“Sounds like something an old man would say.”
He rolls his eyes, pulling me toward his car. “I have a solution to your problem.” He reaches into the back seat, pulling out a large glass beaker.
I bust out laughing. “That's perfect. I'm glad I wasn't prepared now.”
We put the flowers in water and head to the restaurant. Our reservation prevents us from having to wait an hour to be seated. I squeeze beside him in the booth instead of sitting across from him. “This is how we’re supposed to sit on our ‘makeup’ Valentine’s Date, isn't it?”
His mouth hovers over mine and his hand slides between my legs, breaking them apart. “I don't know, I think we should sit like this every date from here on out.”
“Every date, huh? Someone’s getting cocky.”
The waitress clears her throat from beside us and for a moment I think she can see Jamie's wandering hand under the table. I relax when she starts setting down glasses of water, not able to see anything from where she's standing.
“What can I get you two this evening?” Her easy smile tells me she hasn't seen a thing or is choosing to ignore it. Surely, she has seen it all before.
I push Jamie's hand away anyway and we tell her our orders. As much as I enjoy the way he can't keep his hands off me all through dinner, I pull away several times to keep myself from begging him to take me home. The touches continue when we get back in his car, where I give him directions to our next location. I don't want to skip the surprise I have waiting for him. “You need to behave yourself; we still have one more place to go,” I mutter in his ear when he slides his hand over my erection.
He sighs in frustration. “Fine. I never thought I'd be the one to have trouble behaving myself. When did we swap places?”
I laugh, stepping out of the car. “I don't know, but if I have to restrain myself then so do you. Come on, we have to be inside in ten minutes.”
He stares ahead before exiting the car. I race him to the door, and he hurries behind me with loud, heavy steps making crunching noises against the snow.
“Blake's Piano Bar.” He reads the front building sign out loud. “What did you do?”
“I told you, it's a surprise.”
We walk through the door of the dark bar with our arms brushing up against one another. A guy at the front checks our IDs and when I tell him what we’re here for, he points at a piano on stage. “Great, you’ll go on in five. Do you know what you'll be playing?”
“We do,” I respond before Jamie can.
“Great, you can go ahead and get set up.”
“What's happening?” Jamie's gaze meets mine.
“You said you missed playing in front of a crowd and you have yet to show me your piano skills. Well, here's your chance.”
“Wh...how?”
“Let's just say I called in a favor to a friend, and he got a spot reserved for you.”
His smile is everything, big and bright, full of life. “This is amazing. Thank you.” He presses a quick kiss to my lips. “Any idea what I'm playing, by the way? I have no sheet music with me.”
I retrieve a few sheets of paper tucked inside my coat. “You will play this.” I push the sheet music to his chest, and he grabs it, staring at it with a curious expression. “It's ‘Stand by Me,’ the first song we danced to together.”
He smiles and kisses me one last time. “Seems like the perfect choice. Just to warn you, I may be a bit rusty.”
He could have fooled me. When he walks on that stage, he owns it. All eyes stay on him the whole time he glides his fingers along those keys flawlessly. The more they move against the piano, the more I can't wait to have them on me.
Epilogue
Taylor
One year later
Large warm armswrap around my waist and I lean further against Jamie's hard chest, basking in his scent. He always smells of evergreen and vanilla, and it's stronger than everything in the room, even drowning out the smell of the fresh cut yellow roses I'm still shoving inside a glass vase. I just clipped them from the rose bush in front of our house, wanting something yellow to brighten the room.
I'll never get tired of calling it our house and I'll never get tired of calling the man who is constantly smothering me with kisses mine. “Someone must have had a good day today,” I say, pressing the back of my head into his shoulder.
