AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“But I brought you a pastry. I feel like that at least earns me a peek at one item on the ‘Why I love Cody’ list.”
“No one said anything about love.” I batted my eyelashes at him and tried to will my racing heart to slow. He was just teasing. Because the big L hadn’t been anything we’d discussed yet. We’d barely started dating. And sure, we’d been friends for what felt like forever. And he—and I—had had feelings and interest for about that long. But that didn’t mean we jumped straight into love.
There were steps. And we needed to take them.
Or we at least needed to be open with our friend group about where things stood between us first. Right?
Cody clutched his chest dramatically and slid to the floor. He let out a gasping, strangled moan.
I scooted back and looked under the table at him. “You okay down there?”
“Just dying from the heart shot. Don’t worry about a thing.” He folded his hands neatly on his chest.
If I squinted an eye and tried hard, I could picture him holding a single, white lily. “You’d make a beautiful corpse.”
“Beautiful?” He shook his head. “The hits just keep on coming.”
“Oh. Sorry. Manly. Very manly and macho. For a corpse.”
“Better.” He gave a single nod before closing his eyes. “Your floor is hard—did you know that?”
“Well, it is a floor. You could get up. Or are you a fairy and you need me to applaud?”
“Wow. I’m a beautiful fairy.” Cody pushed himself to a sitting position, narrowly avoiding cracking his head on the bottom of the table. “An unlovable, beautiful fairy apparently.”
“I never said you were unlovable.” I crossed my arms. “I said no one had said anything about love.”
“Fair enough.” Cody got to his feet, brushed off the back of his jeans, and came around to the side of the table where I was sitting. “What if someone did?”
I bit my lip. “Is it fast? It feels like it might be fast.”
He sighed quietly before leaning in to brush his lips over mine. “Then we’ll wait. Even though I don’t want to.”
I closed my eyes. I didn’t either. Not really. “Don’t you think our friends deserve to know before we go there?”
“I don’t know why. This isn’t about them. It’s about us.” He waited until I met his gaze. “I love you, Megan. There’s no question in my mind that you’re the woman I want to spend my life with. But I’ve been waiting for you this long, I can wait some more.”
“I love you, too.” My words came out as a whisper, practically unbidden.
His grin flashed again before his mouth covered mine.
The kiss wasn’t nearly long enough. Before I was ready, Cody had eased back and moved to the other side of the kitchen table. With a cheeky wink, he picked up his bear claw and bit into again.
I just shook my head and broke off another perfect bite for myself. “Maybe, since you’re such a beautiful fairy prince and everything, I will excuse the barbaric way you eat pastry.”
Cody rolled his eyes.
I reached for my coffee. “Other than eating amazing food from a location you’re going to share with me, what did you want to do today?”
He pointed at me. “Not telling you. Maybe it’ll be my wedding gift to you. We’ll have to see.”
I was glad I hadn’t taken a drink yet, because I surely would have choked when he so nonchalantly threw out the words “wedding gift.” I wasn’t sure what part of taking things slow and waiting that fell under, but I was guessing it didn’t. It was, in fact, the opposite.
It didn’t seem like Cody had noticed my stillness, because he’d continued talking. “I was thinking maybe a movie marathon while we stuffed invitations for the gala?”
“Ah, romance.” My hand flew up to cover my mouth.
His shoulders fell.
