Page 52 of The Usual Family Mayhem

When he lifted his head... nope. Not yet. I drew him back in. I wasn’t ready to stop or to move on or, worse, to pretend the kiss didn’t matter. I put every ounce of the affection, arousal, and need I’d stored up over the years into the kiss. I kissed him like I’d never be allowed to do it again and wanted the memory to last.

When we broke apart a second time, he rested his forehead against mine. Heavy breathing filled the air between us.

“Wow.”

He wasn’t wrong. “Yeah.”

“That was...”

“Yeah.” I couldn’t seem to come up with another word.

“I didn’t mean to—”

“Nope.”Oh, no. Not so soon after what was unquestionably the best kiss of my life. “If you’re about to say you’re sorry for kissing me I’m going to smash those cupcakes before you can eat them.”

He smiled. “That’s a serious threat. It sounds like you mean business.”

I waited for my usual awkward rambling to start. For the regret to settle in. Both seemed to be tardy because all I felt was the need to kiss him again.

He glanced at the lights and the darkness outside the structure. “I really like this gazebo.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. The bizarre and untimely turn in our relationship amounted to a lapse in judgment—his—but I ignored the doubts and focused on his comment. He really could be adorable.

“Apparently I’m going to kiss you in this very place every ten years.” Or, you know, again in three minutes.

“I know you wanted to talk about what to say to Mags and Celia.”

It took me a second to catch up to the topic change. “Originally. Sure.”

When he stood there, holding me, I began to panic. He really was going to say something very Jackson-like and annoy the crap out of me. Then I would smash those innocent cupcakes because I had no choice.

“This was better.”

He said...wait, what did he say?His thumb gently brushed across my stomach. How in the world was I supposed to concentrate when he did that?

“You mean the kiss was better than talking?” I asked, trying to keep up with all the unnecessary chatter.

That smile of his grew wider. “Yes, Kasey. The kiss.”

My entire world flipped upside down. Things I thought I knew, the crush I tried to kill with fire. Nothing made sense.

Now what?

I looked up at the house and saw the light in the kitchen and thought about the ladies yelling at the television. My hands slipped down his arms. My brain sent a message to my legs to step back but my legs ignored the desperate order.

I inhaled because I wasn’t sure I’d actually breathed since we entered the gazebo. “Maybe we should take a minute.”

His smile dimmed a bit. “Is that what you want?”

Hell no. “There’s a lot happening.”

“True.”

“Our emotions are all over the place.” Mine were scattered to Alabama and back.

I ended the babbling by resting my head on his shoulder. I could smell him. Feel him. A woman could only take so much before she caved to her bad judgment.

He rubbed my back, soft and reassuring. Sweet, even.

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