Page 45 of Bumping into You

She turns to face me, placing both hands on her waist and giving me one of her best glares.

Hands up in mock surrender, I say, “Okay, okay, I surrender. It’s really you. You’re the most beautiful woman in this room, Rose.”

“Aww, now aren’t you two the sweetest things,” says Tammy as she walks by and picks up a bowl from the extra supplies Nancy had out.

“Err . . . thanks,” says Gwen, her cheeks growing pink.

Rolling her eyes at me, Gwen turns back to face the color options, but I can see the small smile crinkling her eyes. She picks out a light blue, a yellow, and a sage green.

After we mix the colors, Nancy shows us all about the different decorating tips we can use, giving us examples of what each would look like. Then she instructs us on how to add the icing to the piping bags without making too much of a mess. Proud of myself for not getting icing all over the place, I glance over at Gwen, who has managed to get her icing in the bag with less mess than me.

“Show off,” I mutter, bumping her with my hip.

“You better watch it, Niall. I have a piping bag full of icing, and I know how to use it.”

“Oh, is that so, Rose?” I lean in close to her.

“Yes,” she says matter-of-factly.

Before she has time to react, I take my piping bag and leave a dollop of the red icing on her nose. Scrunching her face, she doesn’t even miss a beat as she places a dollop of blue icing on my nose.

Nancy clears her throat, having appeared right in front of our table. “Now, the icing is supposed to be for the cupcakes, not noses.”

“Yeah, Gwen, didn’t our mother teach you manners?” says Greg from a few tables over, smiling. He’s one to talk. The icing is coming out of the top of his piping bag no matter what Holly does to try and help him.

Gwen looks alarmed at what she’s done, but the whole thing has me cracking up, and before I know it, she is laughing right along with me.

“Here, let me get that.” I reach over, holding her face in my hands. Her laughing immediately stops, shock at my touch causing her beautiful hazel eyes to grow wide.

“Don’t worry, Rose, I’ll be gentle with you,” I say.

She makes a slight nod and lets out a breathy, “Okay.”

Holding her so close, it would be so easy to just kiss her. Her full lips are lightly parted after her reply, her breath warm against me as I stand close to her. I take one finger, tracing her nose as I remove the icing from it. I plop the dollop of icing in my mouth. “Tastes delicious. We make a mean icing.”

She nods, still frozen. Then, she reaches up and wipes the icing off my nose and licks the icing off her finger in what feels like slow motion. The pop of her mouth and finger sets off a gentle whirlwind of emotions within me. Oh feck, what she does to me.

I clear my throat. “Thanks.”

“Now about these cupcakes,” she says, “it looks like we are the ones behind now.”

Gillian and Miles have already iced a handful of cupcakes, and Trent and Margot aren’t far behind them. Holly is already on her eleventh perfectly iced cupcake.

“Right,” I say, “let’s get to icing.”

After we finish, we each eat one of the cupcakes.

“We did good work,” I say between mouthfuls.

“We sure did,” says Gwen.

Next on the itinerary is laser tag, which sounds like something definitely added to the wedding activities by Greg. On the way there, Greg drops back to talk to me. “So, tomorrow Holly and I are going to the couple’s yoga class. I was thinking you should take Gwen since she loves yoga so much.”

“Exactly what I was thinking,” I say.

“Great,” says Greg, catching up with Holly.

When we walk into laser tag, the whole group is here except for Bradley and Tammy. Maybe they won’t show up, which I know would be a nice break for Gwen.

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