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He did chuckle, and then he touched his lips to hers. He’d clearly been chewing that spicy-hot peppermint gum, because she tasted it on him. “You’re burning me,” she whispered before kissing him again.

“Doesn’t seem to be bothering you.” He grinned as he pulled away.

“I don’t know how you chew that stuff. It’s so spicy.”

“I like it,” he said. “Makes my mouth feel clean.”

“Mm.” She nodded back toward the house. “So…the boxes?”

“Who’s gonna haul these into the library for you tomorrow?”

“I’m sure they’ll have a cart or something,” she said. Besides, it wasn’t like she couldn’t do it, but why should she with Finn here?

“Maybe I could come,” he said as he started for the corner of the house.

She watched him disappear around it. “Come?” Edith’s heart beat at her to follow him and find out what that meant, so she broke into a jog. In the side-shadow of the house, she found him already at the back corner. “You want to come?”

“I could help with the boxes,” he said. “Go grab breakfast so I’m not bothering you during your talk. And we can stop and look at a little farm on the way back.”

Edith’s eyebrows shot up. “A little farm on the way back?” She stopped running to catch him, but Finn kept on moving. He went through the propped-open door and came back out a few seconds later with one of her boxes.

As he approached, he grinned at her. “A place just went up for sale only a few miles outside of town. West. Looks pretty good online, and they said I could come by tomorrow. Any time.”

Edith blinked at him. “You want me to go with you?”

“I can’t make a decision like this myself,” he said. “And I don’t trust anyone more than you.”

“Okay, then, Hacky Sack,” she said, a smile playing with her mouth.

That delicious grin graced his face for only a moment before he tipped his head back and poured laughter into the sky.

“Yeah, you liked that one, didn’t you?” she teased, pleased she could make him laugh like that. She hadn’t known this much joy in a long time, and it sure felt good as Finn shook his head and went by her with her box.

She went into the she-shed and picked up the case with her signage, as well as the small box with her signing kit, her stickers, and her horse figurines. These lighter items got carried out while Finn loaded her boxes, and then they sat on the porch, his mega-thermos between them.

“Uh, I’m just gonna spit this out,” he said.

Edith looked over to him and slid her hand into his. “Okay. Sounds bad.”

“It’s not bad,” he said. “It’s just…a lot.” He reached across his body and picked up his thermos. “First, maybe you should try this.” He handed her his thermos, but Edith just looked from it to him.

“I’ve got coffee inside,” she said. “Plus, it gives me heartburn, and it’s way too hot to drink it in the summer.”

“You’ll like this,” he said in this totally not-nonchalant voice.

Edith grinned at him. “I’ll like this?” She twisted the top of it. “What have you been hiding in this all these weeks?”

He laughed again and said, “It’s only been three weeks.”

“It’s still plural.”

Edith sniffed the thermos, and it definitely smelled like coffee. She expected steam to rise from the thermos, but it didn’t. She got a hint of vanilla, and she looked at Finn. He wore delight in his expression, his light eyes dancing with it.

“Go on,” he said. “It’s not poison.”

Tentatively, she lifted the thermos to her lips and took a sip. The delight obviously running through Finn now coated her mouth. She moaned, because she couldn’t speak, and then she swallowed.

“That’s fantastic.”