It was a lot more than inspiration. She had talent. It made him want to scour all the local thrift stores for more of her work. For a moment, Dillon considered trying to paint her the way she was painting a memory of him, but with his skills, it would end up being a scary, rather than a romantic gesture. Instead, he started over. The black smear was dry, and he covered it with white paint, smoothing it around until he had one big white tooth. He turned the edges of the canvas into a crisscross of color around the gleaming, white tooth.
He looked over to see what she thought of his painting, but Lina was staring off into space, her eyebrows furrowed. That wouldn’t do. The whole point of this was to distract her from worrying about meeting her dad.
She had her hair pulled back into a bun, so he wasn’t worried about getting it in her hair when he dipped his finger back in the white paint and carefully drew a streak down her cheek.
“Dillon,” she growled, turning slowly to stare at him. Her mouth twitched with the beginnings of a smile. “What are you doing?”
“Um, face painting? I thought we were trying all your hobbies today. And also, you looked sad, so I thought, ‘what would Lina do?’ and the answer was, spread a little paint around where it doesn’t belong.”
There was no hiding the grin that broke through her irritation. She leaned over and kissed him, thoroughly distracting him before turning her cheek to smear all the paint back on him. Sneaky thing.
“See, you’re rubbing off on me,” he murmured.
“Was that a pun?” Lina asked, placing a hand to her chest with feigned awe.
“I guess it was.”
“I love you.” She turned serious in a flash, despite the paint all over her face and his. “Whatever happens today, it’s all going to be okay, isn’t it?”
“Darn right.” He wiped away a little of the paint near the corner of her mouth, and went back to kissing her.
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Epilogue – One Thanksgiving Later
“Brenda, you are the bestest mother-in-law in the whole world. You know that, right?” Lina hugged the sweet woman around the middle, making her laugh and sputter in modest disbelief.
It was true, though. Brenda had taken it in stride when Lina told her she and Dillon would be spending Thanksgiving at Nana’s rental house, and Brenda had been just as gracious when plans changed and all of Lina’s relatives needed to be invited over to Brenda’s instead.
Brenda went back to slicing up the cinnamon apple cake she’d made. “Dillon, your wife is buttering up to me in a blatant attempt at favoritism.”
“Is it working?” Dillon asked, walking over and folding his arms, pretending to look stern.
“Of course it’s working.” Brenda winked. “Now, you two carry out the dessert plates and forks for me, will ya?” She left the kitchen with the cinnamon apple cake, leaving the wonderful spicy baking scent behind.
Dillon glanced around, and Lina recognized that opportunistic look in his eyes. They were alone. They hadn’t been alone all day, and while they got plenty of quality newlywed time together on every other day, they hadn’t gotten it today. What was the point of a holiday if it wasn’t spent celebrating something as wonderful as love?
One hand came around each side of the counter, locking her in place as he dipped his head and kissed her softly. Well, that wouldn’t do. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back with a little more heat, moving to his jawline before working her way back to his mouth.
“Lina,” he growled. “You’re going to get us in trouble.”
“Yep,” she breathed out between kisses. “Eventually. But not yet.”
They made out for another blissful two minutes until someone cleared their throat in the kitchen doorway. “Seriously, you two? Just hand over the dessert plates. I’ll take them in.”
“Thanks, Trent.” Lina peered around Dillon. “We’ll be right there.”
“Sure you will.” He took the dessert plates and forks from them and rolled his eyes.
Lina gave Dillon one last lingering kiss before she dragged him back to the dining room. The embarrassment of having everyone study their bright eyes and flushed faces was totally worth it, even if it was super weird to get an exasperated dad look from Derek.
Sometimes she imagined what it would have been like having him around during her teenage years. He and Dillon got along great, but she had a feeling Derek would have been the protective type, lecturing her dates on when to have her home and how he expected them to treat her.
“This cake is amazing,” Derek said, turning to smile at her. “Brenda said you two worked on the recipe together.”
“Thanks, Da-Derek.” Lina laughed nervously.
Derek did too. “Maybe we should just stick with Dad-Derek. It sort of has a ring to it.”
