“I’m considering it,” Millie says, and warmth zings from my chest, spreading through my body.
Millie, Deanna, and I discuss the rest of our selections, and Deanna has great insight for the games we’ve never played. By the end, we have ten games in the yes pile and a nonexistent no pile. Millie even picked out three games for the girls because she saw them and claimed she couldn’t help herself.
“We’re going to have to whittle this down,” she says, looking over the games fondly as Deanna steps away to help another customer.
“No whittling. Let’s get them all.” I ignore Millie’s protests and carry the stack to the cashier to check out.
Between the two shops is a coffee house, making that our next stop. We order our drinks, and once they’re ready, we venture into the bookstore.
“Here’s the plan,” I tell Millie as she takes a sip of her coffee. “You pick out your favorite book for me to read, and I’ll get my favorite book for you to read.”
She slams her free hand to her chest with a loud gasp. “That’s blasphemy. You haveonefavorite book? Out of the millions of books in the world, you can narrow it down toonefavorite?” She steps between two romance shelves, and I follow her into the aisle as she runs her fingers over the colorful spines. “There are so many good ones. How could I pick?”
Stepping in front of her, I place a gentle hand to her stomach, pushing her back until she’s pinned against the shelf of books. My shoe tips bump hers, and she’s forced to lift her chin to meet my eyes.
I bring my lips a hairbreadth away from hers. “How about this one?” I ask, pulling a dark book covered in flowers from the shelfabove her head. When I bring it into her line of vision, her cheeks turn rosy.
“Mmm,” I hum. “You’ve read this one. Did you like it?”
She nods, and her gaze drops to my mouth.
My lips graze over her cheek as I whisper, “If I get it, will you read it to me?”
She whimpers a yes, and I have to force myself to back away. I leave her red-faced and breathless in the romance aisle before I’m tempted to ravish her against the bookshelves.
By the time I’ve gathered three series from the fantasy section for Millie to choose from, I spot her with a basket full of books looped over her arm. She approaches the tables and heaves it up onto the surface.
“You have a lot to pick from,” she says as I approach the table. “But first, I have to run to the ladies’ room.” She points a finger at me sternly. “No peeking.”
Millie finds me a few minutes later at the front of the store with several bags of books in each hand. She stops with her arms crossed over her chest, a deep line marring the space between her brows.
“Finn Ashford. What did you do?”
She tries to summon a stern look of fire and steel, but it doesn’t work on me. In my eyes, she’ll always be sunshine and wildflowers.
I drop a kiss on her temple and turn to lead her out of the store. “I checked out. We’re ready for step three of our date.”
Chapter 33
Millie
“Fry jacks?” I shout, grabbing Finn’s big biceps in both hands when I notice the Belizean food truck. “We have to get, like, ten of them, because they’re also delicious for breakfast,” I say, pulling him toward the bright orange truck.
Picnic tables run through the middle of the food-truck park. The whole space is bathed in a golden gleam from the sunset, and patio lights hang above the tables. Finn has never had a fry jack, so I really do order ten of them. He gets pad kee mao and mango sticky rice from a Thai food truck, and we also get Greek gyros.
“Where do we start?” Finn asks, sliding onto the bench next to me and gazing over our smorgasbord of food.
I carefully unwrap the foil around a fry jack and reveal the dough filled with refried beans, chicken, and cheese.
“I’m going to let you have the first bite because I’msonice,” I tell Finn seriously, holding it up to his mouth. He takes a giant bite and nods his appreciation as he chews it. “I lived off these things when I did a summer abroad in Belize and Guatemala. There was a woman who made them in a cart right outside our rental, and I think we kept her in business through the summer. She’d havethem waiting for us when we came downstairs every morning, and during our last week there, she taught me how to make them.” I take a bite and grin as the savory flavor hits my tongue.
“What you’re saying is, I could’ve had these already, and you’ve been withholding them?”
“I keep these a secret until I know I truly like the person.” I shrug. “And I don’t know if I like you that much yet.”
He flashes an impish grin. “You seem to like me when my tongue’s between your legs.”
I choke on my bite and hunch over coughing. Finn rubs my back while he laughs until I’ve swallowed my food and can breathe again.
