Page 99 of Get A Fix

I sank into the kiss, and he opened and received me, and somehow, it was different from the others because we were on the same ground and it was solid. I wanted him. Not just in my bed, but in my life, with me, as a constant presence, the man who would stay and be mine. And yes, it was crazy and fast and all the things that were supposed to be wrong, but I’d actually had the wrong guy, and I could tell the difference.

His hands were clutching my thighs, holding so tight, not wanting me to move, wanting more of the kiss, more of my tongue, his whimpering moan making me smile against his mouth.

“Boys, it’s almost cobbler time,” Kiyomi called.

“Tell her,” Ash whispered, “that we need to take it to go.”

I kissed him again because he was a man after my own heart.

ELEVEN

Before we left, I apologized to Kiyomi and Noel about kissing my boyfriend at the back of their sweet little store.

“Well, since you two are the only ones in here at the moment,” Kiyomi teased me, “I’ll forgive you.”

“And since you’ve only been together for a day, that kind of thing is to be expected,” Noel said knowingly. “Best go back to the inn and stay there.”

It was both embarrassing and funny.

“They think we’re horny teenagers,” Ash said as we left the store with two pieces of warm blueberry cobbler and two travel cups of tea. “Like we have no self-control at all.”

When I shrugged, he laughed.

“Fine,” he acquiesced, “but I will remind you that we did not have sex in their bathroom, which to me, showed a staggering amount of willpower.”

“Agreed,” I said and took his hand.

Halfway back, the rain started really coming down again, at which point we realized we’d left the umbrella at the bookstore. We ducked inside the empty visitor center, where there were several benches in the lobby, to wait for it to slow to a drizzle.

“Is that blueberry cobbler from Avalon?” Kyle asked us. I knew it was Kyle because of his spiffy lobster nametag.

“It is,” Ash told the twentysomething young man. “And normally I would share, but⁠—”

“Oh no, dude, I get it. Kiyomi’s cobbler is legendary. But I will have to run over there and get some.”

“Could we ask you to grab our umbrella while you’re there? It belongs to the inn, and we forgot it.”

“I’ll get it ’cause you’ll need it, but folks leave those all over town every day, and they always get returned. I think they made them that horrible neon yellow just for that reason. Hard to indefinitely borrow something you can see all the way down the street.”

Ash agreed, gave Kyle twenty bucks, and told him to please bring it back. The young man thanked him and then asked us to watch the place while he was gone.

“We don’t have a public bathroom, but for you guys, there’s a key under the counter back there. All the pamphlets are free, and the walking ghost tour information is on the table with the black tablecloth, and the historical tour is on the table with the blue one.”

“Got it,” I assured him as he walked out the front door. After a moment, I turned to Ash. “Why do I feel like even if we weren’t here, Kyle was leaving for cobbler?”

“Because he was,” Ash agreed, glancing around. “Now I feel like he should have paid us to babysit the place.”

I was chuckling as I passed him his container of cobbler.

“Though, I mean, as jobs go, it seems pretty easy.”

“Awfully judgmental of you,” I commented.

“In what way? What could possibly happen? Do you think he has visitor-center emergencies? What would that even entail?”

“Brochure tampering,” I offered, tipping my head at the counter. “Pen and keychain theft, along with whatever else is up there.”

Ash surveyed the various items. “There are blanks of Kyle’s lobster nametag, so I guess they make those while you wait, and also can cozies, you know, the ones you put around your beer on the golf course.”