Page 89 of Marry Me Forever

She snorted. “Ruth.”

My lips twitched. “Ruth?”

“Hey, it was after my great-grandmother. If my dad would’ve had his way, it would’ve been my first name.”

“Then everyone would’ve called you Baby Ruth.”

She stuck out her tongue. “You’re so much meaner than everyone says.”

I chuckled. “Like you wouldn’t tease me about my middle name, which is Hank.”

“Was that a family name, too?”

I raised an eyebrow. “You’re not going to tease me?”

“Hanky Panky comes to mind, but that’s too easy. I’ll have to think on it.”

Squeezing her side, I replied, “You do that. But no, both my first and middle names are taken from famous baseball players—Nolan Ryan and Hank Aaron.”

“But wasn’t Nolan Ryan’s first name Lynn? You could’ve been Lynn Hank Wolfe, and that would’ve sucked for you.”

“And how do you know that factoid about my namesake?”

Katie shrugged. “I was into baseball when I was little, mostly so I could try to figure out how to beat my brother on the Fourth of July. He’s so much older, and I needed every advantage I could muster for the annual family game.”

I imagined Katie as a child, studying baseball games and looking for tips on how to win. I kissed her nose. “You’re adorable.”

“Not sure anyone’s ever said that about me before.”

“Well, you are to me.”

“Hmph. Well, seeing as I’m so adorable, will you finally tell me where we’re going?”

She batted her eyes.

I laughed. “You might want to save that move for when you really need it, because it might just work on me.”

After lightly swatting my chest, she asked, “Where are we going, Nolan?”

“South.”

“That’s not very helpful. I mean, an entire continent is south.”

“It’s a surprise. And I thought you liked surprises?”

“I’m starting to reconsider that when it comes to you.”

I kissed her gently. “I’m not going to budge. Since we have hours and hours until we get there, what do you want to do? I brought cards. Or…”

I stroked her cheek with my thumb before trailing it to her bottom lip.

Her breath hitched. “Or, what?”

“We could join the mile high club.”

I grinned, and she laughed. “There’s the flight attendant and the pilots. They’ll hear us.”

“Oh, they’ll leave us alone unless I call. And I doubt they’ll hear anything. The pilots are behind a door, and Drew will no doubt be working on his latest screenplay attempt.”

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