she passed a tree that had a beach towel hanging from a branch, she snagged it without slowing down. Her heart raced as she came to the crest of the hill behind his house and looked out at the dock. She clutched the towel to her belly, taking in strings of pretty blue lights trailing from post to post, illuminating a number of indiscernible items on the dock that formed a trail to the boat. Misty light rained down on Harley from a lantern hanging from the roof of the slip. His eyes caught hers, and her heart turned over in her chest, kicking her legs into gear. She ran down the path, nearly tripping over a small rosebush in a pretty blue container at the entrance to the dock. A rosebush! She’d never loved cut flowers because they died, and she couldn’t remember if she’d ever mentioned that to Harley, but she must have. She picked it up and hurried to the next item on her trail to the best boyfriend in the world, a bottle of wine in a wine caddy built to look like a contractor, complete with a metal shirt, a toolbox in one hand, and a hammer in the other. She wasn’t big on wine, but she loved this so much, she’d drink wine every day just to remember this moment.
She was wrong about hating games. She loved this game!
She rushed to the next item, picking up a fishing pole, and a few feet from there she retrieved a box of condoms. She was grinning so hard her cheeks hurt as she arrived at the boat juggling all her goodies.
“Oh my God, Harley!” She thrust her arms, full of goodies, toward him and said, “Takeittakeittakeit!”
He laughed as he took the plant from her arms and set it behind him.
“I don’t know what to say! Thank you doesn’t seem big enough,” she said as he took more gifts from her hands. “Nobody’s ever done anything like this for me before! Hurry! Get me in there! I need to be with you!”
He lifted her into the boat as if she were light as a feather and set her down beside a picnic basket and a thick blue blanket. She set the rest of the gifts down as fast as she could and launched herself into his arms, crushing her mouth to his. He tasted like new adventures, breezy evenings, and heart-thundering happiness.
“Thank you,” she said between kisses.
As her toes touched down again, he said, “I brought dinner. Bacon burgers and cheese fries, just the way you like them.”
“Oh, Harley!” she said, suddenly getting all choked up.
He pressed his lips to hers again and said, “In case you’re wondering, that’s beer in the wine bottle. I couldn’t find a six-pack caddy that looked like a contractor. I hope that’s okay. I’ll personally refill the bottle with beer as many times as we need to.”
She couldn’t stop smiling. “I love the wine caddy and the towel and everything. You got me a rosebush! How did you know that I don’t love cut flowers?”
“You don’t remember the guy who brought you a bouquet when he met you for a date at the pub?”
“That was ages ago.” She remembered it clearly, because it was the last date she’d had before she went out with Harley.
“I’ll never forget the way you looked at him like he’d lost his mind. You told him you didn’t appreciate gifts that died, and later, after I sent him packing, you bitched about it being bad enough that your sister made a living killing plants and flowers.”
She loved that he’d remembered, but that joy was chased by guilt at what she’d said about Bridgette. “Thank God Bridgette wasn’t there to hear that. She’s so good at what she does, and she loves it. I must have been having a really bad day to have admitted it in public like that.”
“You said you were ready to give up on men.” He brushed his thumb over her cheek and said, “I remember hoping you meant it about all men except me.”
“I did” slipped out. “I mean, I didn’t know how I felt about you then, but that was the last time I went out on a date until you came along and turned my world upside down. Now kiss me again before all this sappy stuff gets to me.”
“I kind of like the sappy stuff getting to y—”
She went up on her toes, silencing him with the press of