Page 120 of Sour Notes

“Mia’s favorite thing about Swayze.”

He gives my hand another squeeze before turning to smirk at my cousin, answering “my body” at the exact same time I announce “his abs” loud and proud.

Yesssss. We score, we win.

I bounce on the spot and Swayze throws his head back with a throaty laugh.

“That counts, give us a kiss.” Mario makes an obnoxious smooching sound when Swayze cups my neck and pulls me in for a soft, decidedly too-short kiss.

I wouldn’t mind, but dammit—my parents just put us to shame.

“Okay, same question Swayze.”

“Hmmmmm.” He runs his thumb over his lip watching me. When his eyes drop to my mouth, my cheeks heat.

“On three?” I whisper to him, taking a huge drag of my water to cover my nerves.

He nods and squeezes my hand three times. Sucking in a sharp breath, I call out “my sass” just as he shouts “her sassy mouth,” a huge grin splitting his face.

Everyone laughs at the excited squeal that bursts out of me while he slides a hand round my neck, drawing my face to his with a chuckle.

“I really do like this sassy mouth,” he murmurs, lips pressed to mine, sending my stomach into a weird, happy flip as he deepens the kiss.

Breaking away, a little breathless, I shake my head at him. “Good guess, boyfriend.”

“Easy when it’s true, girlfriend.”

Mario, ever the showman, fans himself watching us before continuing. “Most embarrassing moment⁠—”

We don’t even let him finish before we both shout, “Airport security!” at exactly the same time.

Mom cackles beside us, launching into a full-blown play-by-play to fill in the rest of the group.

“…I just told him, my girl works hard and needs some relief. And we all know orgasms work best for that. Just look at Mario—not a single gray hair on his head. Sex does wonders for the stress levels.”

Fuck me, this is why that moment might go down in history as the most embarrassing of my life. Ever. It had nothing to do with TSA waving around my vibrator like air traffic control and everything to do with mom’s sex education speech.

Even Mario looks a little sheepish, the tips of his ears turning a cute shade of pink, despite his amused expression.

“Okay, gang, who made the first move?”

“He did!” I shout triumphantly. This one’s easy. He pulled me into that bathroom at Jett’s quicker than Mario can drop his boxers.

“Nope. You kissed me first, brat.”

I gasp, my head snaps toward him. “Wait, what? No way, you leaned in.”

He chuckles, shaking his head. “It was loud in there. I was trying to hear what you were saying.”

“As if! You were staring at my lips.” I shoot him a mock glare.

“Ever heard of lip reading?” He smirks wickedly.

“With your tongue?” I’ve got him there. No way he can twist that narrative. “Your tongue darted out to lick your bottom lip before we kissed. It’s the universal I’m gonna kiss you sign. Everyone knows that.”

“Objection.” His wicked smirk widens into an all out cheshire cat grin as he holds up his hand.

“Nope. Overruled.” Grinning smugly, I shove the shot glass into his outstretched hand and watch him reluctantly drink.