A Second Chance in the Show Me State - Jessie Gussman Page 0,57

where that came from. I didn’t mean to be romantic. I was just telling you the flat-out truth.”

“Sometimes the truth takes courage.”

“You’re right about that.” There was a small pause. “You ready for another truth? One that takes courage?”

“I think so. It is going to be a hard one?” Her palms itched, and she tried to think of what in the world else he could say that would be worse than the things he’d already said.

“I want to kiss you. That’s a hard truth.”

Oh, boy. She opened her mouth so only the honest truth would come out. “Maybe a hard truth, but an easy answer. I want to kiss you too.”

He grunted. “Then I have to wonder why we’re still sitting here talking each other.”

“Maybe we needed to talk before we can kiss again.”

“I’ll give you that...we haven’t talked enough?”

She chuckled. “If I say no, will you keep talking to me?”

“If you say no, but promise that you’ll eventually kiss me, yes. I’ll keep talking. That’s quite a reward to work for.”

“Talking to me isn’t supposed to be work.”

“It’s not. It’s my second favorite thing.”

She laughed. “I suppose your first favorite thing is kissing?”

“Maybe. Maybe it involves kissing.” His hand touched her cheek before sliding down and settling on her neck as his thumb traced the line of her jaw.

“Hmm. That sounds interesting. Maybe we can talk about that a little.” There was a small tremble in her voice.

“I think it’s better if I show you.” His fingers threaded through her hair. She leaned closer, putting her hand on his chest to keep her balance.

“Maybe I don’t want to do the kissing thing. Maybe I want to keep touching like this. It feels a little different than it used to.”

His lips moved, and she could hear him smile.

“I’m pretty sure we can work that in with the kissing. I think we were pretty talented that way.”

“Oh? This takes talent?”

“Sure does. As I recall, you might have hideous eyebrows, but you had a heaping pile of talent.”

“I can’t believe you just called my eyebrows hideous.”

He laughed. “You’d better be joking about that. Because you know for a fact I don’t think your eyebrows are hideous.” His laugh abruptly cut off, although his thumb continued to trace her jaw, and she didn’t even bother trying to hide the fact that it made her shiver. “If you think your eyebrows are hideous, are you perhaps harboring some resentment about my eyebrows?” He gave a dramatic pause. “Do you need to get some of your aggression toward my eyebrows out?”

“No. I’m jealous of your eyebrows. They’re perfect. Unlike mine. Which are not arched—”

“In the proper way. They are arched on the outside, instead of on the inside? Is that right?” He laughed.

She was serious about her eyebrows. They were awful. But how could she be upset about them when he was so obviously uncaring? If he didn’t give a flip about her eyebrows, she shouldn’t either.

She barely had that thought when his head came down, and his lips landed on her eyebrow. Feather soft, and his breath brushed out, down her cheek, like a caress. His head lifted, and his lips touched her other eyebrow. “Perfect eyebrows. I love them.”

Her eyes were closed, and she was savoring his touch, but she managed to say, “You’ve never even noticed my eyebrows. You just said that like ten minutes ago.”

“Instalove,” he murmured.

She smiled, her hand tracing down his ribs, harder and deeper than she remembered, which made her sad and curious at the same time. Sad that she missed the changes, and curious as to the other ones.

His lips brushed softly against her nose. “Love your nose. Always have. Even when it was straight.”

She laughed again. “Seriously? Are you trying to make me laugh? Aren’t we going to get serious and start kissing? I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to laugh while you’re kissing.”

“I think we’ve tried that before. Pretty sure teeth become a problem.”

“That’ll be just lovely. If you chip my teeth, and we have to pull boards off the shed so that we can go to the emergency dentist to get my teeth put back in...”

“You really think I’d pull boards off the shed? If I do that, someone just has to put them back on. Probably me. Can’t you wait ’til morning?”

“How about you just stop making jokes, and that way we won’t have to worry about my teeth chipping.”

“I like the lady’s assumption that my teeth are stronger than hers. Good one.”