Page 61 of Make My Heart Malt

“That’s more than I wanted. More than I could ever dream of.” He steps out from behind the island and stalks toward me.

My chest rises and falls with each of his footsteps. Get ready for desert.

He comes to a halt in front of me. His hands cup my cheeks, and his gaze bores into mine. “Seeing you wearing my jersey in person… There’s no comparison to anything I’ve ever seen. You’re just… wow. I’m five seconds away from saying forget dinner, I want dessert.”

A deep rumbles sounds from my belly. Would it be weird if he has desert while I eat dinner? Yeah. That’s most definitely weird. “We have all night for everything else. First food because it smells delicious.” I rise on my tippy toes, breaking his grasp on me, and peer around his shoulder, wanting to see the spread.

Garrett laughs and spins around. At the counter, he pulls out a stool for me. “Have a seat. What do you want?”

The enticing smell of all the food makes my stomach growl again. “Everything. Just put it all on my plate.”

“Here’s some vegan muhammara, some garden pestotortellini, fried noodles, and charred eggplant tian.” He scoops a little of each on my plate.

“Did you order all the vegetarian dishes on the menu?”

“Maybe.” He flashes me his signature panty-dropping smile.

Oops. Too bad I’m not wearing any.

How I feel about Garrett is equivalent to a thousand-piece clear jigsaw puzzle. All the pieces are there, but how do we put it together? It should be easy, right? We’ve known each other for so long, we were best friends, but he left and shattered those thousand pieces into a million pieces. Our chemistry is undeniable, but is what we’re doing all we’ll ever have? Or how do we navigate the uncharted territory of more? I drop my fork to the plate, and it clatters against the ceramic.

“Garrett, what are we doing?”

His fork stops halfway to his mouth, and he turns his head to face me. “I’m feeding you and counting down the minutes until I can be between your legs.”

A small smile plays on my lips. “No, not that. What are we doing?” I wave my finger between us. “You and me. What is this?”

He sets his fork on his plate and turns to fully face me. He grabs my hand and intertwines our fingers. My heart rate spikes at his touch.

“We’re rekindling our friendship. I have a lot of years to make up for.”

My gaze casts downward. “But is it only a friendship?”

“What do you want?”

Loaded question. Do I even know what I want? “One thing is certain, I want this.” I lift my head to meet his eyes. “You.Us.But what happens when you leave again?” He’s still here, and my heart’s breaking thinking about him leaving again.

“Then we’ll continue this over text and FaceTime like we have been.”

“So long-distance? I feel like I’d be having a more intimate relationship with my hand than with you.”

“Tates.” My name sounds like a plea. “Think about it this way, the time we do get to spend with each other will be that much sweeter.” He presses a kiss to my knuckles.

I nod. “You’re right.”

“Let’s not talk about this now. I’m here. You’re here. Let’s focus on the present. We can worry about everything else tomorrow.” His lips pull into a smile. “In the meantime, want to open your Christmas present? I know it’s early, but I think this will help your mood.”

“You got me a present?” A flush of adrenaline tingles through my body, and a wide grin takes over.

“You didn’t think I’d come here empty-handed, did you?” Twisting around, he grabs a red box with a gold ribbon secured on top and passes it to me.

“You already bought me this.” I point to the navy blue jersey I’m wearing.

“That’s more of a present for me than you. Go on. Open it.” He nods at the box sitting in my lap.

“Did you wrap this yourself?”

He nods. “I’m a man of many talents.”

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