“I’m pretty sure that statement alone might do it.”
“Not a chance, pumpkin. We haven’t steered you wrong yet, trust us.”
He left before I could reply but the words were already on the tip of my tongue. I did trust him, I trusted all of them. Every single day they showed me why I could in more and more ways.
Once I finished eating, I slipped on a pair of jeans with a fuzzy black sweater I loved before grabbing my cute matching black hat and boots. The outfit was the perfect combination of practical and cute, and I found myself excited about the possibility of what the guys had planned.
Boone and Jack were already waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs, the two of them both in jeans as well that made them look positively scrumptious.
“If you keep looking at me like that, baby girl, we’re going to have to take you back up stairs,” Boone warned, his woodsy scent intensifying and filling my lungs.
I stepped into his waiting arms, burying my face into his chest, my cheeks surely flushed. A groan echoed through the room and I felt another set of arms wrap around me as Jack pressed against my back.
“I love this hat, pumpkin, but it’s not letting me kiss you all the places I want to,” he said, half amused, half aroused.
“You told me to get dressed,” I pointed out. “If we were going to have a date in bed you should have just said so.”
“Baby girl,” Boone said with a groan. “I’m trying to do this right. Date first.”
“Fine, fine,” I said with a sigh. “I guess you’re just trying to make an honest woman out of me. Although I’m sure if I just listed all the fun we’ve all had—”
“Enough, trouble,” Boone said, stepping back and tilting my head up for a kiss.
Once he was done, he kept his fingers on my chin and turned my head towards Jack as he watched his best friend take the same.
For pumpkin spice sake these boys were going to ruin me.
“Let’s go,” Jack said, a smile on my face. “We’re taking the truck.”
They led me out to Jack’s red pickup, the beta opening the door for me as Boone snatched me up and lifted me up onto the bench seat.
“So do I get to know what we’re doing yet?” I asked, holding both of their hands as we made our way out of the drive.
“We’re going shopping,” Jack answered, the excitement in his voice clear as day.
“Anything in particular?” Boone mumbled next to me, his hand squeezing mine. “What was that, bear?”
“For us,” he said, clearing his throat and speaking clearer. “We’re going shopping for us and for the house. We’d do it ourselves but we’d rather have your opinion.”
“Exactly,” Jack said. “You have exceptional taste, your choice in us says as much.”
“I think Hunter is rubbing off on you,” I teased him with a laugh.
“Maybe just a bit,” he conceded. “But we thought we’d make a date of it. A romantic stroll down Main Street, our arms linked and loaded with bags.”
“Can my mouth be loaded with treats too?” I asked.
It took one single second where the three of us looked at each other before we burst out laughing. I’d walked right into that one.
“We’ll grab a drink from Claire’s to fuel up and then we can stop at The Confectionary so we can get some of those chocolates you were raving about,” Jack agreed.
Once we all had our special Cedarwick caramel ciders that Claire whipped up for us and we were strolling down Main Street, I couldn’t help but appreciate the moment.
The crisp fall air swirled around us, the yellows, ochre, and burnt amber colors of the leaves dancing on the wind and adding to the magic charm of the city. The afternoon streets were filled with a variety of both locals and tourists, but it didn’t feel overcrowded. If anything, it felt like we were experiencing something special all together, the very thing that made Holiday Hollow what it was.
Jack and Boone steered me into one of the stores I hadn’t had a chance to go into before, a fantastic home goods store of sorts that had the absolute cutest stuff. Excitement filled me as I looked at all the fixtures and linens, the cute chairs and literally the cutest damn pillows I’d ever seen.
They were in the shape of apples.Cute little baby apples.