Page 46 of Falling for Autumn Again

I don’t even have to exit my car because Autumn’s waiting for me on her front porch step. She leaps from the swing she’s sitting on and runs out to my car.

She opens the passenger side door and my blaring music hits her. “Hey!” she says, a little breathless from her run. “What’s this?” she calls above the loud rock music.

“‘Heaven’s On Fire’,” I tell her. “By KISS.”

“KISS?”

“Yeah, they’re a band from the ’70s. Do you know them?”

She laughs like I’m telling her a joke and reaches over for my volume knob, turning down the music making my car vibrate. “No. How in the world did you hear of them?”

Google. That’s how.

“Jack Barns,” I lie. Jack’s in my government class and he’s never told me a thing about any band—and yet his is the first name that comes to mind.

“Huh.” She tilts her head to the side, looking thoughtful. “Interesting. They aren’t bad.”

I’m taking that as one point for kissing.

“You hungry?”

“Starved.” Autumn is always hungry. It’s the one thing you can count on. Which is going to help me out tonight.

“I’ve got gummy lips.” I pass over the bag of gummy candy shaped like red kissing lips. “And chocolate kisses.”

“No Cool Ranch Doritos?”

Okay—one pointagainstkissing. Cool Ranch Doritos are the anti-kissing food. Everyone knows that.

“Nope. No Doritos. Sorry.”

“That’s okay, I’ll get some at the game,” she says, popping one of the gummy lips into her mouth.

I turn into the school parking lot and play one more kissing card. “Hey, I bought you a new ChapStick. I know you like cherry.”With one hand on the wheel, I hold the cherry ChapStick out to her.

“Thanks, Ezra.” She takes the ChapStick and pops off the top, smearing the red wax onto her full pink lips. “You’re the best.”

Yes. One point for kissing.

I pinch my fingers and bring them to my lips, kissing them, then holding them outward. Okay… one last Hail Mary pass.

She chuckles. “What’s that?”

“You know? Chef’s kiss?”

She snorts. “My cherry ChapStick is chef’s kiss?”

I lift my brows once, watching my pass slip through the receiver’s fingers and fall to the wayside. “Sure.”

She snickers again but pops the top off and runs the balm over her lips one more time. Lucky ChapStick.

I find a parking space in the back lot of our high school, in the very back row. We’ll be walking a mile, but we should make the kickoff.

Autumn steps outside into the brisk evening fall air and leans against the odd door on my old Honda.

“You ready?” I ask, pausing before I start our trek.

She tosses one of the silver-wrapped kisses into the air and I catch it. She doesn’t move from her lean against my vehicle, and I stride four steps forward until I’m standing in front of her.

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