Page 56 of Truth or More Truth
She snorts. “You’re a nut.”
“I hope I’m a pecan, since you seem to enjoy those so much.” My foray into flirting is surprising to me, but I have to admit, I’m enjoying it.
Melissa sifts the tips of her fingers through the hair at the nape of my neck. “You truly are a surprising man, my little pecan.”
I quirk an eyebrow at her. “Little?”
She giggles. “You’d ratherbe a big pecan?”
“The biggest.”
“All right, giant pecan, are you ready to kiss me again? Because this song is almost over, and it’s less than a minute til midnight.”
“You’d better believe it.”
As soon as the crowd shouts, “Happy new year!” my mouth is on Melissa’s. I don’t want to make a scene in this crowd, but I also want this to be a memorable kiss, so I put my heart into it. By the way her mouth responds and her fingernails dig into my scalp, I’d say I accomplish my goal. After much too short a time, I pull my lips from hers. We smile at each other for several seconds before I feel a tug on my shirtsleeve. When I look down, Emily is beaming up at us.
“Happy new year, Mr. Bobby and Miss Melissa!”
We both return her greeting.
“I saw you kissing!” Emily’s hands cover her mouth as she giggles.
“You sure about that?” I reach down and lightly tug on one of her curls.
She nods emphatically. “Yep! My friends think kissing is gross, but I don’t. I can’t wait until a boy kisses me.” She clasps her little hands under her chin the same way her aunt Wendy does.
Melissa laughs.
“Oh, boy,” I say, my eyes scanning for her mother. “Let’s not jump into kissing too soon, short stuff. Why don’t you save that until you’re older?”
“Like when I’m nine?”
I shake my head at her. “Maybe when you’re twenty.”
Her jaw drops. “I’m not waiting until I’moldto kiss a boy!”
Thankfully the DJ interrupts this line of conversation. “It’s time to say our goodbyes to Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton! Everyone please make your way to the lobby and the steps out front, and make sure to grab some birdseed from one of the baskets by the doors.”
“Birdseed instead of rice?” I raise an eyebrow as I take Melissa’s hand in one of mine and Emily’s in the other as we move toward the doors. I catch Emily’s grandma’s eye over the crowdof people and mouth to her that I’ve got her granddaughter. She smiles, and I grin back when I notice Diego at her side. I wonder if he kissed her at midnight. I can’t imagine he didn’t kiss anyone.
“Yeah, somebody somewhere said if birds eat rice their stomachs will explode,” Melissa explains, “so people have started throwing birdseed instead of rice at weddings.”
“Ew, that’s gross!” Emily declares as she skips along by my side, having gotten her second—or maybe third—wind.
I reply, “You’d think we’d see exploded birds littering the ground after every wedding if that’s the case.”
Melissa laughs as we each grab a small bundle of material that apparently hold the birdseed. “I hadn’t thought about that, but you’re right.”
“Regardless,” I say, “I’m sure it’s better for birds to eat birdseed than rice, so it’s not a bad idea. You think it’ll catch on everywhere?”
She cocks her head at me, “You’re thinking about buying stock in a birdseed company, aren’t you?”
“Maybe.” I don’t have much time to stay on top of the stock market, but I’m going to talk to my broker about this and see what he thinks.
“What’s ‘buying stock’?” Emily asks.
“That’s something else you can wait a while to experience.”
