Her cheeks warmed a little when he tucked the bit of hair behind her ears and she immediately dropped her eyes but listened intently to his words. This was not what she’d been expecting when he’d asked her to step out, though in truth she hadn’t really known what to expect. But certainly not this warm melty feeling somewhere in the core of her, a warm-fluttery-melty feeling that was like the emotional version of hot-fudge made with just the right amount of cream to chocolate. Perfect and it was all from this wonderfully quirky stranger who with a few words she had to squint to truly follow (for all that it was getting easier to do so) managed to make her change her thinking about so many things.

She was nothing special, but he made her feel otherwise and while she didn’t really believe him, she wanted too. That was a change for her. Cooks and makers more important than movers and shakers? It went against everything she’d been taught at home, in her family. But when Jack said it she wanted nothing more than to believe him. She squeezed his hand back because she was completely lost for words. Though she did lift her eyes and they seemed to glow in the ambient light of the aquarium as she look at him. Was it hope and warmth in her eyes or just the reflection of the light? 

But he wasn’t done speaking and she didn’t think she’d ever be done listening to him, no matter what he had to say. That what he said was so impossibly sweet and so impossibly charming made it all the better. 

“Hoo-boy.” She muttered under her breath at his words. 

She could count on one hand the number of times she’d been kissed and still have a finger or two left over. She’d never been asked so formally and there was something as endearing as it was rousing in the asking. The knowing that he wanted to kiss her made her tummy flip-flop and her toes curl in her shoes. The sweet anticipatory charge that would fill that period between giving her yes (because what else was she going to say) and the actual kiss was going to be epic. She licked her lips, her eyes dipping to his mouth in its bit of beard and wondered what that would be like, she’d never kissed a bearded man before. 

“Yes,” she said simply, nodding and then taking a step closer to him, her heart hammering as she turned her round face up to him, ready for her kiss.