Page 61 of Objection to Love

“It was my mom’s turn to choose the movie,” he explained, and understanding lit her expression. Their own movie played in the background, mostly forgotten. Which was Harry Potter sacrilege, but the boy who lived would understand his distraction. At least, year five or six Harry Potter would.

“That makes more sense. Your mom is so sweet. Did you thank her for the crutches for me? It’s been so much easier to hobble around without having to hop.”

“Aw, but your hopping was so cute.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. Without thinking, he brushed a fallen strand of hair back behind her ear. She stilled.

“I think we need to change the way we are thinking about things,” she murmured.

What things? This not dating thing? Because he was happy to change that.

“Every one of your ‘fun’ activities has ended in injury.”

“Huh?” His mind tried to catch up. Unsuccessfully.

“Our Saturday activities. They have not gone well.”

“Hey, I thought they were pretty fun.”

She gave him a dry look. He pointed a finger at her. “You had fun swimming.”

Her head cocked to the side. That same curl fell out from behind her ear again. His hand twitched.

“Okay, I’ll give you that one. Swimming was fun. Hiking, not so much.”

“So you want to do something non-dangerous?”

“Actually, I want to plan something,” she said.

“You?”

She rolled her eyes at the surprise in his voice. “Yes. I call this weekend’s activity.”

“What are you thinking we’ll do?”

“It’s a surprise.” Her eyes danced as she threw his own words back at him.

“Lucky for you, I happen to like surprises.”

Her gaze searched his face, half a smile hovering there. “I’m finding they aren’t so bad either.”

Garrett shifted up on his arm, looking down more fully at her and savoring the expression on her face just then. Unburdened. Happy. And something more. His chest had constricted with those words, and he didn’t think it would be loosening any time soon. Hardly noticing his actions, he lowered his head toward hers. She was like a magnet, and he was helpless against her pull. Her chin tilted up. His dipped down. Her breath caught. His stopped coming altogether.

The sound of the bag of chips being crushed between them stopped him. Not willing to accept the interruption, he grabbed it and tossed it lightly onto her nightstand, returning his eyes to hers. “Em?”

“Mmhmm?”

He took a deep breath. Now or never. “Can these be dates now?”

There was a heartbeat of silence as his eyes flicked between both of hers. He’d just jumped in the deep end. Would she follow him in?

Then, she nodded once.

He reached out his free hand, lightly grazing her jawline to tuck that maddening curl back. And, accompanied by the dramatic swell of the movie score, he covered her lips with his own.

Her reaction was immediate, meeting him kiss for kiss as he leaned over her, his hand threading further into her hair and bracing the back of her head. A swear almost escaped him at the fact that his other hand was propping up his body, so he had to make do with only one. He wanted to pull her closer, to lessen the small distance between them, but he held back, not wanting to rush things. Something told him this relationship was different than any he’d ever had.

So he took his time, enjoying only their kissing. A lot.

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