“I’m extremely happy you came to see me,” Jaren said, and truth be told, he looked a little tipsy himself.

“You drank some of the plum brandy, didn’t you?” she asked.

He colored and looked down. “Guilty. I was feeling bad for myself that you were at a festival with your friends while I was stuck alone in this shack.”

Leelo laughed, a little less embarrassed now. “I thought you might be feeling that way.”

“And you weren’t having fun?” He pinched some of the crumbs between his fingers and tossed them into his mouth. “The food was clearly excellent.”

Leelo sighed, tugging a daisy free of her hair and spinning it between her fingers, just to give them something to do. “I don’t know. Everyone was dancing, but my heart wasn’t in it.” It was here, with you, she thought, and then wondered what was happening to her. She’d known Jaren just a few weeks. She couldn’t be falling for him. That was ridiculous.

He tossed a few more crumbs into his mouth and leaned back. “I feel like this is a dream, and any moment I’m going to wake up.”

“Why does it feel like a dream?” she asked shyly.

“Because I wished you would come here. And I wished I could kiss you. So, you see, I’ve had two wishes come true in a row, and that never happens. Clearly, I must be dreaming.”

“Technically,” Leelo said, scooting closer to Jaren, “I kissed you.”

He reached up, twisting a lock of her hair around his finger. “That is a fair point.”

Her voice dropped almost to a whisper. “So only one of your wishes came true.”

He smiled, his thick lashes falling against his cheeks as he sat up and closed the space between them. His lips were soft but firm, his entire body radiating warmth that she wanted to curl up in like a blanket. She pressed as close to him as she dared, and when he wrapped his arms around her, bringing her even closer, any trepidation she’d felt before coming here melted away. She felt the farthest from scared she could imagine. In fact, it was the safest she could remember feeling, as if the rest of the world didn’t matter when they were here together in this tiny cottage in the woods that no one else knew about. As if nothing else existed at all.

When he finally pulled away, he cupped her face in his hands, looking into her eyes with such earnestness she felt something swell in her chest. “Two wishes,” he whispered, and leaned in to kiss her again.

Chapter Thirty-Four