For the second time in one day, Felix was at the Old Bell Diner. He’d had Sunday brunch with Tito in the morning, and now, midafternoon, he was back. Bouncing from foot to foot on his toes, sweltering next to the giant bronze bell that radiated the sun’s heat.
Waiting for Jo.
She’d texted him the night before. Two short words: “I’m ready.” He had nearly dropped his phone into a sink full of dishwater in his haste to respond. Their back and forth was brief. Enough to determine a time and place to meet, but not enough to give him any indication of what she was thinking.
Felix chewed the inside of his cheek and scanned the packed parking lot—again. There. A flash of red-brown hair. It weaved through the cars, shining like a beacon. He hadn’t seen Jo in seventeen-and-a-half days. But she was here now, and he couldn’t look away. His eyes burned in the bright sunlight, watering profusely as he barely dared to blink. She came around an SUV and spotted him. Felix’s heart melted as a slow, beautiful grin lit up her face.
Jo started to run. So did he.
In an empty parking space, between a minivan and an ancient pickup truck, they collided. Jo leapt into his arms, and Felix clung to her, his hands closing around her midriff beneath her tank top.
“Jo.”
“I love you, Felix. I love you, I love you.”
A joyous sound fell from his lips as he buried his face in her hair. She smelled like summertime and coming home. “Jo. My Jo. I love you too.”
The sun shone on them and the black asphalt all around. Sweat dripped down their faces and mingled on their cheeks. Felix didn’t care. Let the sun burn all of Kansas to the ground, and them along with it. He would die happy, with Jo in his arms, loving him.
They didn’t move, or even speak, until they heard a honk. A sedan had its turn signal on, the driver gesturing impatiently at them through the windshield. Jo laughed, a sound he had been bereft without. She shouted an apology to the driver. Felix adjusted his grip on her and carried her to the sidewalk.
“We should talk,” Jo said as he set her beside the bell. She slid her hands into his and squeezed, as if proving to herself that he was really here. He squeezed back, and her pale brown eyes shone with joy behind her glasses.
“I agree,” Felix replied. “May I buy you a coffee?”
“Oh, shit, you didn’t tell me free coffee was part of the deal!” she cried, and he laughed and kissed her cheek.
Had her cheeks always been so round and soft and pink and perfect? He kissed the other one, for good measure. Keeping one hand in hers, he led her into the oasis of the air-conditioned diner. While they waited for a table, she asked him how MnM night had gone the past two weeks.
“It’s incredible, Jo. We’ve had about a dozen people each week,” he told her. “Leni and Greg are running the tables. Greg is a pro at GMing, and Leni is picking it up quickly. I’ve stepped in to help with combat a couple of times, but she’s doing great. And we’ve had seven people sign up for new library cards.”
“That’s wonderful,” she said, gripping his forearm. His muscles flexed at her touch, and a glimmer of heat flared in her eyes.
Soon, cariño. He couldn’t wait to get those clothes off her and touch her again. He knew he was getting ahead of himself, but hope stirred within him that this would go well. She loved him (holy fuck, she loved him), and he loved her, and she was holding onto him like she never wanted to let go.
“Are you enjoying being the organizer?” Jo asked as a host led them to a booth.
“I am,” he said. “It’s a much better fit for me, and Warren is thrilled to have me focused on the program as a whole.”
“I’m so glad,” she said with genuine warmth. “I’m… I’m hoping to come play this week.”
“I hope you do. Warren agreed to your recommendation, by the way, to keep MnM once a week.”
Jo blushed, but she looked him in the eye. “Thanks for telling me. I’m glad I could help.”
Felix smiled at her, pleased to hear her take credit for herself. “So am I,” he said.
She smiled back, tentative but proud, as they sat down across from each other.
Jo ordered cold brew with cream and sugar, and Felix chose an iced vanilla latte and a slice of apple pie à la mode with two forks. After their server left, an awkward moment passed between them.
Felix was the one to break the silence. He leaned forward, arms on the table and hands lightly clasped together. “Do you want to go first, or should I?”
“Me first,” she said, before she could lose her nerve.
“I’m listening.”
Christ, how she had missed his beautiful face. Her eyes ran over his features, snagging on the soft smile on his lips. She wanted him to kiss her cheeks again. She wanted to kiss him back, to grip his hair and drag him to her side of the booth and slip her hand under his shirt and delicately scratch his skin until he begged for more, harder, please.
“Jo?” Felix asked, shattering the image in her mind that had her pressing her thighs together. The sly grin on his face told her that he had a pretty good idea what was on her mind.
“I’m here,” she said, giving him a quick smile in return. “You’re very distracting sometimes.”
“Oh, let me put these away,” he said, moving his hands to his lap to hide his forearms under the table.
They shared a laugh, and then Jo took a deep breath. She’d practiced what she wanted to say with Aida, over the phone now that her best friend was back in California. The only problem was that the script was all jumbled up in her head. Jo had planned to work up to the whole “I love you” part, but once she was back in Felix’s embrace, she couldn’t hold her feelings inside. Might as well wing it and speak from the heart then.
“So I guess you know that I love you.”
His grin turned adorably shy. “I thought I heard something like that.”
“I think I’ve loved you for a while, Felix, but it was too hard for me to see it at first. Love has never felt like this for me before, but, well, I love it. I want to keep doing it. With you. Wait, fuck, that came out wrong.”
Felix laughed, a hearty, high-pitched laugh that was practically a giggle. “God, I missed you, Jo.”
Their server stopped by with their coffee and pie, giving Jo a second to organize her thoughts. Felix handed her one of the forks and gestured for her to continue.
