He swore again with a dramatic shake of his head. He nabbed one last bite of pie before nudging the plate toward Jo to let her finish it off. She was quiet as she dragged the tines of her fork through the softened ice cream, leaving four deep grooves behind.
“I appreciate you explaining all of that to me,” she said. “There have been moments when I worried about how fast things were going, but there was a part of me that also stopped caring. That night, when you told me you loved me, I…” The emotion in her voice cut off her words. She blinked to clear her eyes and offered him a soft smile. “I guess I was pretty fucking happy too.”
“I do love you, Jo,” he said emphatically. “I love you, and I want you. I want to give you all the time you need and learn how to support you with your therapy and figure out how to balance my own life better.”
“Felix…” His name on her lips was a whisper, a breath, a sigh.
“There’s something else I’d like you to know,” he said. Jo nodded for him to continue. “Ashville never felt like home to me. A lot of that was my own doing, and not just because I was lonely. I saw living here as being stuck in a holding pattern. I was glad to do whatever was necessary for Tito, but I never appreciated this town or wanted to settle down here. Not until you. The night you walked into Tito’s house and asked about our family photos, and the next morning, when I woke up in your arms—that’s when things began to change.”
She was staring at him, unblinking, her attention rapt.
“I used to feel like I can’t leave Ashville. Now… I don’t want to,” he said. “You and Tito are here, of course, but so are Leni and Peggy and Greg and the regulars at MnM who know me by name. I feel like my work is actually starting to make a difference in this community. I care about the library’s budget not just for my own sake but also for the programs this town would lose. I still have my dreams, and I still want to pursue them. But, Jo, you made me see that I can have a life I love here and now. And I want that life to be with you.”
“Okay.”
“I know, I know,” he said, holding up his hands in surrender. “I just talked about slowing down. I won’t rush you into anything. I meant what I said about giving you whatever time you need. But what I’d like you to know, cariño, is that I’m in this for the long haul.”
“Felix.” Her expression softened with affection. “I already said okay.”
He was so wrapped up in getting out his thoughts (he really should have written this down) that it took a moment for his brain to catch up. “Okay what?”
“Okay, let’s do it,” she declared. “I’m in this for the long haul too, gorgeous. I love you, and I love Ashville. I want you—I want us to be happy here. Let’s make this place home.”
Incandescent. That was the only word in Felix’s mind when he looked at Jo’s face. Round cheeks glowing, eyes sparkling, smile beaming. She was sunshine itself, burning hotter and brighter and fiercer than the light outside the window.
He pushed to his feet and leaned over the table, his shirt dragging across melted ice cream and sticky apple filling. Jo shoved their coffee glasses out of his way and raised her face to meet him. Felix cupped her cheeks, let anticipation build for a split second, and kissed her—deeper, harder, more true, more real than any other time he’d kissed her. She parted her lips, and her tongue dove into his mouth. Fuck, she tasted better than he remembered. Her fingers tangled in his hair, pulling ever so slightly and sending blood straight to his cock, which was currently pressed against the edge of the table. He barely restrained himself from groaning.
“Woo!” a voice yelled. “Get it, girl!”
Jo burst out laughing, throwing her head back with glee. Felix scanned the diner and found every single person staring at them. Even the waitstaff.
“Uh, you want to get out of here?” he muttered.
“Mmm… that shirt needs to come off,” she replied in that motherfucking sexy sphynx voice he hadn’t heard since Indi-Con. Her eyes trailed lazily down his dessert-covered chest. Then, in a quick, clipped tone, she added, “And go in the laundry so it doesn’t stain.”
“My good girl. Such a fucking tease,” he whispered, low and heated, and watched Jo’s pupils go wide with desire.
She leaned into the aisle. “Can we get the check, please?”
Epilogue
Five Months Later
Three timers were going off at once: the stove, Jo’s phone, and Felix’s phone.
“Mine’s the rolls, right?” Felix asked, striding into the kitchen.
“Yup,” Jo answered from the sink where she was draining the potatoes. “Can you turn the stove timer off too? That was the potatoes.”
“On it.”
Felix retrieved the golden-brown rolls from the oven and silenced the various timers. Jo dropped an entire stick of butter into the pot of steaming potato chunks to start it melting. She found the drawer with the potato masher on her first try and cheered for herself. She’d been living with Felix at Tito and Lita’s house since her six-month lease expired a few weeks ago. She was still finding her way around the kitchen and hadn’t had a chance to use everything yet. Because who the hell uses a potato masher more than this one day a year?
“Leni, you’re on deck!” Jo called, setting the masher by the pot.
Leni came skidding around the corner, orange-tipped hair—her color of choice for Halloween and Thanksgiving—swinging wildly.
“Felix, why is your grandpa so much cooler than you?” she demanded. “He read every single Dresden Files book in two months.”
“Because he has too much time on his hands,” Felix responded, loudly enough that Tito would hear him from the living room.
“Shit, the turkey!” Jo cried, cutting off any potential rebuttal from Tito. “That was the third timer!”
Felix checked the bird’s temperature to make sure they didn’t kill their dinner guests while Jo went over her list to see what needed to happen next. Leni slid over to the counter and stared at the butter as if she could make it melt faster by the power of wishful thinking.
As if on cue, she asked, “Is there a spell to melt butter?”
“Create Flame?” Felix suggested.
“Nature Weave would do it,” Jo said as she pulled the cranberry sauce and salad out of the fridge.
“I like Create Flame,” Leni replied. “More fun.”
“More risk, you mean?” Felix asked.
“Same thing.”
