Already, I was feeling the pressure building inside me, longing for that sweet release. And yet, almost by silent agreement, our rhythm began to slow. We stopped kissing, and our hands grew motionless as we gazed into each other's eyes.
What I saw in his would've taken my breath away, if only I weren't so breathless already.
And then, as we tipped over the edge of oblivion, my body convulsed and so did his. I savored the sound of him and the feel of him as his body became a rigid mass of pure granite, before, he too, found his full release.
Afterward, we held each other for a long moment until our pulses slowed and our breathing returned to something like normal.
We were still lying side-by-side, and I pressed my forehead to his. With my sweetest smile, I said, "Hi, I'm Mina Lipinski, and I'd like to buy you a coffee."
Chase was silent for a long moment before a slow grin spread across his face. And then, all of a sudden, he grabbed me tight and rolled me over onto my back, with him on top of me.
"Forget the coffee," he teased. "You know what I want?"
"What?"
He winked. "The girl who offered it."
At this, I couldn't help but laugh, especially when I considered that he didn't have to want, because he already had me.
And I had him.
Talk about lucky.
And I had a good feeling about us, too. Correction – a great feeling, which only got better as the days turned to weeks, and the weeks turned to months.
Almost before I knew it, a whole year had passed, and there we were, repeating history in a different way.
Chapter 78
Mina
One Year Later
It was the first night of the Tomato Festival, and Chase and I were walking hand-in-hand down the festival midway.
As we waded our way through the crowd, I looked to him and said, "Can you believe it's a been a whole year?"
He smiled. "A year since when?"
I gave him a playful bump to the hip. "You know when."
With a long, amused glance, he said, "So, you mean the whole 'I love you' thing?"
I almost rolled my eyes. For someone who'd taken a long while to confess his feelings, Chase had made up for it and then some by telling me those three magical words at least once a day, and often multiple times a day, during the past year.
And what a year it had been.
After the amazing success of last year's festival campaign, Blast Tools – or should I say Chase Blastoviak – had decided to make it an annual thing and expand it to other regions of the country.
Blast Tools had even created a brand-new job position – director of festival outreach.
They'd filled this position almost immediately with someone who had a real passion for the project. And that person's name?
Mina Lipinski.
But you knew that already, didn't you?
And yet, you might be surprised to hear that it took me a little while to accept the offer – not because I wasn't eager for such a great opportunity, but rather because I was sleeping with the boss, and didn't want any special favors.
But then, I'd been informed by all three brothers that there was nobody else they wanted for the job, because there was nobody on Earth who cared for the endeavor as much as I did.
They were definitely right about that.
In the end, I'd signed on the dotted line and considered myself beyond lucky, especially when Chase pulled me close, right there in Mason's office, and whispered into my ear, "It's a good thing you signed, because you're not going anywhere."
He was right about that.
Thanks to the incredible job offer, I no longer had to move away to have a career that used my degree. On top of that, I was actually being paid to support something near and dear to my heart.
In spite of my new job, I was still living with my parents and chipping in with expenses whenever they let me, which wasn't nearly often enough, even if they did seem happier than ever with the arrangement.
Maybe I should have gotten my own place, but the truth was, I was gone so often that it really didn't matter where I was technically living.
In spite of the address on my driver's license, I was spending most of my nights with the guy I loved – a guy who made me laugh, made me smile, and now, made me want to elbow him in the ribs, when he looked at me and said, "But I'm still pissed about the sunroof thing."
It had been an ongoing joke ever since I'd confessed to Chase that during our argument in the car, I'd deliberately taunted him with the noise from my own defective sunroof.
Immature?
Probably.
But hey, a girl couldn’t be sweet all the time, could she?
These days, the sunroof wasn't a factor, because the Malibu was long gone, replaced by a cute little sports car – a gift from Chase for my most-recent birthday.
When I'd objected to such an extravagant gift, he'd claimed it was for his own benefit, not mine, because he refused to be further traumatized by my sunroof.
Yeah, right.
It would take a lot more than that to traumatize a guy like Chase Blastoviak. And besides, he was the one who usually drove us whenever we went someplace.
Still, I couldn't resist teasing him. "But you're forgetting, it was the sunroof that brought us together."
"How so?"
"Well, you remember the first time you drove me home, right?"
"Yeah?'
"Well, you wouldn’t have done that if the sunroof had opened like I wanted." I paused for dramatic effect. "Which means we never would have gotten together in the first place."
"Forget that," he said. "I would've fallen for you, anyway."
It was just what I wanted to hear, because I felt exactly the same way.
