Page 83 of The Heart Shot
Her fingers dug into my neck as if she wanted to say something else, or maybe keep kissing, but she dropped her hands and nodded. Wetting a cloth in the sink, I wiped my face clean before handing it to her. A faint green tint sat on the tip of her nose, and it might have been the cutest thing I’d ever seen.
“Will you grab our jackets and I’ll box these up to take outside?”
“Outside?” she asked.
I nodded. “The rest of the surprise is out there.”
She arched a brow. “Isn’t it a little cold?”
I whispered against her ear. “It won’t be for long.”
The same desire that burned in me blazed in her eyes, and it took everything in me to let her leave the kitchen and not drag her back into my arms. A moment later, Elsie reappeared, handing me my jacket. I shuffled into it and grabbed the thermos of hot chocolate I had made while the cookies cooled.
Box of cookies in one hand and thermos in the other, I offered my elbow to her. With a shy smile, she looped her arm through mine.
I leaned closer. “Shall we?”
She nodded and I pressed a light kiss to her lips before heading outside. Elsie skidded to a stop when she saw what I had done.
In the middle of my fenced in backyard was a huge tent with a mesh ceiling, perfect for stargazing. It was positioned between two large maple trees where I had hung bistro lights back and forth between the branches.It had taken hours, but the effect was beautiful and romantic. Bright red and orange leaves that I hadn’t had a chance to rake yet littered the yard around the tent.
Inside was an unreasonable number of soft, fuzzy blankets and pillows, and a small space heater in case she was still cold.My laptop was set up in the corner withReturn to Mealready cued up. She had told me it was one of her favorite rom-coms while playing a game where we guessed each other’s favorite things.
Setting the box and thermos on the ground, I unzipped the tent and gestured for her to crawl inside. Elsie slipped her boots off and rolled in, instantly cocooning herself in the blankets. My heart squeezed at the sight.
She belonged here.
The thought panged through my mind before I could stop it.
I cleared my throat against the tightness threatening to bring tears to my eyes and crawled in after her. I settled next to her and wrapped a green blanket around my shoulders, then poured each of us a mug of steaming cocoa. After handing one to her, I opened the box of cookies.
We looked inside and burst out laughing.
“I don’t think cookie decoration is a future career path for either of us,” she wheezed out between laughs.
“At least they taste good?” It came out as more of a question. Truthfully, I had never made my mom’s cookie recipes myself before, and I did not excel at baking. For all I knew they were disgusting.
“Let’s find out,” she said, grabbing a sugar-cookie snowman that looked more like the Joker rather than Frosty, and took a hearty bite.
Elsie chewed in silence for a moment before meeting my eyes.
“Delicious.” She smiled at me with bulging cheeks.
Needing no further encouragement, I took a bite of the toffee nut gingerbread and found those were equally tasty. We gorged ourselves on cookies until we had a sugar hangover, then flopped back onto the pile of blankets. The lights overhead disrupted the view of the night sky, but I had planned for that. I snatched a tiny remote from the corner of the tent and hit the power button. The lights blinked out, settling us in the pitch-black night. One by one, the stars winked into the sky, and Elsie shifted closer to me.
“As a kid, this was one of my favorite things to do,” I explained. “Since there’s less light pollution in Meridel, I used to lay in the hammock, staring at the constellations, trying to find new ones, and naming my own. There’s something peaceful about staring up at the wide expanse of dark sky and just…watching.”
Then a shooting star streaked across the sky. “Make a wish,” I whispered, squeezing her hand.My wish was simple: to spend every second I could with this amazing girl.
Elsie closed her eyes, breathing deeply. I wanted to ask what her wish was, but when she opened them, I was surprised to find a tear streaking down her cheek.
“Elsie?” I immediately rolled onto my side so I could look her in the eye. “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head, closing her eyes against more tears. I wiped them away as they fell.
“Sunshine, what’s wrong?”
“Jameson, I…” Her voice choked on whatever she was about to say.
