Page 17 of Forever Foolish

He gave her a shy smile, starting up the truck before pulling out of the parking lot on base. She wasn’t sure how long they drove or even where they were until she realized they were facing the ocean in the distance, and the sunlight was edging down in the clouds. The truck was in a gravel parking lot near the beach, and he turned off the vehicle, nodding at her.

“Where are we?”

“One of my places where I love to go,” he admitted. “When I feel lost or need to think, I like to come here and just sit. It gives me a chance to shut out everything and the space I need to relax.”

“Do you want to get out and walk around?”

“It’s up to you.”

“You just come here and sit quietly?”

“Sometimes you can see the whales off in the distance or dolphins…” he began, looking a little nervous. It wasn’t that she was judging him. She just assumed that they were going to go somewhere like a restaurant or dancing. “Here, we can go walk along the beach and…”

“If we stay here, could you hold me?”

“I would love to,” he breathed, looking relieved. “But I wasn’t planning on staying too long. I wanted to show you something else.”

“Oh.”

“Are you disappointed?”

“No. I just thought maybe we could, you know, snuggle?”she began unbuckling her seatbelt not bothering to wait for him. No, she was done with missing her chances and finally alone with the man she adored. Looking at him sideways, she met his eyes and practically crawled across the bench seat of the truck toward him… and smiled as J.J. backed up slightly, looking at her in surprise.

“What are you doing?”

“Coming to snuggle.”

“I think we have very real definitions of what ‘snuggling’ is.”

“Chloe,” he stammered. “There’s not really any privacy out here.”

“We’re just kissing,” she promised breathlessly. She looped a leg over his as she moved to sit in his lap. He looked torn – almost like he was thrilled at how forward she was yet panicking that this was too much, too fast. “We’ve been interrupted, delayed things, and missed so many chances. I don’t want to miss another chance, J.J.”

“I don’t either, but I just imagined something different.”

“Like what?”

“That I’d kiss you at the end of our first date or…”

“Tell me the ‘or’ so I don’t have to wait so long,” she invited in a husky voice, feeling like a siren beckoning a pirate from the safety of his ship into the waters below.

“Or I’d wait to kiss you when we got married… someday,” he added nervously. “Someday I think about getting married and…”

“Why, J.J., are you asking me to marry you?”

“We’re on our first date?!” he nearly strangled out as she leaned toward him, not willing to give in.

“If you won’t kiss me here because there’s not enough privacy for you, where would you like to kiss me?”

“Home,” he croaked, his voice breaking as her lipshovered over his. Her eyes looked up to meet his and saw the yearning in his gaze, making her heart turn over in her chest. “I made us something for dinner so we could be alone – and I really want us to be alone, Chloe. I’m sick of being interrupted or delaying things too, believe it or not.”

Both were breathing erratically – and she realized at that moment that he was right. He’d promised her a slow kiss, wanting to savor it, and just the way he’d talked about it, she knew it would be something that she would never forget.

“Then take me home…” she whispered softly, pulling herself from his lap and she heard his sigh of relief, causing her to glance back at him. Was he glad she’d moved? Maybe she was reading things wrong, and she was moving too quickly for him? Were all guys like this – or just him?

Without a word, J.J. started his truck. He didn’t meet her eyes as they drove away from the beach that she’d barely noticed. They didn’t speak as he drove through town, and Chloe was pretty proud of herself for recognizing the main turn-off to head toward the base as they continued. He drove for what felt like another ten minutes as the world around them thinned out, and a small village on the outskirts of Juneau appeared in the distance. He continued, passing a municipal airport, a diner, a coffee shop, and several other places and finally, he spoke, pointing at an inconspicuous building just up ahead.

“That’s the butcher shop.”

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