He leaned down until his lips were a mere whisper from hers. “I’m gaining the most.”
She licked her lips, nearly causing him to groan. “Oh, you don’t want to go down that road. You know how competitive I can be.”
“Yeah, I do. It’s one of the things I love most about you.”
Her eyes brightened in that sunshiny way that lit him to his core. She brushed her lips against the corner of his mouth. “Well one of the things I love most aboutyouis your white-chocolate macadamia-nut cookies.”
He held back with every ounce of self-discipline he had. “I knew you just wanted me for my cooking.”
She kissed the other side of his mouth. “What can I say? I’m basic.”
“You are anything but basic. Which happens to be another thing I love about you.”
“Hmmm,” she murmured, drawing her finger in a line down his chest. “Well, I love that you—”
And with that, his self-discipline was gone, and he took her tender mouth in his in a kiss that was only interrupted by the catcalls of people leaving the meeting.
“So immature,” Eliana called out after them, her lips plump in a way that made him eager to kiss them again and never, ever let her go.
Something in his gaze must have alerted her to his feelings, because she wrapped her arms around him even tighter, and he knew she felt the exact same way.
Chapter 43
Winniewasoneofthe last people to leave the clubhouse after the meeting, dreading arriving home. She wasn’t sure what would be worse—Horace being there or not. No, not being there was definitely worse.
They needed to talk. They hadn’t been married this long without hitting a few speed bumps in the road along the way. Admittedly, this was more of a half-wall than a speed bump.
She opened the door to their dark house, and her shoulders slumped. Not home then. What if he never forgave her for not telling him about Gerard? She couldn’t imagine her life without Horace. She’d been upset with him for spending so much time with Smitty because of how lonely it made her feel. But this? This was devastating.
She went to flip on the light when she noticed a flicker in the kitchen. She walked toward it, surprised to find a battery-powered candle lit in the middle of their kitchen table. It illuminated two of her best china plates, each with a generous wedge of black forest cake.
“What?” She turned around, confused, and saw Horace standing in the kitchen doorway, holding two goblets. Her heart raced at the sight of him, just as it had the first time he’d come to the counter where she worked and asked for a soda.
“Your friends are something else,” he said with fondness. He set down the glasses and pulled a note from his back pocket. She recognized Walt’s handwriting.
“There are two slices of Bruno’s chocolate cake in the fridge, along with some raspberry sparkling cider. We’ll let you take it from here.
Then in Nancy’s handwriting it said:Don’t disappoint us.
“This was duct taped to the door when I got home from fixing the bathroom sink at Eric’s rental.” Well, that explained where he’d been. Their grandson kept a rental home in Diamond Cove he occasionally asked them to help with.
“They must have sneaked it in while we were waiting for Eliana,” Winnie said. She blinked back her sudden tears. Her friends were matchmaking her and Horace. And with much less dramatics than they’d done with Eliana and Asher. Minus the threat from Nancy, she supposed, but it had come from a place of love.
Horace stepped closer to her, and Winnie held her breath. She had so much to say, she didn’t know where to start. But being silent was what had gotten her into this mess in the first place. The dim lighting of the single candle made it easier for her to share this part of her past she’d kept hidden for so long. It was time.
“I met Gerard when I was a teenager.”
“You don’t have to tell me this if you’d rather not,” Horace said softly.
“I want to. I should have done this a long time ago.” She swallowed and stared down at her hands. How different they looked now than they had when she was eighteen. “We had a whirlwind romance that ended in my heartbreak when he left, and I wanted to forget him. My parents suggested we act as if it had never happened, since they worried no one would ever marry me if they knew I had been married before.”
She glanced up to see Horace’s mouth straighten. He’d sometimes struggled with her parents’ traditional ways of thinking that valued perception over reality.
“I can’t blame them, though, Horace. I was old enough to know my own mind. And I’m sure they never intended for me to keep it a secret for the rest of my life. I just …”
“You were happy,” Horace said, his voice gruff.
“Yes. I was. I am,” she corrected with a small, teary laugh. “I’ve been so ridiculously happy with you, Horace. I was on my guard for so many years, worried you might one day leave me too, but at some point, I can’t even tell you when, I trusted fully you’d never leave.”
