Page 82 of Tacos & Toboggans
“True. Good riddance. I hope they catch him, but I wouldn’t play it as cool if he were to push my girlfriend to the ground again.”
She gasped and grabbed the front of my shirt. “No, Major! Never fight someone with a knife! He could slice your hand and then your work would—” She paused and then blinked. “Wait. Girlfriend?”
The way she looked at me made my heart almost too big for my chest. I wondered if it would split open and let her see all the love for her that I carried. “Do you want to be my girlfriend? I shouldn’t use it without asking, but I’m finding it hard to describe our relationship when anyone asks about us.”
“Oh goodness, same,” she said, her shoulders falling forward with relief. “Boyfriend honestly sounds wrong to my ears, though.”
My heart, which was just too big for my chest, shrank to the size of a walnut. “Help me understand.”
“Boyfriend indicates a casual thing,” she said, waving her hands in the air. “Man, I suck at trying to walk the line between acceptable and clingy.”
“Just speak from your heart without trying to make it pretty. I’m listening.”
As she sat looking at me, I knew whatever she was about to say would either completely shatter me or render me speechless from overwhelming emotion. “Logically, I know this is a committed relationship now, right?” she asked, and I nodded. “That’s why it makes sense that we have to decide what to call each other when other people ask.” She shook her head. “I can’t do this. I can’t make it make sense. We’ll stick with boyfriend.”
The look she gave me revealed how uncomfortable and awkward the conversation made her feel. I didn’t want that. I stole her lips again and infused the kiss with love, offering a whisper of affection to fill her with an unspoken promise of togetherness no matter the title. When the kiss ended, I pulled back, and the soft lights of the Christmas tree cast a warm glow across her face, reminding me that she was my goddess and it was my job to make sure she felt secure in the love we shared, even if it was young and new.
“Soulmate,” she whispered, balancing her forehead against mine. “That’s what I want to call you, but I know I’d be laughed out of the diner if I did.”
Grasping her chin, I met her gaze. “My heart just exploded, baby doll. Always, always be honest with me.”
“You don’t believe we’re soulmates, do you? That’s like a silly thing people say but no one believes is real, so they smile as if they do while silently judging you.”
“Wrong,” I promised, taking another kiss from her lips. “It’s a very real thing. This town is filled with them. All those Christmas couples ascribed to the gazebo are less about the legend and more about the coming together of two people who were always meant to be. Maybe the gazebo played a role in their meeting or their courtship, but it was always going to be them, one way or the other.”
“I agree. Audrey and Alan were a Christmas couple, and look at them all these years later. It must be meant to be to stay together for fifty years.”
“Maybe that will be us fifty years from now,” I whispered with a smile. “I’d be ancient, but I’d still be a happy man to be holding your hand. I’ve changed my mind. I’m not going to call you my girlfriend.” Her eyes widened, and she tried to pull back, but I didn’t allow it. “When people ask, I’m going to say you’re my soulmate and hopefully one day, my wife.”
“Wife?” she whisper-asked.
“Would you be open to that somewhere down the road?” I held my breath, afraid that her answer wouldn’t line up with the timeline in my head.
“Very much,” she said, happy tears shining in her eyes. “I love you.”
“I love you, too. This is the perfect time to show you the surprise.” I stood and held out my hand to help her up. “I sent you to the diner to pick up dinner, so I had an hour to take care of some things. Follow me.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“What kind of surprise? Did you buy bubble bath?” I asked, almost giddy at the idea.
“Maybe,” he said, laughing when I squealed with pleasure. It really was the simple things for me, like sharing the tub on the nights he wasn’t on call, and then falling into bed and drifting off together. “But I was referring to this.” He flipped on the light in the bedroom that he’d made his office. There was a second desk in front of the window, along with a comfortable desk chair.
“You got a new desk for your office? It’s beautiful,” I said, walking in and running a hand over the cherry wood. That’s when I noticed the bin. “Wait, these are my art supplies.”
“They are. I cleaned out your desk at the cottage and brought it all over here. That’s your desk. You should have a comfortable place to work when you’re here. Since I’m rarely here during the day, I gave you the window to enjoy. I thought it might spark some creative ideas to look at nature while you’re writing.”
My mind’s eye shot to the sketches I’d done of him that I’d tossed in a drawer at the cottage, and my heart stuttered in my chest. Did he see them? Then I remembered I’d moved them to a portfolio folder when I needed space for all myother paperwork.
“I love it, Major,” I said, even if I was confused. “But it wasn’t a problem to work at the cottage.”
“It was for me because when you’re over there, you’re not here.”
“I know you were a colonel, but that was a very Captain Obvious thing to say.” My laughter was overtaken by his as he grabbed me and planted a kiss on my cheek before his lips wandered to my neck and then my ear. He grasped the lobe in his teeth and sucked it between his lips to tease with his tongue. When he released it, he blew a warm breath across it. Goosebumps covered my skin, and heat swirled in parts of me that were always ready for a roll in the hay with this hot doc.
“Let’s finish our tour.”
“Tour?” I asked as he pulled me back into the hallway and stood facing the living room, motioning at the two bare walls.
