Page 23 of Love Songs

“Thanks, Con.” Ryan shifted on his feet, and his smile turned shy when he looked back at me. “Could we, uh . . . Would you mind if we took a group photo?”

“Of course,” I said.

Ryan’s his face lit up, and all three of them whipped their phones out of their pockets. Beside me, Conor groaned, dragging a hand down his face.

“Guys . . .”

They all handed their phones to Conor.

“What?” he complained. “I don’t get to be in the photo?”

“You get to hang out with him all day,” Ryan teased. “Take your own photo.”

Conor sighed, but he obligingly took photos of me with his friends, grumbling as he handed each phone back.

“I’ll take one with all of you,” Mrs. Caldwell said as she came around an aisle.

Conor handed her his phone and then squeezed in between me and Ryan, slipping an arm around my waist as we all tucked in close. His body was solid and warm against mine, and butterflies once again took flight in my stomach. We all said“cheese” and when everyone stepped away, I felt the loss of Conor’s touch like a cold draft on my back.

“Okay.” Conor made a shooing motion. “Enough monopolizing my date’s time.”

“It was nice to meet you all,” I said as Conor steered me out of the store with another glare over his shoulder at his friends.

“One more thing before we leave,” Conor said. “You cannot come to the maple farm without getting a maple soft ice cream cone. They’re legendary in these parts.”

Mrs. Caldwell proudly served us up a couple of towering cones and refused to take Conor’s money when he tried to pay. We stepped outside to enjoy our ice cream, and from the first taste, I was sold. A moan rumbled up my throat as maple and vanilla danced on my tastebuds. I looked up to find Conor looking at me like he’d swallowed his tongue, and a grin tugged at my lips.

“You’re right,” I breathed. “These are to die for.”

“Right?” he agreed, his voice gruff and his gaze fixed on my mouth for a moment.

He seemed to jerk out of his thoughts, and I watched, rapt, as his tongue swirled around the peak of the ice cream mountain before he sucked it into his mouth. Sparks raced through my abdomen and my groin tightened.

“So, I like your friends,” I said, needing to get my mind off all the things he could do to me with that tongue. “They seem like good people.”

Conor’s tongue sneaked out again, gathering a drip of ice cream from the corner of his mouth, and I barely kept my eyes from rolling into the back of my head.

“I’ve known Sam and Haider my whole life,” Conor said, casual as could be, as though he had no idea what he was doing, but I had my doubts. He took another sinfully seductive bite of his cone. His gaze locked on mine.Yep, he knew what he wasdoing. “Ryan moved to town when we were in sixth grade, and Sam and Ben met recently, just this spring.”

“Nice,” I said. “I’ve known Kirk since high school, and moved in with his family after mine kicked me out.”

Conor stopped and looked at me with a fierceness that caught me off guard. “Why the hell did they do that?”

“Boys loving boys,” I said and shrugged.

He stared at me for a long moment, his lips pursed into a flat line, before walking toward his truck.

“I’m sorry they did that,” he said with genuine sincerity, but there was a bite to his voice when he continued. “I’m sorry that happens to anyone at all. It’s so wrong.”

That it was.

“I’m glad Kirk’s family was there for you,” he said, his voice softer. “That’s parenting done right.”

I smiled up at him as a wave of happiness curled around my heart. “I can’t argue that.”

Best cones ever finished, we climbed into the truck and drove a short distance to Pearl’s on the Lake for lunch, where we sat on an outdoor patio overlooking Harmony Lake, and Conor regaled me with tales of his outdoor adventures and some of his less serious and more entertaining stories about firefighting and had me in stitches. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d laughed so freely, and I suddenly didn’t want our date to end.

But when the radiant blues of the afternoon gave way to the first pinky oranges of sunset, I knew we were going to have to say goodbye.

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