Page 20 of Red, White, and You

“Cookies. Hands down,” I say. “Easier to sneak extras into your pockets.”

Gigi and Ella laugh.

“But I do I really have to choose between the two?” I ask, eyeing the brownie hopefully.

“Of course not. I’d never try to deprive you of having something sweet,” Gigi says, licking a crumb from the corner of her mouth.

My eyes track the movement of her tongue. And I bite back the words threatening to tumble from my mouth: that if I had my choice of sweet things to taste, I’d choose her lips every time.

“These are for you,” she says, holding out the cookie and the brownie for me.

Before I can retrieve them, Ella snatches the cookie. “Too slow,” she says with a laugh.

“Hey!” Gigi calls as Ella runs away with the cookie to join her husband.

I take Ella’s spot on the blanket. As the sun dips and the first fireworks crackle across the sky, Gigi and I sit side by side. Our shoulders brush. Around us, the world is full of laughter and light—but all I can feel isher.

“This is nice,” she says quietly.

“Yeah.”

She glances over at me, her eyes reflecting the colors overhead. “About last night—”

“I’ve been thinking about it too.”

She nods. “It was impulsive. Showing up with the cake, I mean.”

“For what it’s worth, it was the best surprise I’ve ever gotten.”

She smiles, then sobers. “Then why do I feel like you’re holding something back?”

Because I am.

I want to tell her. I want to come clean, right now, under this sky full of fireworks. But I don’t.

I’m a selfish man, and I don’t want to spoil this perfect night.

Instead, I lift my hand to her face, gently brushing her cheek with my knuckles. “I just have a lot on my mind… like how breathtakingly beautiful you are.”

Her breath catches. “You think I’m beautiful?”

I smile. “Beautiful and amazing and—”

She doesn’t answer with words. She just leans in, slow and sure, and presses her lips to mine.

Her lips are warm and soft, and she tastes sweeter than the most decadent dessert—just as I knew she would.

I wrap my arms around her, deepening the kiss as fireworks explode overhead in gold and crimson bursts. The night pulses with color and heat, but I barely notice. I’m too focused on the woman in my arms and the way she’s unraveling me with one perfect kiss.

When we finally pull apart, breathless and dazed, she laughs softly.

“Wow,” she whispers.

“Yeah,” I say.

She rests her forehead against mine for a second, and I let myself hold onto the moment, marveling at the bliss that I’ve found in this small mountain town, with her in my arms.

Chapter 12

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