Page 120 of Never Forever

“Feel it?” she asked, delighted. “Like peach fuzz. So gross!”

“Nothing gross about it,” I said.

“Hollywood would not agree with you.” She said it with a smile.

“I like seeing you smile,” I said, running my hand up her calf to her knee. My fingertips touched the inside of her thigh and I felt the jump of her muscles.

Sudden tension thrummed between us. Was I going to go higher? Was she going to stop me?

I still felt like this might be the solution to our problems. If I made her come with my fingers and laid her out in that grass and worshiped her with my mouth, maybe we’d get through some of this bullshit.

Or maybe…maybe we just needed to take it slowly.

I leaned forward and kissed her lips. An easy kiss. Ahow you doing?kiss. Adon’t freak outkiss.

Her breath huffed out of her and gusted across my lips. I smiled at her and sat back down on my chair.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her forehead wrinkled.

“Kissing you hello.”

“I don’t think-”

“I do think,” I said, cutting her off. “It was just a simple kiss hello. You’re made for kissing hello. It’s impossible not to, actually.” I shrugged. “I’m sorry, but it’s out of my hands.”

“So we’ve gone from putting our weapons down to hello kisses. That seems like a stretch.”

“We went from glaring at each other across crowded rooms to making a baby. Is it really that much of a stretch?”

She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. I took that as a win.

“How are you feeling today?” I asked her, opening the bags.

“Good. I’m just really sleepy.”

“Well, between the shoot and now the baby, I imagine your body wants a lot of rest.”

“Feels decadent. I’ve taken two naps today,” she said it like it was a scandal.

“Two? Who should we call? The police?”

“Hilarious.” She nudged me with her bare foot. The red toenail polish, mostly chipped off, was fascinating to me. I hadn’t seen this woman so undone in years. I wanted to keep peeling the armor off her. “What did you bring me?”

“Well, yesterday the fries and Caesar salad were a hit. So that’s in here.” I handed her one of the Styrofoam boxes. Her eyes sparkled but she looked at the other bags with serious interest. “But I remembered how much you liked the grilled cheese with tomatoes and got you one of those.”

“Oh, good job, Matt. Good job.” She immediately took that container from me, opened it and took a giant bite of half the sandwich. Then closed her eyes on an ecstatic groan. When she opened them again her eyes went straight for the last bag. “Is that for you?”

There was cheese hanging off her chin and her hair was all ragged around her flushed face. It took everything I had not to touch her.

“Nope. It’s still for you.” I pulled the last box out of the bag. “You know Lola is pregnant?”

“I had heard the rumor.”

“Well, apparently, she’s added something to the Pappas’ menu called The Pregnancy Platter.”

“Really?” Carrie was all perked up. She dropped that grilled cheese like it was garbage. “What’s in it?”

“Well, I can’t imagine it’s good. I told Lola after I read the description that I was getting it as a joke for my dad. But I didn’t know how anyone was going to find this delicious.”

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