Page 72 of While We Waited

He smirks. “I know.”

I bat my eyelashes at him. “Don’t you want to tell me?”

He chuckles. “Nope.”

“I still win since you laughed.”

“My nutty sunshine.”

My heart warms every time he uses his nickname for me – Sunshine. I love how he thinks of me as his sunshine. But I’m not going to tell him as much. I’m not ready for the intimacy such a confession will bring.

“Sunshine can’t be nutty.”

He kisses my nose. “My sunshine can and is nutty.”

I smile up at him.

“There she is,” he mutters before melding his lips to mine.

I clutch his shoulders as he devours my mouth. Hudson doesn’t play around when he kisses. He goes straight from sweet to panty-melting hot. When he growls and rips his mouth from mine, I mewl.

“Why are you stopping?”

“I want to strip you naked.”

“Yes,” I breathe out.

“We’re in a parking lot, you need to get to work, and I just explained why I want to wait to have sex.”

The long haul. Right. I nearly forgot.

And I’m a big fat liar. I didn’t forget. I’m shoving those scary thoughts away. All scary thoughts shall henceforth be put in a jar marked ‘do not open’ and promptly forgotten.

He kisses my nose. “I’ll pick you up at six.”

“And then we’ll go…”

He chuckles. “Nice try. It’s a surprise.”

He herds me toward the door. When I reach it, I turn around to wave. He’s standing in front of his truck waiting forme to get inside. As if anything would happen to me in the parking lot of my brewery. Silly, overprotective man who’s way too sexy for my own good.

I enter the brewery humming a song.

“Good. You’re finished kissing Hudson. We can get started,” Paisley says from where she’s standing behind the bar.

Sophia, Chloe, and Maya are sitting on barstools in front of her. I join them.

“Ugh. I can’t believe you’re making me haul myself onto a barstool when I’m pregnant.”

Maya hurries to help me. “Once you’re seated, you’ll be fine.”

Sophia shakes her head. “I never expected you to be the first one of us to get pregnant.”

“Who did you think it would be?”

She points to Maya. “Ms. Romantic.”

Maya’s cheeks darken and I frown. “Leave Maya alone.”

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