Page 42 of As Long As You Kiss Me

“Oh, yeah? Your tons of girlfriends preferred you without ice cream on your face?” Sully asked.

“I can’t answer that because they don’t exist. You’re the only one around. You seem like you prefer me that way.”

“I can reapply your ice cream makeup if that’s what you want.” She waved her cone around like she was offering it up.

“Hmm. I think I’ll pass this time.”

“Are you sure? I hear it’s amazing for your skin. I should start a side business. Ice cream skin care. I could make a killing.”

“That’s a good way to get your dog to lick your ‘makeup’ off your face,” Jackson said.

“Dogs like to lick faces anyway. They don’t need ice cream as an incentive.” Sully had licked down to her cone, and she took a bit of it.

“Do you lick faces too?” Jackson asked.

“Only when provoked.”

“What about when you’re making out with someone?”

She smiled at him. “I don’t think I’m willing to talk about that in the middle of my workplace.”

She had a good point. They’d already made a spectacle of themselves. But he hadn’t had this much fun in a long time. Sully was so easy to joke around with. He’d taken life much too seriously since he’d gotten out of the military. Before his injury, he had been quite the jokester, always play pranks on people. But then his life came crashing down around him, and he forgot to include humor. Sully was bringing that side of him back. She was changing his life.

After all he’d been through, that was a miracle. For the first time in a long time, he felt happy and carefree. He couldn’t fully let go of his past, but it was getting easier to forget for a few moments the terrors of the battlefield. It was a mercy he hadn’t counted on.

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