Chapter 35 Scarlett
THIRTY-FIVE
Scarlett
“That’s quite the welcome home,” Brendan murmurs, looking down at me.
“I needed to see you.” I try to catch my breath, which is impossible after he kisses me like that.
He links his fingers through mine. “I was coming to find you.”
“What’s going on?”
“I have a surprise for you.” He leads me down the hall.
I groan. “You know I hate surprises.”
“I know,” he says with a smirk. “But you’ll like this one. I promise.”
We walk to the parking lot where I climb into his immaculate SUV. He still has my sticky notes stuck to the interior, the ones I left in here after the police pulled us over.
“You still have these?”
He glances over with a guilty smile. “They reminded me of the time you were all over my lap looking for that earring.”
Then he reaches into the console and hands me a piece of paper. “By the way, I talked to Eli and your parents about this first.”
I unfold it to find a lease agreement for the cafe. “What’s this?”
“I met with your landlord this afternoon and told him about the situation with your dad. I requested a more reasonable lease increase than his proposal. He agreed to bring down the new terms. It’s still more than you’re paying now, but it’s manageable.”
“Brendan—” Tears well up in my eyes. “Thank you.”
“That’s not all.” He pulls out another document. “When you mentioned that Lauren was moving out of the apartment above the cafe, I jumped at the chance to rent it before anyone else.”
“Wait.” I narrow my eyes, studying the document. “You’re moving above the cafe?”
“No, you are,” he says, taking my hand. “I can’t let you keep living in that dump with the drug dealer downstairs and the tuba player keeping you awake at two a.m.”
“What?” I throw myself across the center console, nearly tackling him in the driver’s seat. “I can’t believe you’d do this for me!”
“Scarlett, I love you.” His eyes are warm. “And we’re a team now. That means making you happy is my job.”
“No,” I remind him. “Making each other happy is.”
He kisses my forehead before reaching into his coat pocket. “I’m going to ask you to trust me about something.” He pulls a cloth from his pocket. “Wear this blindfold.”
“What kind of surprise is this?” My smile widens. “Is this some kind of sexy kissing game?”
“No, but now I’m wishing it was.” His smirk is loaded with promise. “I didn’t want you guessing where I’m taking you next.”
“Is that all?” I say, the disappointment evident in my voice. “Well, I still expect a kiss.”
He looks at me for two wildly hot seconds, before his fingers brush against my hair, tying the bandana snugly enough to block my vision but not uncomfortable.
“As you wish,” he whispers, just like our movie. Then his hands cradle my face and he kisses me—slow and deep and thorough enough to make my toes curl.
Blood whooshes in my ears. “I thought you said this wasn’t a sexy kissing game?”
“I’m giving you everything you want tonight,” he says tracing a thumb over my bottom lip. “You want sexy blindfolded kissing? I’m all in.”
Then he leaves another long, lingering kiss where his thumb had been, and now I’m burning alive.
I am in so much trouble.
He starts the engine and begins to drive, only to stop again before we’ve left the parking lot.
“Why aren’t we going anywhere?”
That’s when I feel him reaching across me for the seat belt. His arm brushes my body, his hand grazes my hip, and then he clicks the buckle into place. “I want you to be safe, Rossi. In case you make me swerve off the road again.”
“Oh, I know a lot of ways to distract the driver.”
He places a hand on my knee. “I don’t doubt that for a second.” I can hear the smile in his voice as we continue to our mystery destination.
There are definite perks to this blindfold game.
When the SUV finally parks, I reach for the bandanna, but he catches my hand. “Not yet.”
The door opens, and he takes my hand as I climb out. “No peeking either, Rossi.”
His hands find my waist, guiding me forward over uneven ground. Our walk seems to take forever before his hands settle at my hips, gently turning me toward him.
“You get three guesses where we are. For every wrong answer, I get a kiss.”
“Is that how it works?” I laugh.
“Absolutely.”
I can hear the sound of waves close by. “Okay. Are we at the public beach?”
“Nope. Wrong answer,” he says. “Pay up.”
He guides my face to his and I press an intentionally quick kiss to his mouth, just enough to leave him wanting more.
Who am I kidding? I want more too.
“Second guess,” he prompts.
“The pier?”
“Wrong again. You know the rules, Rossi.”
“If I must,” I say with a dramatic sigh. I rise onto my tiptoes and kiss him again, longer this time, while my palm rests against his racing heart.
“One more try, Rossi,” he teases.
“This is so unfair,” I say, dragging it out.
“Come on. You should know this one.”
And suddenly, I do—the sound of the waves, the warmth of the sun—the puzzle pieces fall into place in my memory. “Is it…our spot?”
His fingers work the knot of the blindfold. The cloth falls away, revealing a scene that’s hauntingly familiar. We’re standing where the tide meets the sand, the ocean stretching out like a rippling, blue blanket all the way to the horizon.
It’s the secluded stretch of beach tucked behind the dunes where we danced and kissed back in high school. The place I first met him.
Everything slams into me at once, the memory overlaying the present moment. But the man in front of me is different now—even more handsome than the teenage version I fell in love with.
I remember being surprised at how soft his lips were, how the waves lapped against our ankles as his mouth explored mine. He was my first kiss. First love. First heartbreak.
You never forget your first.
But you also never forget your best.
Mine are the same.
“This is our place.” I turn to study his face in surprise. “But why come here tonight?”
He sits on the sand, then pulls me down next to him. “I brought you here so we could finally pick up where we left off. Because that night didn’t end the way I wanted.” He takes my hand, pressing a kiss to the inside of my wrist. “And I’ve been waiting over a decade to make it right.”
“Brendan, you’ve already made things right—” And before I can get the words out, he closes the gap between us, his mouth finding mine as the memory of our first kiss intertwines with this one. But this time, he’s holding me like I’m something valuable, something he’ll never let go of again.
I grab the back of his neck and pull him against me, my hands gripping his shirt, as his mouth consumes me like a thunderstorm. His lips move across my jaw and I’ve never felt more alive.
“Scarlett,” he murmurs. “I would wait forever for you.”
Then he tumbles backward onto the sand and I fall with him, laughing as the waves crash nearby. When he finally finishes kissing every inch of my face, he holds me in his arms, and we sit like that for a long time, watching the waves tumble over and over again.
“I want to date you, Scarlett Rossi,” he finally says.
“You’re already dating me,” I say with a soft laugh.
“That was pretend dating,” he clarifies.
“I want the real thing. I want to hang out with you and drink chocolate milkshakes. I want to play dart games and win stuffed dolphins and kiss you on every ride in the park. I want to take you dancing and make you breakfast. And I promise to always wear matching pajamas, no matter how ridiculous.” Then he brushes my cheek. “How does that sound?”
My heart is a pinwheel, spinning furiously. “Like everything I ever wanted.”
“Does that mean you’re up for dating the assistant coach of the Crushers?”
“Of course.” I give him a teasing look. “Can I still call you Coach in private?”
His eyes flame. “Yes. Especially if it’s part of that sexy kissing game.”
“You’re on. Teach me all your ways, Coach.”
He doesn’t miss a beat—just flips me to my back so I’m lying under him on the sand, caged in by his arms.
“Oh, I’ll teach you alright,” he says in a low voice. “But only if you pay me in kisses.”
“Deal,” I say, reaching up and pulling his mouth to mine for another kiss.
When we finish, he gives me a playful smirk.
“What?” I ask.
“My mom’s already asking when the wedding is.”
My eyes nearly pop out of my head. “She just finished Carmen’s wedding!”
“You know my mom. She loves weddings.” He grins at me. “She’s already asked if my groomsmen will be all hockey players.”
“Maybe tell her to give us six months?” I laugh. “I think we deserve that before we consider ring shopping.”
His face falls. “That long? I was thinking three.”
“Are we seriously negotiating how soon we’re getting engaged?”
“Listen, Heart-Jammies, if you think I’m waiting around after this long—especially now that I’ve seen you in your tiny pajamas—you seriously overestimate my patience.”
I laugh so hard, I snort. “Okay, but don’t tell your family. They can’t keep a secret to save their lives. Or the hockey team—they’re even worse!”
“It’ll be our little secret.” He kisses my forehead, then the tip of my nose. “But you know what would make me really happy?”
“What?”
“If you said yes right now.”
I prop myself up on my elbows. “Brendan Marco, you don’t even have a ring!”
“I can arrange that by tomorrow.” He gives me a cocky smirk.
“After twelve years of waiting, I expect the whole proposal. I want to be surprised!”
He lifts an eyebrow. “You do? I thought you didn’t like surprises?”
“Usually, I don’t.” I grin. “But this is one I can get behind. So you’d better make it good, Coach.”