Page 108 of Don't Go Faking My Heart

"I love the way you tell me the things I do that you love."

"Then I should tell you something else," I say. I lean across the table and crook my finger toward her until she's leaning across the table, too. I nudge my nose softly against hers. "I love the way you smell." I rub my nose against her neck. "I love the way you feel." Over her jaw. "I love the way you think." I kiss her temple. "And I love the way you taste."

And with that, my lips find hers in a kiss both gentle and earnest. And when that kiss is done, we kiss again and again until the sun sets and the moon appears.

Until the stars align.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

RUSTY

After dinner, I should be spent from the early morning and the hours of manual labor, but I'm energized, as I always am with Ash.

We both have work tomorrow—the chamber of commerce is meeting again Friday, so we have a few days to release more videos and lock down their votes—and we probably need the rest.

"I should get you home," I say.

"You know, I could go for ice cream," she says.

"Ice cream sounds good."

Every restaurant and food truck in town is packed, so we leave Sugar Maple and go to my favorite place in Mullet Ridge, Mudcakes. I get the door for Ash, and she loops her arms around mine, hugging it close.

"I love how you do that," I say.

"What, hug your arm like a sloth hugging a tree?"

"Yeah, that."

I feel the apple of her cheek rise against my shoulder.

Inside, Mudcakes is brimming with teens and couples. It's a fun place that leans into Mullet Ridge's unique charm, if you can call a place with the word "mullet" in it charming. Their flavors play on the town's blue collar origins with names like "pothole pecan" and "terra-misu."

"He'll have two scoops of compost crunch in a waffle cone," Ash says. "With rainbow sprinkles and gummy worms on top."

Her giddy laughter puts a smile on my face. "And she'll have a sugar cone with one scoop of 'silted caramel' and one of 'apple of my pie' with caramel drizzle."

"You know me so well," she says, giving me a quick peck on the cheek.

My hand squeezes her hip, and it takes every ounce of restraint for me not to grab her by the waist, lift her onto this counter, and kiss her until we melt all the ice cream in the place.

Soon, we're sitting across a table for two, smiling at each other. I hold my ice cream out to her, and she eats every nasty gummy worm off the top for me. I don't like gummy candies under the best of circumstances. Them being hard from the cold is not the best of circumstances.

Bet they taste good on Ash's mouth, though. As she eats another gummy worm, her nose dips into the scoop.

"What?" she asks.

"You have a dab of ice cream on your nose."

She crosses her eyes to look at her nose. I put my hand on the back of her head and tug her close. Then I kiss the ice cream off her cute little nose.

I don't get it all, so when I sit back down, I swipe my thumb across the rest.

She fans herself. "How do you make kissing ice cream off my nose so hot?"

"I really like ice cream."

Her laugh stirs up a tornado in my belly.

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