I nod. Then I catch on. I turn my head ever so slightly and give her a sly smile. "That mean you were asking your aunt about me?"
She laughs. "I may have asked a few things."
"Yeah? Like what?"
"I was wondering what your family was like, if you were from Whiskey Run or not."
"I'm not far from here," I tell her. "My parents, though..."
She nods. "Yeah, my aunt mentioned they're a little hard on you."
"My dad mostly. My mom, she's, well, she goes along with my dad. I'm an only child, and for some families that might mean they’d go easy on me, but that was never the case in my house."
"I'm an only child too," she tells me.
"Oh yeah?"
She nods. "My parents were always really busy with their jobs. So, I kind of kept to myself and found my own way through life."
"That kind of lonely?" I ask her.
"Yeah, it was. I relied on..." She runs her hand over the horse's mane tenderly. "I relied on friends to keep me company, and thankfully, I found some really good ones over the years." She looks over at me, and there's a softness, a tenderness to her that I haven't seen before.
Before I got to know Liv just a day or two ago, I thought she was this stuck-up city girl, way too posh for a country guy like me. But now I see she’s just well-bred. She's come from money, that doesn't mean she's entitled – it just means she's classy.
But she is also sweet as sugar. I wonder if she tastes as sweet as sugar too.
If that kiss gives me any indication, she’ll taste better than any candy bar I've ever had.
"What’s on your mind?" she asks. "I think I just lost you for a second."
"I was just thinking about that kiss," I tell her.
She licks her lips, runs a hand through her hair, then puts her hands back on the reins. "Yeah. I wouldn't mind another one of those."
"I guess we should get these horses to trot again."
"No!" she says. "I wasn't saying that. I was just saying it was a good kiss, my first kiss."
"Really? " I ask. "You mean it?"
She nods. "Yeah."
"That mean you don't have a boy waiting for you back home?"
"I don't have a boy waiting for me anywhere. What about you?"
"No, I don't have a boy waiting for me either, never have. But I don’t have a girl waiting, either." Before the conversation can go any further, Liv gasps.
"Oh my gosh, you were right."
I grin; the horses have stopped. The lake is spread out before us, there are beautiful willow trees everywhere, there's not a soul to be seen, wildflowers and clover, it's the most beautiful place I could imagine taking a girl like Liv. I help her off the horse, and holding onto the reins, we lead Sonny and Cher to a tree and tie them up.
"This looks like we're in a storybook." She shakes her head. "Thank you for thinking of bringing me here."
“I found this place not too long ago, and I thought damn, this is magic."
"Just like our kiss."
I wrap an arm around her shoulder. "Yeah, just like our kiss." I pull her to me this time, my hands on both of her hips. I tilt my head and she lifts her chin, and our mouths meet.
The kiss is easy, just like I hoped it would be, and her lips part and her tongue finds mine, and damn, we may be in some magical storybook, but this kiss right here, it's heaven.
She whimpers against my mouth, and her tongue explores mine.
I run my fingers through her hair, feeling the curve of her body pressed against me. It feels like she was made for me, the way her supple skin fits against my hands. I love the way she feels against me, so natural, so real, like she belongs here.
I could keep on kissing her forever, and when we finally pull back to catch our breath, her eyes tell that she's thinking the same damn thing.
She sighs, wrapping her arms around my neck. "Ledger," she says, "I thought the kiss on the horse was good, but that?" She shakes her head. "That was something else." My stomach growls right then and there and I curse it to heck. "Are you hungry?" She laughs, grabbing her own stomach. "Because I'm pretty starving myself."
"Yeah," I say, "I wouldn’t mind it if we kept on kissing though."
She smirks then slaps my ass playfully. We spread the blanket after we've watered the horses, and we sit with the food she's prepared. I appreciate the hearty turkey and cheese sandwiches, and we drink our bottles of water, dip our carrots in a little tub of ranch dressing, eat the slices of apples.
"You thought of everything" I say.