Page 21 of Loving Decker

Faith couldn’t believe what she was seeing and hearing from Decker Dawson. Was he taking things to the next level? Finally? Staring into his face, it certainly looked and felt like he was. He would have kissed her. She knew he would have. One good thing about the two of them was how easily she could read his mind. She wasn’t as good as Dylan, but pretty close.

“Do you want to help me finish the field?”

He squinted his eyes, looking in the direction of the good one-third of the pasture left, and then shrugged. “Sure!”

She laughed. “Excellent.” She turned back around to face the front and turned the key.

And then to her great pleasure, he wrapped his arms around her. “This is how I mow lawns now.”

“I can support this.” She leaned back into him. With her foot on the gas and a couple fingers directing the mower, not much was required for the task. Which was good since he was not letting her do much else besides pay careful attention to him.

He nuzzled the back of her neck, sending a shower of happy goosebumps down her arms. “I could get used to this. Maybe we should do all our chores together.”

“Like we used to.”

“Yeah, checking the fence line is one thing. This is way better.”

“Unless we rode the same horse.”

He pressed his lips to her skin. “Now that is the best idea you’ve had.”

She squealed and wiggled away. “Deck.”

“What?”

When she turned to him, his face was so boyish, so fun, so like his middle school self that she could only smile and wish he would do more of whatever he was doing.

Up and down, row after row, they played and laughed and teased and combined all those years of friendship with a new and addicting attraction that had Faith absolutely humming with awareness.

Could life be any better than these moments right then mowing her back pasture? She didn’t think so. And while she knew all the same problems waited for them both, nothing seemed to be quite as bad as it was before.

When they finished and she left the mower in the barn, he grabbed her hand. “I’ve always held your hand.”

She nodded, enjoying the familiar comfort.

“It means something different to me now.”

“I like that.” She turned to him. “All of this. I feel like I’m living in this wonderful dream and that if I fall asleep, it won’t be there when I wake.” She shrugged. Maybe it sounded crazy, but it was the truth.

“I’m not going anywhere. So don’t you be worrying about that. We have a lot of exploring to do right here between us.”

“Like is this really going to work?”

“I have a feeling it’s going to be the most perfect thing to ever happen to me.” His eyes, full of caring and sincerity, bore into her and testified of the truth of his words.

“Then I don’t think I could ever be happier than I am right now.”

His smile grew and he pressed his forehead to hers. “Then I hope to make you happier still.”

“What if we don’t get along?”

“Then we’ll work it out. We already know we can get along great.”

“What if I don’t like kissing you?” She choked on her laugh, the words flowing out in a spontaneous tease.

But the look he gave her was anything but teasing. “That, my Faithy Haws, will not happen.”

She swallowed. “What if we break up, and then we aren’t even friends?” That was the real worry she had, the only one.

---