Page 41 of The Perfect Love

“And what about the rest of your future?”

He glances at me, then smiles. “I want a family. That’s something I’m sure I got from my dad. The desire to find love and raise a family. Not to bring up an ex, but I was comfortablebeing serious with Sarah at a young age because I knew I wanted those things. After the breakup, I let go of it all for a while, but recently… life made me refocus on that again. I want an overall happy life with a partner and kids, and I’m not the guy who wants to wait fifteen more years for that to happen if I can avoid it.”

“Cool. No pressure, then.”

He bumps his elbow against mine. “What about you?” Though his voice is smooth, that same vulnerability from earlier shimmers in his eyes.

“I was the little girl carrying around my dollies and pretending to be pregnant or have babies for as long as I can remember. Which is funny since my biological mother didn’t want any of those things. But for me? I’ve always wanted to be a mom. And if how much romance I read is any indication, I want to find love too.”

“Ah, right. I forgot. But how will anyone ever live up to the book boyfriend standard?”

He’s teasing me, but the truth is, he’s more than living up to those standards.

“I don’t know… maybe you should give a class or something. You’re doing a pretty good job so far. Must be all those fantasy romance books you’ve read.” I wiggle my eyebrows at him. He groans through a laugh, and I poke his cheek. “You’re cute when you pretend to be grumpy.”

“Who says I’m pretending?”

“Your smile.”

He flashes it at me, and for a second, it’s hard to breathe.

Tension swirls in and coils around us again, like it’s binding us together.

Or maybe that’s fate.

It seems like it’s been trying to tie us together all this time and we keep slipping out of its grasp. No more.

I squeeze his hand and lean in. “You know, you never answered me this morning. What are your intentions with me?”

He stops, tugging on my hand and pulling me closer as he looks into my eyes.

“To be worthy of being the man at your side, holding your hand through everything.”

Yep. Total book boyfriend material.

I push onto my toes and pop a kiss on his cheek. “I guess we’ll see what happens.”

“Does that mean you’re interested in going to our next stop?”

“Hm. Depends where it is.”

“Well, actually, you get to pick. I have two options for you.”

“And you don’t care?”

He shrugs, looking every bit the adorable puppy again.

“As long as we’re going together, I’m up for anything.”

I run my hand up his arm, looking into his captivating eyes. “What are my options?”

“There’s an apple orchard not far from here. They don’t have a ton of apples yet, but they have all the classic stuff. Hayride. Donuts. Cider. Option two is a longer drive. About forty-five minutes, but it’s a small chocolatier. They do tours and live demonstrations of how they make their truffles, and then—”

“Chocolate.”

He laughs. “Yeah?”

“When it’s a choice between anything else and chocolate, chocolate isalwaysthe answer.”

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