“I washed your hair and gave you a scalp massage.”

“You did.”

“And I washed you.”

He had washed me. From my neck to my feet, he’d lathered me up and it was heavenly.

“That was last night,” I reminded him. “And last night you were at the top of my list. Today I had Sadie’s muffins, after I had really great coffee. By the way, that’s on the list, too. So are Brooklyn, Sadie, Letty, and Mrs. Simpson.”

“Am I even on the list?”

At the seriousness of his question, I slid my hands up his biceps, over his shoulders, and laced my fingers behind his neck.

“I was teasing,” I whispered. And just to punctuate my sincerity, I rolled up on my toes and gave him a peck on the corner of his mouth.

Asher didn’t much feel like accepting my peck. I knew because before I could pull my mouth from his, he turned his head and captured my lips. He further demonstrated this by taking my kiss from street legal straight to deep, wet, and lewd.

After he was done kissing me stupidly, he pulled back—but not far—to ask, “Wanna know what’s on the top of my list?”

“What list?” I was positive I sounded as breathless as I felt, and I didn’t give two finger-licking fucks.

“It doesn’t have a name,” he told me.

“You have a list without a name?”

I watched up close as Asher smiled and couldn’t help but return his grin.

“I just made it up.”

“Does this list include things like, say, feeding me dinner?”

“Sure, it’s a broad and all-encompassing list. Though feeding you dinner isn’t number one.”

The chill in the air made me shiver but I didn’t mind this kind of cold. The kind that meant I was outside on a beautiful winter night with a handsome man bantering on the street after he kissed me breathless. I’d take this kind of cold any day of the week.

“Okay, I’ll bite, what’s number one?”

“The way you light up when you’re happy. Your sense of humor. How you kiss. How loyal you are. How deeply you love. Your trust. And the fact you’d make a list of reasons to stay in Idaho and Brooklyn, Letty, and Sadie are on that list.”

Another stitch, this one the most painful of them all.

But since I’d already had two breakdowns in front of him and I felt another one threatening, I opted to tuck away his words and keep them for later.

“And Mrs. Simpson. I’ve decided when I’m her age I’m gonna be just like her.”

“She’s a wise woman.”

“I’m not talking about her wisdom, Asher. I mean when I am her age, I’m going full-blown old Hollywood throwback, and that will include wearing three strands of pearls while working in a bookstore.”

“Won’t be hard for you to accomplish, seeing as you’re already a bombshell.”

“You do know you’re at the top of my list, right?”