“I have no idea.”
I smile at that and lean next to him. “I can ask Amber. I bet she’d love to help name them.”
“Yeah?” he asks happily.
“Yeah,” I confirm. “Maybe I could bring her out here to meet them when they’re a little bit older.”
Is this moving too fast? It could be, but it feels right. Everything with Dakota... just feels right. Settling deep in my bones.
“Um... you’d want that?” he asks, looking a little nervous. “I don’t... I haven’t really been around kids much. And... well, you said you wanted the other night to be a date.”
“I did,” I say, leaning in and placing my finger under his chin to direct him to look right at me as I brush my lips over his. “I didn’t see this coming, but I did want that to be a date, and I’d love to take you out on a real date. Just us.”
He leans into my kiss, his nose grazing mine as he softly presses his lips against mine. “It doesn’t matter to you that I’m aguy? I know you said you didn’t really know what you were, but this has to feel strange to you.”
“All I know is I’m attracted to you and I can’t stop thinking about kissing you.” I press a firm kiss against his lips again just because I can. “That’s all that matters to me. I like you, Dakota. I can’t get enough of you.”
I feel his lips turning up into a smile against my mouth. “I’ve spent a hell of a lot of money just to spend time with you.”
I laugh, pulling back to look into his eyes. “So I guess I owe you a date then,” I tease because I’m actually not above begging him to date me at this point. I’ll take anything I can get.
His sweet smile is a balm to my bitter soul. “Okay.”
“Yeah?” I say, lighting up.
“Yeah,” he says, more sure this time. “But um...” I watch him bite his bottom lip, a sure sign that he’s nervous. “I mean, we can go out, but...”
Ah. I know it was a big deal for him to go to the tavern on Thursday around all those people when he would really rather not be. “Trust me?” I ask him softly, brushing my mouth over his again, and I feel him nod.
“I do.”
I smile and press another kiss to his lips. “I should probably get home and get a little sleep before Amber gets there,” I say reluctantly, though I don’t want to go anywhere.
“Oh, yeah. I guess I should maybe get some sleep too.” He looks at Mavis and her kittens. “Will they be okay? Should we put them in the barn?”
“I think they’ll be fine. She’ll bring them where she wants to when she’s ready. But for now, they probably need the time to bond and rest.”
He stands up when I do. Offering him my hand, I pull his body against me. “I hear I’ll be working out here again soon.”
He smiles. “We can probably get some good use out of a hot tub.”
The thought of slipping into the hot tub with Dakota nearly melts my brain. “I think we can, yeah.” I lean in and kiss him again.
“I’ll text you about our date. I do have Amber this week, so maybe next week?”
He nods eagerly, and his hands move to my hair, pulling me to him for a heated goodnight kiss.
It’s even harder to leave after that, but I manage to pull myself away and watch him go inside his house before I hop in my truck to drive home.
This has been an interesting development, that’s for sure. But somehow, instead of fighting it, I find myself being only excited about what’s to come.
15
GABE
“Heading to your boyfriend’s?” Jackson asks me on my way out to the work truck. Today is the day I start working on the hot tub at Dakota’s. The first part of the week, I’ve mostly been planting flowers and helping the mowing crew out, so I have an extra hop in my step, knowing I get to finally go back to Dakota’s.
I haven’t seen him since the night Mavis had her kittens, but we’ve texted back and forth several times. He sent me a lot of pictures of the kittens, and when I showed Amber, my girl squealed.
