Page 132 of Be Your Anything
And then, we’re facing each other. Just a foot apart.
She steps forward so we’re even closer and twists her hand into mine so our fingers are looped together.
“Hey,” she says, her voice soft, her eyes glued to mine.
“Hi.”
God, she’s beautiful. And she’s here.
She’shere.
“So this is the part where I apologize in front of everyone,” I say, “and beg for you to forgive me.”
She shakes her head. “I thought about this a lot the other night after you left,” she says, squeezing my hand. “And I realized I’ve already forgiven you. It was a shitty situation, and I don’t doubt you’d do it differently if given another chance.” She lifts my hand to her mouth and kisses the back. “Or, I guess, notanotherchance, but afirstchance, because we never really got that, did we?”
I lift my other hand and put it on her cheek, my eyes flitting over her hair, her nose, her handful of freckles, her lips. “No, we never got that.”
She smiles at me. “This is the part when you kiss me.”
My mouth breaks into a wide grin. “You mean, the part when I make sure everyone here knows who you belong to?”
She bites her lip and gives a little nod.
“You sure you’re ready for that?”
Her grin grows. “Absolutely.”
And then I press my lips to hers.
A cheer goes up in the crowd, but it fades into the background. All I can focus on is Lennon, on the feel of her lips against mine, her skin beneath my hands, the smell of her perfume mixed with sunscreen.
Her mouth opens and our tongues twist together, just a little hint, a little flavor of the delicious taste of her.
When I pull back, we can’t stop grinning at each other. I know if she’s feeling half as giddy as I am, neither of us will be able to stop smiling like idiots until we get back to her place and the smiles only slip away when replaced by gasps and moans of pleasure.
“You ready to do this together?” she asks.
I laugh. “Well, I hope so, since I took out a full-page ad and begged you to come here to meet me and now we’ve made out in front of everyone.”
“Atwo-page ad,” she corrects.
“Oh, excuse me. Sorry.”
We grin at each other some more, and then I tug her closer and wrap my arms around her, pulling her in for a hug.
“I’m so glad you came,” I whisper into her ear. “God, I was so afraid you weren’t going to.”
She squeezes my biceps, presses her face snuggly against my chest. Then she pulls back and looks up into my face.
“What would you have done if I didn’t show up today?”
“Oh, jeez. I would have sulked home and licked my wounds, read all the horrible things people would have to say about me online.” I pause, stroking my thumb along her cheek. “And then I would have planned what was next.”
“Really?” she whispers.
I nod. “Really. The only reason I would have stopped trying was if you told me to, and you didn’t. If that meant publicly humiliating myself a few more times, I would have.”
She beams at me and I narrow my eyes.
