I nodded. “I need to stay sharp while working. Food tends to fall low on the list of priorities.” There were many moving parts of a significant event like the one we just left. Food was the last thing I concerned myself with. That was until I got my ass home and would almost pass out from hunger.
“You need to eat.” Mia held a French fry to my lips. “Eat,” she insisted.
Chuckling, I let her feed me the fry. My stomach growled, demanding more.
“See? Here.” She handed me the double cheeseburger I’d ordered before unwrapping her crispy chicken sandwich.
“This looks amazing,” she said, staring at her food. “Do you order from this place often?”
I nodded. “Mac’s stays open until two in the morning. They’re used to seeing my face on late nights. Their burgers are the best. The chicken sandwiches, too.” I jutted my chin toward her sandwich. “They use a special sauce only they know the ingredients to.”
I watched as she took a healthy bite.
Mia chewed for a few seconds and then let out a sound that went straight to my cock.
“That’s so good,” she moaned before taking another bite.
“You like it, I presume.” I stuck another fry in my mouth.
“I love this sandwich almost as much as I love you.” She went in for another bite.
The air around us felt like it had stopped moving. The sounds of the bugs in the trees surrounding us went quiet. All I heard were those three words coming from her mouth.
“Say it again.” My voice sounded ragged.
She blinked and then wrinkled her forehead. “I love this sandwich almost as much as I love …”
Our eyes connected. Mia lowered her hands, still holding her food, to her lap.
“Repeat it.”
“I love you.” She quickly added, “I didn’t mean to blurt it out just like that. I wanted to find the right time to tell you. And certainly, I didn’t want to do it over fast food burgers, but honestly, this is kind of the perfect time to tell you because it’s beautiful out here,” she said in a rush.
“Yeah, I love you.” The smile she gave me was brilliant, beaming.
All of the sounds surrounding us ceased to exist. There weren’t any cars on the road below us, no animals or birds in the trees, and even the way the wind rustled the leaves silenced. The only thing I could hear was my heartbeat in my chest. It pounded loudly, echoing those three words she’d just given me. Wrapped up in that beautiful mouth of hers and presented as the gift they were.
I hadn’t been the type to look for love. Somewhere I concluded that I wasn’t the type who was destined to find “the one.” Not once had I ever sought it out. I was content in my life, and then I went on vacation.
“Move in with me,” I said without a second thought.
Mia frowned. My heart felt like it shriveled up in my chest.
I tossed my burger and fries down on the bag Mia had turned into a makeshift plate between us. Brushing my hands of crumbs and grease before I took her wrists into them, I said, “I want us to live together. Why don’t you want that?”
I hated the desperation that crept into my voice. For a man like me, showing vulnerability didn’t come easy.
“I do,” she said in a rush.
I pushed out the breath I held.
“But we … we haven’t even known each other that long,” she confessed.
“So?”
A nervous laugh spilled from her lips. Instead of making me feel lighter like it usually did, that sound tightened the vice that started to wrap around my heart.
“I’m opening a business.” She blinked up at me. “I just quit my job a few months ago. I’m starting a new business and fell in love. All of this happened in the past five months. I’m a little … verklempt.” She pushed out a breath.
