I groaned into her mouth as I tilted her head to the side and took the kiss deeper.
Her hands moved to my chest, pressing against me the slightest bit, and I pulled back to look at her.
Her dark, heated gaze told me everything I wanted to know.
She liked it as much as I did.
“Okay, glad we got that out of the way. Sorry for jumping the gun. I couldn’t handle the anticipation anymore,” she said, her words breathy.
“Don’t ever apologize for kissing me. You can do that anytime you want.” I winked, tucking her hair behind her ear.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “Let’s eat and sit with this for a little bit.”
“Sounds good,” I said, turning around to grab an oven mitt as I pulled the bread out and set it on the counter.
I dropped it into the basket, and she moved without me saying a word and added the dressing to the salad I made before giving it a little toss. “Let’s take this outside.”
“Oh, it’s a great night to eat outside,” she said.
I had the basket of bread in one hand and reached for the bottle of wine and my glass, as well. Eloise had the salad bowl and her wine glass, and she followed me through the kitchen to the French doors that led to the backyard. When I pushed them open, I motioned for her to go first.
She took a few steps and then came to an abrupt stop.
“What is this?” She turned around to look at me, eyes wide, and a big smile on her face.
“You’ve never been out here at night with the lights on. It’s pretty spectacular.” I moved to the table and set everything down before taking the salad from her, as she was still mesmerized by the setup.
The table had flowers and candles and two place settings that were well-lit by the strands of lights that hung above theyard. The lights had always been here, as had the table, but I’d gotten a little help from Henley and Lulu with making it look like something you’d see in a magazine with what they did to the table.
“Clark,” she said, her voice just above a whisper. “This is… unbelievable. It’s so pretty. And what is that over there?”
She pointed at the large screen I put up in the yard this afternoon. I moved the outdoor couch over on the lawn, and we had blankets and pillows and a movie ready to go. I picked up some candy and popcorn for later, and she already told me her favorite movie wasHow To Lose A Guy In Ten Days, which seemed fitting, since she was hoping she’d be kicking my ass to the curb by tomorrow. I downloaded the movie on Prime, and we’d stream it after dinner.
“I thought we’d do a movie night after we eat.” I cleared my throat, feeling slightly anxious because I’d never done anything close to this for a date before.
Maybe it was too much.
“And then I kissed you in the kitchen before we even started,” she said, shaking her head like she’d done something wrong.
“I’m just glad you didn’t kiss me and end the date because it sucked,” I laughed.
“It was all right,” she said, teasing, and her cheeks flushed pink.
“I don’t know, Weeze. The way you were grinding up against me, I have a hunch you enjoyed it.”
Her head fell back in laughter. “Well, I’m hoping you mess up the next kiss. I’m counting on it being awful, and you sort of ruined my hopes of that with the first try.”
“That means there’s a next one. I’ll take it.” I motioned to the table. “You sit, and I’ll go grab the pasta.”
I carried the rest of the food out, and just like always with this girl, we fell into comfortable conversation.
“You never told me why you fell in love with hockey,” she asked, as she reached for her glass of wine.
“You’re going to laugh at me when I tell you.” I twirled my fork in the mound of pasta, getting a bite ready to go.
“I promise, I won’t.”
“Well, I’m the baby of five siblings and then you add in my two cousins who are also older. I guess all the other sports were taken. Football, baseball, basketball, swimming, tennis, golf,” I laughed. “I think I wanted something that was just mine. My dad loved watching hockey when I was a kid, so I’d sit and watch with him, and then one day I told him I wanted to play. I was maybe nine years old then. And the first time I went out on the ice with a stick—man, I just knew that it was for me. That it was going to change my life.”
