Page 104 of The Opposite of Romance
“To us!” I say.
“To us,” she repeats, her voice barely above a whisper.
Her eyes close as she takes a sip of her cocktail. Placing it back down on the table, she clears her throat.
“This is amazing,” she says, and I feel my lips turning up.
“It was short notice.” I shrug.
“Don’t undersell yourself. This is the most thoughtful date I’ve ever been on.”
I exhale a relieved breath. “Good. Now dig in.”
We snack on the delicious foods while chatting and laughing.
“Have you been enjoying the deck now that it’s done?” I ask, popping a grape into my mouth.
“Oh, we have. Well, the kids have. It was kind of hard for meto be outside without you being there.” Her eyes drop to the side as if she’s embarrassed to admit it.
“Yeah? You missed me?”
“I did.” She glances at me, sheepishly, her long lashes fluttering.
“I tried to stall for as long as I could but there was really nothing else to be done. And summer was already here.” I shrug, but her face scrunches in confusion.
“What do you mean?”
Shit, here it goes.I scratch my head before answering, “It’s possible that the deck could have been done sooner, but I might have prolonged the process to spend more time with you.”
She shakes her head as if trying to clear it. “So, what, you pretended to work so you could stay longer?”
“Something like that, yeah.” Acid builds in my stomach, expecting her to tell me to go to hell.
But she huffs a laugh, almost choking on her spit. “I thought you were overworking yourself because of me. I felt guilty, day in, day out, because you were wasting the days in my backyard. You’re really telling me you were just stalling to stay close to me?”
I dip my head. “I was afraid that when my work was done, you’d tell me we were done, too.”
“What gave you that crazy idea?” She deadpans and this time, my laughter joins hers.
It’s exactly what happened. I finished the deck, and she decided we were done. Luckily, she had a change of mind.
Our laughter settles, and she’s the one to speak first. “Sorry for being scared.”
“You never have to apologize for it.”
“Ok. Then thank you for being brave.”
“Brave? I was scared shitless. I’m just happy it worked out.” I huff, and her face transforms into a smile.
She looks so fucking cute I don’t resist inching forward and brushing my mouth over hers. She hums as our lips connect. My tongue darts out, tasting the bitterness of the tequila and thesweetness of the orange liqueur. This might be my favorite cocktail now, too. I deepen the kiss, but she gently pushes me away.
“Do you want kids?” she blurts out. Her teeth bite into her lower lip, red and swollen from my kisses.
I’m glad she asked. It’s probably bothering her, and it means she wants things to be serious between us. “I never really saw myself as having them, no.”
“Oh,” her mouth drops.
“But I never thought I would be back to manual labor, just because a cute girl asked me to build her a deck.” She throws a napkin at me playfully, making me grin. “If you’re asking me if I’d like to have babies of my own—no, that isn’t something that I’m interested in. But are there kids that I’m fond of and would like to spend more time with? Yes, I think there are.”
