Earth Enchanted by Brynna Curry Page B

couldn’t help himself, but he took the better part of valor and only twirled a lock of her hair around his finger.
    “No, but maybe I should thank you, as it had been giving me a fair bit of trouble.”
    “Don’t thank me. I’m glad I could help. I thought you might have given up on me. I’ve been working too.” He’d come out of his zombie writing state this morning and she had been the foremost thought in his mind.
    They drove to the park, making conversation about anything and nothing at all. He chose a grassy spot by the fountain where they were shaded but could still hear the water run.
    “Jack, did you cook all of this?”
    He hadn’t wanted to give her food poisoning. “No, I got it from the deli. It’s safe.” He found it amazing that he had wanted to go out of his way for her, when he hadn’t wanted to leave his house for the simplest thing only days before. Olivia changed something in him. He was happier than he’d been in a long time. For the first time since Sissy had died, he felt like he had a reason to live. Jack smiled to himself. He knew it sounded sappy but it was how he felt when he was with her. He hadn’t even known her but a handful of days.
    It was coming up on six o’clock when they pulled up into Ryan’s driveway.
    Jack killed the engine. “This was fun, Liv. I guess I sort of shanghaied you into it.”
    “I had a good time. Nothing I like better than a picnic by the water, such as it was.” He walked her to the door. She brushed a kiss over his cheek. “Call me again, stranger?”
    “Sure.” Jack started back down the steps, turned, and jogged back up them. “Want to catch a late show with me tonight?” At first he had been wary of her company. Now he couldn’t seem to get enough of it.
    “Okay.”
    “Eight.” Jack gunned the engine and pulled out of the drive.
    * * * *
    The theater was dark except for the tiny floor lights used to light the aisles. They took their seats in the very back, with a huge bucket of popcorn between them, while the previews played across the big screen. “I hope you don’t mind sitting all the way back here.”
    “Nah, this is fine.” As long as he could keep his hands in the popcorn and his mind on the show, he silently added.
    “I like to watch other people’s reactions.”
    He liked it for completely different reasons, but kept that piece of information to himself. He wasn’t sixteen anymore, after all.
    The movie—a psychological thriller rather than a monster flick—began on screen. Liv curled her fingers around the arms of the theater seat and waited, breath held, for the heroine’s next encounter with the maniac. Jack uncurled her fingers and twined them with his own. It was as automatic as breathing, this need to soothe nerves. She jolted, then seemed to ease a little. The simple gesture was romantic and innocent yet at the same time very intimate. What would it be like to have her twined around him?
    Jack walked hand in hand with Liv through a throng of teenagers. Housed in an outdoor mall between a law office and hair salon, the theatre was in the heart of town. He pulled her into the alcove doorway of the law office. The full moon shone brightly overhead, and summer breeze that had been stifling earlier was now comforting and warm. Turning her, he pressed her back against the wall. He heard a young girl giggle as she walked by.
    “Liv?” Jack brushed a kiss across the knuckles of the hand he held. “I wish you could put off your trip home for a while. I want more time with you. What am I saying? I don’t have any right to even ask you that. But I am asking.”
    “Life’s too short to worry about the little things. I never expected to find you. I didn’t realize I was searching. Home will be waiting when I get back. I can trust Skye to look after things for me.”
    A weight he hadn’t known he’d carried was suddenly lifted off his shoulders. “That’s good.” He brushed the lightest of kisses over her wrists,