Monthly Bonus Content #2—Sharing is Caring... (Farah version) (Patreon)

Considering it’s only April, the sun beats a pressing heat against the width of my back as I lean down. The cool blades of grass that I scatter with my fingers are a slight respite from the warmth.

“Found another one!” a child’s voice exclaims a few feet away.

I grumble, flicking my gaze down into my woefully empty basket, and then return my focus to searching through the clumps of green at the edges of the small circle of trees near the Square.

“How you doing, babe—” Farah chimes as she bounces to my side, her words faltering to a stop as she spies my basket, a lone egg rolling about in the bottom of it. “Oh.”

“I only participated in this because I have to,” I defend, slapping a daffodil leaf out of the way and sucking in a breath at a flash of purple…only to wither as I find it’s a grape hyacinth and not a bright egg.

Farah leans against the tree I’m searching by. “I didn’t even know towns did events like this.” A smile spreads across her face as she tracks a family cheerfully hunting out paper mache eggs. “It’s nice.”

“It’s nice if you at least find more than one measly egg,” I groan, standing up and stretching out the ache in my back.

“True. Even that toddler has more than you,” she comments, pointing a finger at a small child tottering about through the grass and waving their half-full ribbon-covered basket with glee.

I stifle the bitter resentment as the child gurgles with pride at its parents.

“Do you have to rub it in?” I ask, wiping at my forehead and blowing out a breath.

“I just figured with you being a detective and all, you might at least have three by now.” She grins at my wilted expression. “But here.” She steps closer and holds up her basket, tipping half of them into mine. “We can share.”

I fumble to stop the spill of patterned eggs as they bounce into my basket. “You can’t! That’s not fair.”

“Babe, at this point, what’s mine is yours. And I am completely yours,” she says with a casual nod, but the words send my heart into a stuttering spin, so much so that I have to rest a hand on my chest to keep it from bursting with happiness.

I raise a hand and rest it against her cheek. “How did you get so sweet?”

“Oh, that’s all-natural sweetness, you know.” She glances up from her task to wink at me. “It’s good for you. So, you can have as much as you want.”

“You’re making yourself sound like a cookie,” I state with a chuckle.

She inches closer, the tip of her sharp canine tugging at her bottom lip. “Does it make you want to take a bite?”

I trail my hand from her cheek, down her neck, and rest it on the collar of her summer dress. “It makes me want to do much more than that.”

I grip the edge of her collar to bring us together, my lips finding hers and tasting all the sweetness that was promised. I suck at her lower lip, drawing a slight moan from her, before enveloping her mouth with mine again.

“Time to turn in your baskets and find a winner!” the mayor’s voice announces from his stall at the Square nearby.

Farah and I draw away from each other, her forehead resting on mine as a grin lights her face from ear to ear.

“I think I already won,” she breathes, once again sending my heart into a tailspin.