“You done yet?” someone called from outside the curtain. “Belle is trying to steal my place in line.”
I broke away from the kiss, setting my forehead onto his as we laughed. “Someday, we’ll be able to kiss without being interrupted.”
“We have forever to practice,” he vowed.
He set me down as he said it, and I kept my hands gripped tight to his arms. “Do we?”
Tucker tucked my hair behind my ears and nodded. “Yeah.” He kissed me again, this one light and sweet and quick. “I hate feeling rushed because everyone is too excited about your photo book.”
“About that,” I drawled.
He smiled. “I may have passed out some flyers about it this morning to the people waiting for the fair to open.” From behind the easel, he produced a bright yellow sheet of paper. When he handed it to me, I saw his nerves.
It was simple. No fancy graphics or sleek fonts. The same information on the sign was in bold black letters in the middle. But along the bottom, was a new addition.
Be the first to own the debut photographic collection of Green Valley resident, Grace Buchanan. A stunning and insightful look into the southern way of life.
“I can’t believe you did this, you presumptuous little jerk,” I said with a smile. I couldn’t not smile. I went on tiptoe to kiss him again. “I love it.”
He exhaled heavily. “Good. I had a brief moment of insanity where I thought about trying to print a book, but I figured you’d want to do that.”
“Smart man,” I murmured. My eyes kept going back to all the prints on display. “I hope they like them.” Then my gaze stopped at the one in the middle. “All of them.”
He saw where I was looking and rubbed my back. “They will.”
“You didn’t have to put that one up too, you know. I would’ve accepted this as a pretty epic gesture without it.”
Tucker’s face was serious as he answered. “Yes, I did. Because if we’re showing people what life is like here, then that includes you,” he kissed me sweetly. “And me.”
“Okay,” I replied shakily.
“The truth is that until the day you showed up, I’d never taken a true risk in my entire life, Grace. No matter how unhappy I might have been, I couldn’t see a future that was worth risking what I did have, all those perfectly fine things. But falling in love with you,” he said, tracing the edge of my lips, “and being apart from you, I realized that nothing else comes close to deserving that word, the only thing that does is trying to imagine life without you.”
He lifted me easily as my mouth found his, though I could hardly kiss him around the wide smile on my lips. My legs went around his waist and I hooked my boots together.
“I love you, I love you, I love you,” I said in between breathless kisses.
His hands held me so tightly, one strong arm under my ass, the other across my back.
“I love you too,” he breathed against my mouth. He paused, and I pulled back to look at him. “Oh yeah, we need to have a little talk, Angry Girl.”
At the nickname, I smiled. “Am I in trouble?”
Tucker raised an eyebrow, but the deep brown of his eyes was happy. “Oh yeah. You’re going to tell me your version of this curse thing once the fair is done.”
My mouth fell open.
That’s when Maxine pulled the sheet back and smiled a cat-like smile at the way he was holding me. “If y’all don’t mind, we’ve got a line of people out here who want to see some pictures.”
Tucker gave me a questioning look, and I nodded. “Yeah, we’re coming.”
“Hopefully by tonight, at least,” he murmured. I burst out laughing as he set me down.
He was holding my hand tightly as we walked back toward the sound of chattering people. Then he stopped.
“What?” I asked.
“I forgot to ask, why’d you bring my Aunt Belle with you?”
I laughed. “Oh that.” I ran my hands up and down his forearm. “I paid her a visit yesterday, bribed her with a peach pie from Donner Bakery, and asked if she’d take my spot in the kissing booth.”
“That so? How come?”
I hummed. “Because the thought of kissing anyone but you from here on out sounds like a crime against the universe, if you ask me.”
He leaned down and nipped at my bottom lip, smug, male satisfaction rolling off of him in waves. “I like that answer, Pretty Girl.”
Maxine popped her head back in and sighed. “Good Lord Almighty, keep it in your pants, Haywood. I’ve got a stack of twenties out here and no one told me I’d be playing cashier.”
“For what?” I asked, pulling away from Tucker with a laugh.
Maxine rolled her eyes. “For you, young lady. Everyone wants the famous Green Valley photographer’s book. ‘Course they also just want to see if they’ll have their picture in it. Bunch of prima donnas.” She held up a crisp twenty-dollar bill. “But I’d like you to know that I preordered the very first copy. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.”
My smile was so wide, it felt like my cheeks would split right open.
Tucker wrapped an arm around my shoulder, laughing with me as we heard Maxine yell, “Oh calm your feathers, she’s comin’.”
He held my hand again, and we pulled down the curtains together.
Epilogue Grace
One Month Later
“Another one?” he asked.
I scrunched my nose. “Is there room?”
“We’ll make room.” Tucker leaned forward and kissed me, or as best he could with a giant box of books in between us. He shifted his grip on the cardboard as he backed away and went to add it to the stack in the guest bedroom of
