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We keep walking toward the square.
His hand swings close to mine. Our fingers brush. The contact is almost nothing, but heat jumps straight up my arm, and suddenly I’m acutely aware of every inch between his hand and mine.
I want to close it.
Yesterday I kissed him until his erection pressed against me. This morning he told me he masturbated while thinking about me, then put his hand on my hip while we discovered exactly how little friction it takes to make both of us lose track of ordinary things.
But holding his hand here feels bigger.
A kiss inside my kitchen belongs to us. This would belong to everybody who saw it.
Someone would take a picture. Hollis Springs would have opinions before dinner. The internet would have them by tomorrow. Locke and I haven’t decided that whatever this is belongs to anybody else yet.
Our hands swing close again. After that, I keep mine at my side.
I want the ordinary thing so badly it almost hurts. I want to walk down a sidewalk holding the hand of the man I kissed this morning without turning it into evidence of anything.
Locke glances at me. “What?”
“Nothing.”
He studies me briefly but doesn’t press.
At the next corner, a little girl comes out of the Cherry on Top ice cream shop holding a cone piled with bright blue ice cream. Most of it appears to be melting toward her wrist.
Locke slows to watch her take a lick. “What is that?”
“Ice cream.”
“I know what ice cream is.”
“You know the concept. You’ve never seen the real thing.”
“No.”
His attention remains on the cone until a thought occurs to me.
“Do you want some?”
His gaze goes straight back to the cone. “Yes.”
“That was decisive.”
“I liked popcorn.”
“This is nothing like popcorn.”
He looks at the cone again. “Better?”
“That depends on how seriously you take butter and salt.”
His gaze shifts through the shop window to the long glass case inside. “I want to know.”
“Excellent reason to buy ice cream.”
The girl behind the counter recognizes him before we get two steps inside. To her credit, she only stares for a couple of seconds before recovering.
“Hi.”
