Page 22 of Starry Night Kisses

And I’ve discovered that I have one hell of a sweet tooth.

Evie

I can’t get enough of Eric’s mouth on mine.

When this man kisses me, I swear it’s not for the purpose of rubbing our lips together because that’s what you do in intimate situations. It’s as though he’s literally trying to consume my body and soul so that he can savor them, even when we aren’t kissing.

Even though the sun began its descent a while ago, and we’ve started cooking dinner, all I can think of islater—when we finally get to go to bed and do other things.

If this man’s kisses are this good, I can’t imagine what it will be like when we finally have sex.

You’re turning into a bonafide horndog, Evie.

“What’s got you all dreamy-eyed over there?” Eric asks with a smirk as he prepares Archer’s dinner—a mix of ground meat and vegetables and powdered vitamins that he makes himself every week.

“Nothing,” I reply sheepishly, looking at Bagel happily chowing down his bowl of kibble. It’s high-quality and expensive, but it makes me feel like perhaps I should start looking into preparing his food from scratch as well, even if he gets real food as snacks.

I return to chopping peppers for our stir-fry. Iwasn’t expecting gourmet meals this weekend. Growing up, camping with my parents always consisted of hot dogs one night and the fish my dad would catch the next—anything to keep it simple and easy to clean up.

Eric, however, has an entire cooktop set up over the fire, complete with a large pot and a cast iron skillet because‘he really enjoys cooking.’

Unwillingly, and I mean that word with every fiber of my being, my thoughts stray to Jonathan and how he fed me because being a caregiver was like second nature to him. I reach for my necklace, tipping my head back to gaze at the sky as the day bleeds into night and the stars begin to dot the heavens like specks of glitter.

“Is that necklace important to you?” Eric asks as he gives Archer his food before washing his hands at the station he brought. “You play with it a lot. Especially when you go wherever it is you go to in that beautiful head of yours.”

“Do you believe in magic?” I ask as I hand over my cutting board of veggies.

Eric grabs a bowl from his portable refrigerator. I wasn’t kidding when I said he brought enough gadgets to stock a kitchen. All we need is four walls and a roof, and we’ve got a house.

As he removes the plastic wrap from a bowl of marinated chicken, he cocks his head to the side. “Like magician magic?”

“No.” I shake my head with a laugh. “Like… I don’t know… Miracles? I guess?” I’ve told no one about my weekend at Sutton Lake or the things that happened afterward. No one knows about Jonathan and how we came together for one beautiful weekend, only for him to disappear from my life until I saw him a year later with the family he’d once told me had died in a car accident.

A skeptic would say he lied and played me for a fool.

But other things happened when I returned to that cabin, which suggested that although I might have been going crazy, no one was out to trick me. The entire town couldn’t have been in on it.

“I think you’remymiracle,” Eric says sweetly, planting a soft kiss on my lips as he heads toward the fire pit.

“I’m being serious.” I sit at the picnic table, leaning down to scratch behind Bagel’s ears before he runs off to find his shark toy in the tent Eric set up for the dogs. It has a giant fluffy dog bed and numerous toys we both brought. Archer also heads into the tent, having finished inhaling his dinner, and grabs an elk antler to chew on before flopping down next to my pup.

“I am, too,” he laughs. “Okay, but in all seriousness. I’m not really sure that I do believe inmagic. I believe that things happen for a reason, but the world can be a pretty shit place. It’s why I like to come out to the woods.” He gestures around us. “Out here, it feels like none of the bad stuff can touch you.”

“Have you experienced something you can’texplain, though? Like something that couldn’t be possiblewithoutmagic?” I press.

He’s going to think you’re a nutjob. Just drop it, Evie.

But I don’t want to drop it. I want to tell Eric everything.Beforewe go any further.

What’s the worst that can happen? He’ll think I’m crazy and won’t believe a word of it.

“I can’t say that I have.” He stirs the chicken in the skillet and peers up at me. “Have you?”

“You asked if my necklace was important to me. It is. But the story behind it is kind of… unbelievable. I’ve never told anyone about it.” My eyes begin to sting, and a low whine turns my head to see Bagel staring at me from his place in the tent, like he always does when I think about Jonathan too hard.

“Well, I’m all ears. I’d love to hear about it. That is, if you’d like to tell me,” Eric says gently.

“I think…that I’d really like to be able to tell someone finally.” Bagel pads out of the tent and hops onto the bench beside me, nudging beneath my arms until he’s snuggled in my lap.

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