A tiny gasp pulled at her throat. A trail of heat skittered through her body. She hadn’t pictured him saying something so bold. And sowonderful.
Just before lunchtime, she and Richard had spent a few hours on the taxes together. During that time, he’d been so polite and professional that she worried he might regret kissing her. It felt good to know that he didn’t. It felt even better to hear that he’d been thinking about it nonstop like she had.
“Me too,” she said breathlessly. Ava took a step back as he moved forward again, her heart fluttering wildly out of beat. She didn’t remove her baseball mitt like he had, but she did tuck it behind her back and use it to brace herself against the tree trunk.
Her breath hitched.
Richard inched in closer, twisting the bill of his baseball cap from front to back. Her heart skipped as she admired how good it looked on him backward too, his dark, mussed hair peeking through in places.
“If Betty wouldn’t have had thatbrightideaabout doing the taxes along the bar this morning, I might have been useless today,” he said.
“Same.” Ava had also felt disappointed when, upon noticing their setup by the fireplace, Betty suggested the two sit at the large and spacious breakfast bar to do their work. It was between meals, and there was plenty of other eating space between the outdoor and indoor dining areas.
“I’ve never known anyone like you,” he said, his hand moving to cup her hip. His words were soul candy, and Ava was letting it melt over her, like Pop Rocks dissolving on her tongue.
She brought a hand to his shoulder, basking in the scent of his spicy cologne among the pines. She inhaled, the sound of it jagged and raw.
And suddenly Richard was leaning in, lowering his head, and bringing his mouth dangerously close to hers.
Ava thrilled in the feel of his warm breath on her lips. He waited there, testing maybe. Perhaps wondering if she wanted it as badly as he did.
She dared herself to close the gap herself, eager to put his mind at ease. Eager to have his lips on hers.
Richard met her kiss with new strength. A wordless answer to an unspoken question in her heart. Was he as desperate to get her alone as she was him? Had he been looking for any excuse to hide from the others and see if their chemistry was as good as they remembered?
A raspy breath, caught between a whimper and a plea, escaped him as he deepened the kiss, his tongue coaxing hers into a playful tease.
He nudged up against her, his fingers pressing into her lower back.
There was something here. Something magnetic, mysterious, and impossible to resist. They might not be able to tell the others, but admitting it to each other, like this, was sheer and utter bliss.
“Hey, did you get lost in there or what?” The sound of Lee’s voice said he was a whole lot closer than he’d been on the field.
At once, Richard tore away from the kiss and stepped back. He snatched his mitt off the ground and angled his head toward the field. “Practically,” he called, his voice raspy and weak. He winked at her and nodded for her to escape while she could.
Ava hurried around the trunk and back toward the thick layer of full, low-branched trees.
“Or maybe you two were up to a little something-something back here,” Lee accused in a sing-song tone.
Ava was almost at the break in the trees with Richard at her heels, but at Lee’s words, she stopped short and spun to look at Richard.
He twisted the bill of his baseball cap from back to front and nodded for her to go ahead.
She did, hurrying to respond to Lee’s accusation. “Ha, ha,” she said as she broke through the trees and dusted herself off. “Very funny, Lee.”
Richard must have been stirring up piles of debris behind her, because suddenly she could hear the swooshing of dry leaves and pinecones, along with the crunch of dried branches.
“I got it!” Richard suddenly declared. After a bit more ruckus, he barged through the trees with his mitt high in the air.
“Took long enough,” Memphis grumbled.
Trenton, who’d made it back to the lawn chairs now, lifted his phone in the air. “What was that, Maverick?” he said.
Ava had almost forgotten that, in effort to include Maverick, they’d started a FaceTime call so he could watch the game.
“Maverick says he could have found it faster than that while strapped to his bed,” Trenton relayed.
Richard began jogging back to the group. “Yeah, yeah. It was hiding under some dead leaves. No biggie.”
Lee shot accusing looks between them before doing the same.
Ava quickened her steps to catch up. Adrenaline hammered through her so hard it hurt. But something wonderful was happening too. Waves of residual delight pulsed low in her tummy, assuring her that their moments in the woods had been well worth it.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Emmitt asked with a practice swing from home plate. “Let’s play ball!”
Yes, ball.Baseball—that’s what they were playing. Ava had been in an entirely different world a moment ago. She only hoped thatthatworld was as real as the one before her now. That their moments on the couch and in the woods weren’t part of some make-believe game, a dream destined to die out before the others could know about it.
Another wave of residing bliss pulsed through her yet again, dulled only slightly by her fear of what might come.
Sure, playing baseball with his family was a whole lot of fun. She only hoped that Richard viewed their budding romance as more than just a game.
