Page 89 of Love at Teamsgiving
“That makes two of us,” he replies.
And our mouths crash together again.
When we get to the car, fog rolls in and the diffused moonlight casts everything in a dreamlike glow. Somewhere in the distance, a dog barks. But here, hidden in this quiet moment we’ve stolen for ourselves, time seems to stand still, so we can recover what we had and build something new from the ashes.
Mikey smiles against my lips before he pulls back just enough to look into my eyes. His thumb traces the outline of my lower lip, still swollen from his kiss.
“Do you remember the time you gave me a mohawk?”
A laugh bubbles up from my chest at the summer-after-high-school memory. “Technically, it was a fauxhawk. You asked for a buzz cut. In December. In Manhattan.”
“It was an excuse,” he admits, smirking.
My heart stutters. “For what?”
Mikey’s hands cradle my face like I’m something precious, something he can’t believe is real. “To be close to you.”
“Why would you need an excuse to be close to your enemy?”
“One day, I walked past Guys and Dolls and glanced inside. You were laughing with a customer, and the sun was hitting your hair just right, and I...” His voice catches. “I just knew.”
“Knew what?” I breathe, though part of me already understands.
“That I didn’t hate you. I loved you.” His eyes, so earnest and vulnerable, hold mine. “Even if it meant sitting in that ridiculous cape with my ears turning red every time you came near me.”
I reach up to touch the scar on my cheek—the one I’d spent years trying to hide until Mikey made me feel beautiful despite it, because of it. He kissed my hand and nudges it away with his nose. Kissed my scar.
“And now we’re here,” I whisper, my voice thick with emotion.
“Now we’re here,” he echoes, brushing a strand of hair from my face.
“I never thought I’d have this,” I confess, my fingers tracing the contours of his face, memorizing what I already know by heart. “Someone who would see all of me and stay, anyway.”
His expression changes, an intensity there that makes my breath short. “I’m not ‘staying anyway,’ Junie. I’m staying because of all of you. The stubbornness. The way you hum when you’re concentrating. How you cry at commercials with babies in them but would never admit it.”
“I do not!” I definitely do.
“I’m staying … I want to be with you because loving you isn’t a choice. It’s my past, our future.”
And as his lips find mine, tender yet hungry, I know with absolute certainty that this—us—is the beginning of our greatest adventure yet.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I finish transforminga brunette into a blonde and tuck my tip away, preparing for my last client of the day.
The weekly flower delivery from Mr. Sensationalsits on the counter. Mama powers down the computer. Mrs. Cruz is picking her up for the Canasta Club.
She cups my cheek and, in Italian, she says, “Good luck.”
Taking a deep breath, I say, “Thanks.”
Having told her my plan, it all becomes real. My hands start to sweat. Not good, considering I’m going to be handling a pair of scissors.
I glance across the street to the Once Upon a Romance bookstore, drawing inspiration and confidence. Instead of telling myself that I’m no longer in love with Miguel Cruz as I’d done for so long, I whisper, “I’m very much in love with Mikey Cruz.”
I take one more deep breath, certain I’m making the right decision. When I exhale, an imposing and handsome figure with long shaggy hair fills the doorway.
Mikey says, “My mother said I have an appointment?”
