As we shuffle back into the snow, careful not to disturb the warped design we created with our boots, an idea pops into my head.
“We should kiss,” I tell Thatcher.
“What?”
“For the photo. We should kiss. I knowyoudon’t care about views, but your ex clearly does. What better way to show her you’ve moved on then to post a picture of us kissing at the top of our snow heart with this epic view behind us?”
“You two ready?”
“Blaire—”
“Just do it, okay?”
“On the count of three,” the woman calls to us.
Thatcher is still hesitating when the woman callstwo, so I grip his cheek with my left hand and tug his lips to mine.
It’s a chaste, full-lipped kiss. Not exactly thrilling, but it should do the trick for the photo.
“You two can do better than that,” the woman hollers to us. “C’mon Thatcher. Give that woman arealkiss.”
To my surprise, he does.
There’s nothing chaste or boring about the way Thatcher’s lips crash to mine that second time. They move in a hungry rhythm that mine easily follow. His tongue teases the seam of my lips until I part them, and then it’s game fucking over. I grip the sleeves of his flannel shirt, holding on for dear life as that man destroys me with a single, heart-stopping, toe-curling, panty-melting kiss.
He pulls away so suddenly I nearly stumble backward into a snowbank.
Thatcher catches me, likely on account of not wanting to join me, and tugs me back to him. I snuggle into him, afraid to look him in the eyes. Because what the hell just happened? Who thehell was this man who just ruined every kiss I’ve ever dared to call swoon worthy in my entire fucking life?
“Nowthatwas a kiss,” the woman calls to us.
CHAPTER 6
Thatcher
Hours after that heart-stopping kiss, my lips still buzz from the contact. I always knew kissing Blaire Sutton would likely change my world, but I wasn’t prepared for the impact one fucking kiss would have on everything I thought I knew. All those feelings I thought I’d gotten over years ago have come flooding back to the surface.
Suddenly, I’m that twelve-year-old boy again who desperately wants the girl with pink streaks in hair from Chicago to choosehimfor his first kiss. But I’m also very much a full-grown man who’d do nearly anything to get this incredibly sexy woman in my bed where I can claim her for my own—and never let her leave.
“Maybe I should move to Caribou Creek,” Blaire says as we leave behindStark Farms, headed forRose’s Diner. It’s one of three remaining stops on our Cupid Crawl. The realization makes my heart sink into my stomach.
I’m not ready for this to be over. Not yet.
This day has turned out nothing like I expected. From the bakery incident that still leaves me wanting to run my tongue along her throat to see if Blaire tastes like strawberries, to the art challenge at the library where our disaster of a couples paintingwill hang on display for the entire town to see for the rest of February but brought out the biggest smile Blaire’s ever dared wear in my presence, to tying a ribbon around the squirmiest highland cow’s neck while wearing an oversized mitten over our cuffed hands that has her touch burned into the memory of my cells, I’m a fucking changed man.
“You want to move to Caribou Creek?”
“If Liam will hire me to cuddle miniature highland cows, yes.” Blaire flashes me a flirty glance in the back of the ATV as we bump along the snow-packed dirt road to our next destination. “Do you know if he’s single.”
Possessiveness grips my chest so quickly at the thought of Blaire with another man. “You want to move to Caribou Creek to become a cattle farmer’s wife?”
“You missed the part about miniature highland cows.” We’re huddled under a shared blanket again, so I don’t see her move her hand. But Ifeelher palm slide up my arm and settle on my shoulder. “They’re my biggest weakness.”
“What ifIbought you one?”
“Where would you even put it?” Blaire asks, raising an eyebrow in challenge. Her fingers stroke my shoulder lazily, and I pretend I’m not affected. Without the blanket hiding the evidence, however, I’d be screwed. “You’re living with your parents.”
“Only because I sold my house and let the buyers move in early so they could get their kids into school here sooner.”
