Kisses In The Sand: Blame It On The Kiss Part 25

"Why she's been a total sad case this past week and wouldn't tell me why. It's you. But the past couple months make sense now, too. It was like she'd swallowed a happy pill and I think you're the reason. She's been broken for a really long time and you fixed her." He brushed at the corner of his eye, and Bryce kind of fell in love with the kid.

"I'm not sure I deserve-"

"I think you do. So even though I'm still worried about my sister and my agent being together, I don't want to be the reason she doesn't get a chance with you."

Bryce wanted nothing less than to give Honor everything. "I appreciate that."

"And I don't want to give you up either."

"I'm happy to hear you say that, too. I've got big plans for you."

Cooper smiled. "Awesome."

"It sounds like I've got a good chance of making things right with your sister, but you in if I need some help?"

"For sure. But don't worry. Everything's gonna work out." He stood and put out his hand. Bryce did the same and they shook. "As far as any details about you and my sister, though. You can keep those to yourself."

Bryce chuckled. "I'll let Honor keep you posted."

"Cool. See you guys." He lifted his chin in good-bye to Danny and Bryce sat back down.

Danny put his hands behind his head. "Well, well, well. So that's been the reason for that sad bonehead face of yours."

"How do you know it's not because of you?"

"You're not getting rid of me altogether, dude." His best friend had finally shared what had been on his mind-he wanted out of the agent world so he could focus on what he really loved: woodworking. Over the past couple of weeks they'd worked to make that happen. Hired someone new. They'd always be friends, just not partners.

"You know I'm not surprised," Danny said with a smug look on his face.

"I know."

"Are you sure Honor will still want you?"

"Have I told you what a pain in the a.s.s you are?"

"Numerous times."

"You really need to get your own love life so you stay out of mine."

"You've no idea." Danny's shoulders slumped.

Bryce narrowed his eyes at his friend. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

Danny quickly masked whatever it was Bryce had seen. "You heading to White Strand?"

"The thought crossed my mind." Honor might have technically walked out on him, but he'd been the one to let her go without telling her what she meant to him first.

"Go big or go home."

Bryce scratched under his chin. How many times had he said that? How many times had he heard it? "Thanks for the reminder."

"Don't mention it." Danny stood. "Any other problems I can solve for you this afternoon?"

"I'm good."

Danny gave a salute and left. Bryce laced his fingers behind his head and stared at the signed hockey stick leaning against the corner of the wall. His gaze shifted to other signed memorabilia on the bookshelf.

On his desk sat a framed note from his sister. She'd given it to him after his bike accident. Used colored pencils to spell out his name vertically, then attached a nice word to each letter.

Words alone didn't always go the distance. But words combined with action could do some serious damage. And he needed to do something serious to convince Honor to give them a chance. He jumped to his feet.

"I need your help," he said, barging into Danny's office. Bryce staggered for a second, seeing boxes packed up.

"You okay?" Danny stood from behind his nearly bare desk.

"Yeah." He let out the breath he'd been holding since the day Danny told him about his new plans. "I'm just going to miss you around here."

Danny grinned. "Aww."

"Shut up."

"So, what kind of help?" Danny eased back into his chair.

Bryce launched into what he envisioned, watching Danny nod in agreement. They made a plan and on his way out of the office Bryce called Zane and Sophie. To make this work, he needed them, too.

And a small town named White Strand Cove.

"Could you slow it down to a human pace, please?" Honor said, trying to keep up with her brother. When she'd agreed to go grab coffee and a fritter with him she hadn't realized she'd signed up for a speed walk, too.

"You really need to get back to exercising," Coop said, not slowing down in the least.

"I'll have you know I went running last weekend."

"Really?"

"And I walk all the time. But jeez, what's the rush this morning?" The sun shone, birds sang, flowers bloomed. Spring had sprung and she wanted to enjoy it.

Those seemed to be the magic words because he lagged enough for her to join his side. "Sorry. I'm just hungry," he said.

She b.u.mped his elbow with hers. "You're always hungry."

They turned the corner onto Main and Honor sighed as the smell of baked goodness and coffee hit her nose. "Where is everyone this morning?" she asked, not really expecting Coop to give her an answer. It was just awfully quiet for a Friday morning. Usually the line for fritters busted out the door.

Weirder still, when they pushed open the door to the Beach Cafe not a single person stood inside. That had never happened in Honor's entire existence. If Rachel hadn't smiled from behind the counter, Honor would've thought she'd entered some alternate universe.

"Morning!" Rachel said, a little too perky.

Then Coop ran back outside like someone had yelled "fire." What the heck was going on? The way the hair on the back of her neck stood up, she was about to get punked or enter the Twilight Zone.

What she didn't expect was to hear Bryce's voice from somewhere behind the counter. In the kitchen maybe?

Her pulse hammered. She'd thought to reach out to him this weekend and here he was, like her wish had been granted.

"Have a seat," Rachel said. "There." She nodded to Honor's right.

That's when Honor noticed a computer sat on one of the round tables. She walked over and took the chair in front of it.

"Don't move," Rachel said before disappearing into the back.

Not a problem, since she'd decided to stay glued to her seat until someone told her what to do. Because all of a sudden it seemed vitally important she not make one wrong move.

Bryce.

Was here.

Why?

"There's a song from the Beatles," he said, coming out from behind the register.

Honor blinked several times and swallowed. She'd dreamed about seeing him over and over again, but coming face to face with him for real was a gazillion times better.

"The first verse is, 'Say the word and you'll be free.'"

She didn't know the song and still goose b.u.mps popped up on her arms. Their eyes met and she gave silent thanks she had a chair underneath her because the sight of him made her weak in the knees. His hair was neat and tidy and she wanted to mess it up with her fingers. His blue b.u.t.ton down shirt-the exact same color he'd worn the first night they'd met-was pressed and she wanted to wrinkle it. The top b.u.t.tons were open and her pulse raced at the peek of smooth skin. But what really accelerated her heart was a glimpse of ink on his chest. Over his heart maybe? That killed her almost as much as the s.e.xy cleft in his chin.

"Hi," he said, standing on the other side of the table, behind the computer.

"Hi," she said back.

"There's a second and third verse and then the fourth verse goes, 'Have you heard the word is love?'"

The love she had inside her for Bryce, it hadn't stopped. It wouldn't leave. She'd tried. And failed.

"Today I'm here to tell you, and show you, how much I love you, Honor Mitch.e.l.l." He flashed that s.e.xy smile of his, his eyes twinkled with admiration and affection, and she gripped the edge of her chair to keep from sliding off. He loved her!

"I love your hallux."

She burst out a laugh. He couldn't have started with a better word or better reminder of how much they just clicked.

He loved her big toe.

"Press enter on the keyboard, Honor."

Blinking back tears of joy, she did as he asked. The dark screen blinked to life and revealed a frozen image of the park in Town Square with... she looked a little closer... people holding some type of block.

"Hit play," he said.

Her breath caught as she watched Sophie, Zane, Coop, Danny, Jules and Dylan line up side-by-side on the monitor. They each held a large pale wooden block with a black letter painted on the front to spell out the word hallux. The blocks looked like Scrabble pieces with small numbers in the bottom right corner denoting point value.

"I love your smile," Bryce said next.

Sophie and the hallux gang put their blocks down on the gra.s.s and dispersed just as Midge and the Street Team, along with Mr. Case, hurried onto the screen with letters in their hands to spell out s-m-i-l-e.

"I love that you care more about others than you do yourself."

Honor continued to watch the video in awe as an overhead camera angle showed Midge's group put the letters down on the ground vertically, using the second "l" in hallux. Mr. Case took his "l" and hurried away as the mayor and his wife and others she'd known her whole life spelled out s-e-l-f-l-e-s-s.

Oh my G.o.d. Bryce was playing Scrabble, right there in the middle of town to show her what he loved about her. Tears p.r.i.c.ked the back of her eyes again. Her whole body shook.

"I love your mind and your spirit and your laugh."

Using the "s" in smile, the blocks spelling selfless were laid on the ground just as a new group showed her l-a-u-g-h.

Honor covered her mouth with her hand. Some major filmmaking, not to mention coordination had taken place to bring her this piece of magic.

"And I really love the way you osculate."

"In English please!" someone shouted on screen and she marveled that Bryce had timed his speech so perfectly with the video. He must have practiced.

"Kiss," Honor muttered, her eyes lifting to lock on Bryce's. She wanted to kiss his whole face. Hide the two of them away in her house and kiss him until next week.

The osculate group put their letters down and then the video cut to an overhead shot again. Honor stared at the screen, the words on the gra.s.s linking to form the most beautiful Scrabble puzzle she'd ever seen. Her heart leaped into her throat.

"I love you," Bryce said.

She looked back up to find he held his own block letter-U. His eyes sparkled with mischief and pa.s.sion as he stepped around the table and took her hand to lead her outside. Then he slid the lid off the block and a bunch of colorful b.u.t.terflies fluttered free. Her mouth fell open, she sighed in more happiness than she thought possible.

"Let me love you, Honor. Fly with me for the rest of our lives." He put the block down and took her in his arms. She could barely breathe, so overwhelmed by what he'd done.

"I love you," he repeated. "I know you're scared, but you're it for me. The love of my life."

"What about Cooper?" she asked.

"Cooper is fine with it!" Her brother shouted from a few yards away. In fact, the entire town had come out from hiding, huge grins on their faces. Uncle Tuck, Sophie, Dylan, the Street Team, Tango...

Bryce took her hand and rubbed his thumb across her knuckles. "I'm asking for a chance. Stay with me and we'll figure things out. No pressure." One side of his s.e.xy mouth lifted. "At least not yet."

He wanted her and Lord knew she wanted him. "I do want to try. With you. Only you." Her life was better with him in it. So much better.

"Yeah?"

She cupped his cheek with her free hand. "I love you, too." She'd never said that to anyone before and feeling the euphoria inside her chest, she knew it was because she'd been waiting for him. "And was going to find you and tell you that this weekend."

"Well?" Uncle Tuck shouted. "What's the verdict?"

Bryce brought her closer and kissed her. Hard. Hoots and hollers rang out as his tongue pushed inside her mouth and he kissed her like they didn't have an audience. She didn't care. Too lost in the incredible sensation of having this man devour her and claim her as his.