She looks back to the window with a soft laugh. “You would focus on that.”
A woman’s abrasive cackle fills the air along with a man’s deep voice.
“We should get back,” I say with a reluctant lift of my chin.
“Yeah.” She doesn’t move, just looks at me. Just like she did at the drive-in when I held her hand in mine.
And . . . fuck it.
I take one step, wrap my hands around her face, and crush my mouth against hers.
She stills, softens, and grips my shirt with her fists.
Her lips part; I smile against her and swipe my tongue across her lips and tongue.
She moans.
“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” blasts through the speakers.
I slip my fingers into her hair; she tastes like my beer.
The kiss deepens; her hips press against me
A man’sCheers!echoes.
It’s all tongues, teeth, and lips, kissing in the dark room.
At her slight whimper, I chuckle.
Suck her lip.
Pull away.
Peck her nose.
She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. “Sorry,” she says with a breathy laugh. “I didn’t mean to.”
I look at her and laugh, then peck her on the mouth again. “I kissed you, Hollis.”
“Ha,” she pants. “That was—that was—that.”
My lips lift. “It was.”
“Jay,” someone shouts. “There you are.”
I give a quick smile to the man calling to me from the doorway and gesture in the air with a finger for one more minute as she and I walk toward the crowd. She’s flushed but different than usual. Not embarrassed: blissed.
As she starts toward the bar, I stop her with a hand on her arm.
“For what it’s worth,” I tell her. “The two minutes I believed you were online dating, I was jealous.”
At this, she laughs, eyes bright. “Good.”
Marv comes out of the kitchen—flannel shirt tucked into his sweatpants, hands on his hips, and a frown on his face that somehow isn’t angry. He cocks an ear as if trying to decode a secret message in the fast-paced music that’s pulling the partygoers to a small dance floor.
“Hollis.” Marv says her name like it’s an announcement. “We should dance.”
A ridiculous smile overtakes her face as he marches toward her in his sandal-covered, socked feet.
