His hand reaches forward, his finger tucking a strand of hair behind my ear before dragging down my neck, dipping just under my collar and playing with the skin there. He licks his lips, and I smell the slightest whiff of seven-and-seven on his breath. “You walked in with this sexy flippy dress and your legs are all smooth and they’re like ‘Oh, hello, is there a Cameron Riggs in the building?’”

I giggle at his aggrieved expression. “My legs were talking to you, huh?”

He groans playfully, turning to lean back on his elbows against the bar top. “You wouldn’t believe the scandalous things your legs tell me when you aren’t listening. They haven’t shut up since the B&B. All day long, it’s ‘Cameron, don’t you want to feel how smooth we are? Cameron, don’t you want a little taste?’” He tilts his head toward me, his voice hoarse, his eyes darkening. “‘Cameron, we’d fit perfectly around your hips…’”

“Gah—stop!” I cover his mouth with my finger, trying and failing to tear my eyes away from his lips. “Right now, there are parts of me, parts just north of my chatty legs, that are telling me to make you stop before I spontaneously combust and take you on this bar.”

Cameron’s eyes widen, but his grin is way too pleased. He takes a sip of his drink. “Fair enough. Though my parts reserve the right to return to the conversation about bar-top combustions at another time.”

I smirk. “The conversation is hereby tabled.”

He snorts into his glass. “Very punny, Springfield.”

We continue to sit at the bar, sipping our drinks, and Beth keeps us company, showing us pictures of her and Kevin’s first two babies, all dark curls and toothy grins, who are spending the night at their grandparents’.

“My goodness. They’re beautiful!”

Cameron shakes his head. “I still can’t believe a Viking monster like Kevin could produce something so cute. You must have strong genetics, Beth.”

“Oh now,” I say, giggling at the affronted expression on his best friend’s face. “Ignore him. He’s just jealous.”

The corner of Cam’s mouth lifts in an easy smile. “Now, that’s true. If only I’d met Beth first…”

Beth’s eyes sparkle and she lifts up, pulling her giant husband’s mouth down to hers for a quick but tender kiss. “Wouldn’t have mattered, Riggs,” she says, clearly lost in Kevin’s smitten gaze. “He had me from the start.”

My cheeks hurt from smiling so hard and the fizzy ginger ale does a little swirl in my stomach. These two make it look so simple. You meet, you fall in love, you get married and have babies, and you spend the rest of your life with that one person who likes you best, who you like best.