"Holy, your mom was really pretty," Gordie observed, picking up the picture that Toby had been studying earlier. "You look a lot like her."
Facing her dresser mirror, Mattie stared at his reflection. He looked so gentle, and so young and new that she was suddenly blown away with a pang of desire. She walked over to him and sat beside him on her bed, their legs touching. "Okay, let's pretend that I wanted to ask you a question. Would you answer honestly?"
"It depends," he said, not looking at her, but he carefully put the picture down. "What's in it for me? Money?" Mattie just smiled in response. He finally gazed over at her and nodded. "Yeah, I would."
"Good to know," she murmured, looking up at him, sweet longing in her eyes.
Gordie swallowed his doubts and blocked out the voices in his mind. Holding her face in his hand and gently tilting her chin upwards, he leaned over and kissed her. It was not a long kiss, and it was not a mind-blowing, earth-shattering, fireworks-bursting kiss, but it was their kiss.
Still close enough that his long eyelashes fluttered delicately against her cheek, he whispered, "What was the question you wanted to ask?"
She slid into his arms. "You just answered it."