Caroline thinks she hears a knocking sound, but it’s muffled under the pounding of her heart in her ears, under the thrum of arousal surging through her body.

But then it happens again, louder, and she realizes – someone is actually knocking on the door, two feet to the left.

Hannah freezes, her hands on Caroline’s shoulders, and she’s so close to her that she can feel the tension crawl through her body as it happens.

Even so, she doesn’t move. She stays there, just breathing the same air while her head is spinning. Hannah doesn’t shove her away, like she did from their almost kiss in August. Instead, she slumps against the wall, her hands sliding slowly from Caroline’s shoulders and she misses the warmth of them.

“Hannah?” Robyn’s voice sounds from the other side of the door, before she murmurs something they can’t hear and two seconds later, Hannah’s phone buzzes where it lays forgotten on the kitchen table.

Caroline reluctantly lets her hands drop, staring at Hannah. Cheeks flushed, lips bruised from her own, and she just looks so good. Her own breathing is heavy and all she wants to do is kiss her again.

Hannah tilts her head back, closing her eyes tightly. “I guess it’s out of the box.”

Caroline opens her mouth but doesn’t know what to say. Everything she felt like she knew is tossed upside down and her heart is still beating so hard in her chest.

Robyn knocks again. “If you’re going to show up with three batches of my mom’s brownie recipe to that bake sale tomorrow, we have to start them soon!”

Gray eyes search her own before Hannah seems to find her voice. It’s soft as she says, “I have to get that.”

She nods, licking her lips as she steps back. And feels a flash of heat dart through her when Hannah’s eyes track the motion. “Right.”

***

Caroline can’t go back to work when she leaves.

All she thinks about is the way Hannah’s lips looked as she’d said goodbye – still swollen and so pink and Caroline wants more than anything to kiss her again.

Instead, she gets a drink with Kris and doesn’t know if she should feel more elated or confused. Her lips curl into a smile as they still tingle from her kiss. No. She definitely feels more elated.

Hannah is attracted to her, and that is the best birthday gift she’s ever received.

xiv

xiv

A year ago, the last place Caroline would have expected herself to visit on Veteran’s Day is a holiday themed bake sale in an elementary school.

But Hannah Dalton kissed her. Hannah had kissed her and then not called or texted her, as she’d taken to doing every night, and hadn’t answered her message this morning, either.

It’s all she can think about.