Page 114 of Her Goal
He nods.
So, there’s a part of something I love, a part of him, in the stone. The frost around my heart melts.
I stretch to kiss him on the cheek and then my lips dust over his mouth. It’s minty and cool. Welcome. The world turns fuzzy and my muscles, bones, and everything that holds me together rapidly heats like it’s heading toward a melting point.
His lips lift playfully, but his gaze remains hooded, focused lazily, temptingly, on me. My breath squeezes through my lungs, reminding me of who I’m with, where I am, and what’s going on. My brain reminds me what shouldn’t happen while my heart tells a different story.
The long and sordid history Hudson and I have wins and I snap back to my senses.
After saying goodnight, I get in my car and am about to back out of the driveway when I remember something Mami said and roll down the window. Hudson still stands there as if expecting this … hoping?
“I forgot to tell you that we have to make a meal for each other. It’s a Wedding Eve tradition.”
“Cool.”
“Dangerous.”
“How’s that? Isn’t your cousin Larz an EMT?”
“Yes, and Nils. That’s beside the point. The tradition goes that if the bride and groom don’t try to poison each other, the marriage will last.”
“Did you saypoison?” He distinctly swallows.
“Family members choose the ingredients. Then we have to cook something palatable. Last time, when Romi and William made the meal, there were oranges, Nutella, anchovies, chili peppers, eggplant, bacon, and tofu.” I stick out my tongue.
“Oh, so it’s like the mystery basket of ingredients on that HLTV show?”
“You have to use all of them.”
“What if someone in the family doesn’t want you to get married and they poison the ingredients?”
“I didn’t think of that. I mean, we don’t have to go through with it.”
He bobs his head. “I’m up for it.”
“I could secure tickets to Bora Bora in five minutes.”
“Is that where we’d go on our honeymoon?”
“I don’t even know where it is, but it has a fun name.”
He wears that lazy half-smile that I’ve grown to love. “We could just go wild and do everything out of order.”
“But seriously.”
“I’m serious.”
“As serious as a puppy dog,” I say with laughter in my voice.
“Seems like you have family events every week.”
“Usually multiple. My mom has seven siblings. Dad has ten. It’s a big bunch.”
“And to think they settled on four.”
“Would you really want there to be more of me?”
Bracing his hands on the roof of my car, Hudson peers inside. “Just you, Leah. Just you.”
