Page 46 of Somewhere in Seattle

He licked his lips, and as if that were my cue, I leaned in and kissed him. I softly kissed his mouth, tugging ever so gently on his lower lip, pulling it into my mouth. He tasted like heaven. I loved him. It wasn't just physical… although physically… my body was reacting.

"I love you," I said. "I know you said it earlier, and I didn't get to say it back, but I want you to know, JD, that I do love you. I will be nothing but loyal to you and fiercely protective. I'm so thankful for you and what we have together. Thank you for not letting me go. I'm not going to react like this when something scares me anymore. I'm sorry I did this today."

"I love you too," he said simply.

"And?" I asked.

"And what?"

"You don't want to give me a hard time about the trash bags and U-Haul?"

"What U-Haul?"

"The one I have to cancel."

"No, I don't want to give you a hard time about a U-Haul you have to cancel," he said easily. "What I want is to feel your mouth on mine again."

I smiled because that would be no problem at all.

I leaned in and kissed him.

Chapter 20

A month later

Everything changed for JD and me that day when I almost left. We were inseparable after that. That misunderstanding was a wakeup call to both of us, and we knew we no longer wanted to spend any time apart.

I was madly in love with him. In my heart, I was wholly devoted to JD, and I knew he felt the same about me. We made plans to get married the following summer, which was only a few months away. But then we changed our minds and bumped it up. We simply couldn't take it. The two of us were like an old couple already, and both of us wanted to make it official and get on with our lives together. We saw no sense in waiting a specific amount of time just because that was what we said we were going to do in the first place. We were in control of our own destiny. So, when JD came to me wanting to bump up the wedding, I easily agreed.

Today was a beautiful Friday in April—it was a rare sunny day, and it happened to be the day before my new wedding date.

I was so excited I could burst.

I had been that way since we committed to each other. I smiled all the time and I doodled hearts and stars and smiley faces on my tickets. Today, I had been especially excited, though. The smiling was out of control, and my doodlings included wedding bells and extra hearts. Jim was working the lunch shift, and he put wedding-themed songs such as Chapel of Love and White Wedding on our playlist. I sang along when I was in the kitchen, and Jim loved it. We danced. He loved me and wanted me in his family, and the restaurant kitchen at Jimmy's may as well have been Justin Bieber's house with how famous I felt when I was back there.

It was one-thirty, and the lunch rush was finally starting to settle down a bit when Claire came to the back. She wasn't working today, but she often came to pick up food, so I wasn't surprised to see her back there.

She was, however, staring straight at me with an intense expression.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I just sat someone in your section," she said. "Table thirteen."

"Oh, okay. It's not your cousin is it?" I asked, smiling and hoping it was JD."

"No," she said. "It's not JD." She reached out and pinched the backside of my arm playfully, and I stared at her.

"Who is it?"

"No one. Just go. I already gave them a menu." Claire was hiding something from me, and I walked away from her with a narrow-eyed expression.

"It is my husband," I mumbled under my breath as I walked toward the dining room. "Oh my goodness, it's Micah Lacey," I corrected. I stopped in my tracks when I realized who was sitting at table thirteen. "It's Micah Lacey," I whispered to no one. I glanced behind me, but Claire had disappeared and was already talking to the guys in the kitchen. "It's Micah-for-crying-out-loud-Lacey," I said to myself.

Seeing him was stunning, and I had to work up the nerve to walk over there.

"It's your table," I told myself. "It's just another customer. Simply take his order like you do with everyone else."

Micah waved at me when he caught sight of me coming, and I was so nervous about mistaking his wave that I turned and looked over my shoulder. I turned back to him and waved when I realized that he had been looking at me the whole time. He smiled. Micah Lacey was looking directly at me and smiling like we were old pals. It was already different than the last time I had met him, and we hadn’t said a single word to each other.

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