I laughed, falling down onto my back. I sighed it out, happy to just lie there and soak in the peace for a little longer.
Preston took the space next to me, looking up at the ceiling just like I was. “What do we do now?”
“What do you mean?”
“This. Us. I’ve told you what I wanted. Hell, I showed the whole damn town.”
I rolled my head to the side and looked at him. Really looked at him, studying his handsome face. I picked up where his beard stubble was a little longer in one place, like he’d rushed while shaving. The tiny scar close to his hairline that was no bigger than a pimple. His thick eyebrows that were naturally better shaped than mine were, and his dark eyelashes that framed his stunning eyes.
“I know,” I said softly. “I just—we’re such different people, Preston. I’d made peace with the fact that we were never going to happen, and now it is, and I think I just need to stop telling myself it’s all going to go wrong.”
“It might go wrong,” he said honestly. “I fucked up literally an hour after our first date, so…”
I smiled. “Are you afraid it’s a little too fast?”
“I’m not asking you to marry me, Halley. Hell, I’m not even telling you that you have to be my girlfriend. We can take it slow and see how it goes without putting any big labels on it.”
“But we’d be exclusive?”
“I can honestly say there isn’t anyone I’m even remotely interested in. Except for you.” He looked at me. “And maybe Betty. For a raccoon, she’s a bit of a MILF, isn’t she?”
I laughed, pressing my forehead against his shoulder. “I can take sharing affection with Betty.”
“I have to share with Boris.”
“Boris is a jerk. It’s when those babies come that you’ll be sharing affection.”
“Oh, God, are you going to take time off work?”
“No! Oh, my God!” I laughed all over again. Honestly, it was a miracle I didn’t have abs at this point. “The rescue just outside town has a vet they send out to keep an eye on her. A couple of years ago, one of their older babies got caught in a bear trap. We freed it, and we looked after it until it was recovered when we sent him back out to Betty. But, also, you’ve never seen how freakin’ cute raccoon babies are. They’re the fuzziest little things.”
“You’re getting overexcited, aren’t you?”
“Little bit.” I smiled, rolling onto my stomach. Accidentally, I rolled into Preston with an “Oomph.”
Instead of letting me go, he wrapped his arms tightly around me. I peered down at him, my lips curving.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing. It’s just—this is weird, isn’t it?”
“Yep.” His eyes sparkled. “But I like weird.”
I dropped my lips onto his.
Yes, it’d only been a week. Yes, it was crazy, and it could all go wrong, but I wanted to take the risk.
More than anything, I was happy he wanted to take the risk with me.
Even if we were going to be the talk of the town for his little show.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO – HALLEY
Boom Chicka Wow Wow
One Month Later
“Happy one-month anniversary!” Preston stood on my doorstep with a huge bouquet of flowers in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other.
I blinked at him. “What—what are you doing?”
“Reagan told me it was our one-month anniversary. I told her she was fucking dumb, but she insisted that I come over here with wine and flowers.”
“You were right.”
“Of course I was right. Now let me in so nobody sees me standing here like a lovesick teenager.”
I rolled my eyes and moved so he could follow me into the house. “I do like flowers and wine, though.”
“Don’t worry. I didn’t forget Betty.” He set the wine and flowers down on the kitchen table and swung his backpack off his shoulders. He swiftly produced a lunchbox full of peanut butter sandwiches and another plastic tub full of sliced watermelon.
I didn’t even know raccoons liked watermelon until Boris literally swiped mine from under my nose one evening when I was reading on the porch.
Ever since then, we’d been feeding them fruit, but the watermelon was the resounding favorite.
Even Betty accepted it being dropped down the hole into her nest under the porch.
She was getting lazy, but Preston was spoiling her.
For all his joking when we’d started dating, he was pretty much in love with her.
“She’s gonna love you. Boris will think you’re trying to steal his wife.” I took the flowers from the table over to the sink.
“I would steal her, but I don’t think she’d like my apartment.”
“I don’t like your apartment. There are too many people there.”
“Thanks.”
Laughing, I looked over my shoulder. “You know what I mean. Any time I’m there, it takes me ten minutes to get anywhere. There’s always someone who wants to ask me something or make suggestions about the new kissing booth. I’m not even thinking about it yet!”