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“My pleasure,” he said. His words sounded distracted.
They stood there for a moment, before he murmured, “I guess I didn’t get to kiss you good morning. I spent a lot of time thinking about our last kiss. It was...better than all the ones I had dreamed about.”
Her fingertips tingled, and her toes curled. Just the idea that he dreamed about kissing her. Not like she hadn’t spent more time dreaming about his kiss.
“Same,” she said, rather than arguing about who had spent more time thinking about kissing who. “Maybe I need another one to compare it to. Just in case I’m remembering wrong,” she said, knowing it was a flimsy excuse, but wanting him to kiss her again.
“If you want me to kiss you, you should just say, ‘Travis, kiss me please.’ It’s not like it would be a hardship.”
“Travis, kiss me please.” She couldn’t help smiling, as her hand landed on his chest, and she leaned forward.
“I was just thinking that I shouldn’t kiss you again until I’ve gotten your uncle’s permission. I’m a little nervous.”
“My uncle’s permission to kiss me?” she said, backing up just a bit. That was interesting.
“You know. When the man asks the father for permission to marry his daughter.”
“You want to get married?” she breathed out, her words barely making a sound.
“Is that crazy?”
“...I guess not. It’s what I want, but... I thought it might take you a while to come around to that, since it took you eight years to get around to telling me that you loved me.”
“You were too young. I wanted to tell you a long time ago.” He seemed concerned that she might have thought that he delayed on purpose. Or delayed because he wasn’t sure.
“Why are you nervous? You know my uncle loves you. He thinks you’re amazing.”
“Really? He knows what I was. He knows where I came from. He might not think I’m good enough for you. I don’t think I’m good enough for you.”
“I think where you came from makes it even more amazing to see where you are now. And, my uncle might not agree, but I feel like I’m not good enough for you. You have become successful, you’ve traveled the world, you’ve amassed a lot of business skills and ability and you’ve invested in our town. I’m still a small time farmer, with my cows and my dogs and not much else.”
“Maybe that doesn’t look successful in the eyes of the world, but you’ve been a faithful friend. That’s worth more than all the money in the world. I ought to know. If it were possible to buy friendship, I could afford to.”
She didn’t say anything, because he was right. Friendship was something that couldn’t be bought. Loyalty, trust, and support. She couldn’t pay a person to do that; they had to do it of their own free will.
“Are you telling me that I just asked you to kiss me, because you told me to. And now you’re not going to because you’re waiting for Uncle Tadgh to give permission?”
The serious look of his face was marred a little as his lips curved up. “That doesn’t seem like a very nice thing to do, doesn’t it?”
“No, it doesn’t,” she said, affecting a bit of a hurt tone.
“Then I guess you have to kiss me. That way if anyone asks, I can say that I was blindsided, you wrapped your arms around me and kissed me before I could know what was happening.” His smile turned up even more. “Of course, if I end up pulling you closer, and kissing you back, I guess there’s really no excuse for that, is there?”
“Maybe we’ll just have to see if you can resist my charms,” she said, blinking her eyes and realizing she was flirting.
“I can’t say that I’m going to put too much effort into that,” Travis murmured as she came closer, and he lowered his head so she could reach.
Their lips met, and she realized she had been remembering the first kiss incorrectly. Or perhaps, they’d gotten better with practice, since the second kiss was far, far better.
Chapter 22
Travis found himself humming as they pulled into the driveway going toward Ellen’s house. It was just over the hill from his, but to drive there meant going out his driveway, going down the road a half a mile, then pulling into Ellen’s driveway.
It wasn’t enough time for him to lose the glow that he felt after Ellen had gotten done kissing him. It definitely wasn’t him that had gotten done. He had been ready to stand there all day, but one of them had pulled back. He was pretty sure it was her. He was a little cloudy on the details, because kissing Ellen seemed to do that to his brain. Turning it to mush, making it so that all he could do was want her closer.
Still, as her house came into sight, and he saw her uncle walking across the yard from the barn toward the house, his stomach tightened. Ellen seemed confident that her uncle would be fine with them, but he wasn’t so sure. After all, just the little bit of time that he’d spent with Alice made him realize how much a man could feel protective toward a baby in his care. If he felt that way toward Alice, whom he had only known for a couple of weeks, he could only imagine the way Tadgh must feel about Ellen.
Travis had a hard time picturing anyone being good enough for Alice. That had to be the way Tadgh felt too.
