I guess I can put up with you” eye roll.
Basically, he really, really liked it.
Connie whacked me in the arm then, and I turned to glance toward Boogie, who I hadn’t really gotten a chance to talk to since the night before when we’d last seen each other. We’d only managed a hug when I’d met up with him by the concession stands because I’d gotten too busy talking to Paw-Paw. He was staring forward, and I nudged him with my elbow. “Boog?”
Was he thinking about Zac and me?
My cousin nudged me right back with his elbow. “I’m good,” he answered, still facing forward, like he knew exactly what I was wondering.
“Are you sure?” I whispered so that my sister, hopefully, couldn’t hear. I wasn’t sure what I would do if he said he wasn’t fine, but… I could only hope that he hadn’t been lying last night.
I’d gone over the pieces of the conversation that he and Zac had had, at least the parts that managed to sink in, and it had kept me up for a few hours once we’d gotten back to Connie’s. Boogie had seemed fine after I’d gone back into the bowling alley once Zac left, but I hadn’t wanted to push his buttons more than we potentially might have already. My mouth had
