Page 102 of She's a Big Deal

“Uh?” Olivia glanced at her in wonder.

She looked a bit disheveled after their long night out. And perhaps even more attractive because of it, Grace thought, in the faux-leather WWII pilot jacket that she had bought her for Christmas. With a mile of multicolored woolen scarf wrapped around her neck against the cold, tousled hair, red cheeks, and watching her with those glittering brown eyes... Grace almost lost herself in her liquid gaze.

“Loving this vacation.” She nodded, picking right up from the previous conversation.

“Oh, right!” Olivia caught on quickly and with an easy laugh. “Me too. Loving life with you, Ms. Michaels.”

“So, I know you’re not into all this stuff… Social norms and doing things by the book. But just in case you wanted to square things away between us,” Grace added with a little one-shoulder shrug. “I would be happy to.”

It took a moment for her meaning to register, she saw. Then Olivia’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Are you asking me?” she prompted.

“Asking you?”

“Yeah. Is this your way of… popping the question?”

Again, Grace shrugged. “Well. I guess so.”

She watched her lover stare in fascinated silence for several long seconds. Then Olivia treated her to a challenging eyebrow raise, the kind that she no doubt had learned from her.

“You guess? Come on, Grace!”

“You’re not big on convention, I know that.”

“But you think I might want to get things…” Olivia twirled a finger in the air. “Squared away?”

“Yeah. It would make sense, don’t you think?”

“Hmm…”

When the corner of Olivia’s mouth twitched, Grace could not tell for sure if it was in amusement or irritation. “Hmm?” she encouraged.

“I guess it would make sense, yes.” Olivia pursed her lips in obvious distaste. “We could be like the squared-away business deals you like.”

Okay, so this was taking a decidedly funny turn.

“Forget it.” Grace tore a chunk off the baguette to drown in her soup. “We don’t have to. I just thought you might—”

Olivia chuckled. “I adore you, Grace.”

She punctuated that with a hard kiss that had some French connoisseurs in the café murmur in appreciation. There were a few rumbles of,‘Oui, oui, a good way to start the year.’

“What are you doing?” Grace mumbled.

“Enjoying this moment,” Olivia answered with twinkling eyes. “But I am an artist, remember?”

“Yes, I know. So?”

“So, don’t give me this rational stuff. Don’t talk to me like I’m your lawyer or your business partner.”

“Right.” Grace favored her with a smirk. “Okay.”

“Don’t hide, and put it all on me.” Olivia caressed her cheek with the back of a folded knuckle. She kissed her again, slow and tender this time. “I want honest and real. Raw. I want YOU. Do it.”

Grace dropped her spoon with a sharp exhale. “You really are going to make me work for this, aren’t you?”

“Yep.” Olivia licked her own spoon. “Totally am.”

---