Slap.

He could feel the shape of her hand burning into his face. Sharp. Defined. Ringing in his ears mixed with the flutter of birds overhead as they fled the barn, her scream echoing in the rafters. The heat sank deeper, tingling outward. 

Dark brown eyes stared back at him, enormous, glassy, widening further still. Her mouth fell ajar, the freckles covering her cheeks overflowed onto thin lips, the lower barely aquiver.  

His face burned. 

A sharp breath rushed into him, his tongue tasting the dust and hay in the air, brain scrambling to catch up as shock faded. The site of her face, falling with realization and dread, sunk in. His chest tightened. Swelled.

And it all clicked.

A single bark of laughter burst out of him, breathy and deep. Silent giggles slowly followed, his cheek burning more as a smile split it, shoulders beginning to shake.

Her brows twitched, then pinched a line between them, mouth slipping shut. 

Laughter found his voice, bubbling up and out, growing richer, quicker, tears gathering in his eyes as the dread in hers faded. 

She started to speak, then held it back, hesitant. 

“Well, then.” He barely fit the words out as he gasped for breath, resting hands on knees for support. “I don’t suppose we have to worry.” 

“Worry.” Her words came out soft, still tentative, yet curious. “About what?”

He swallowed the laughter back down, a grin digging deep into his face, his whole middle tight with giddiness. “That even if someone sneaks up and catches you by surprise, you’ll give ‘em their comeuppance.” 

He winked, cheek still tingling and numb. 

But it drove away the last flickers of doubt, and a smile slowly bloomed across those pink lips, those freckled cheeks, and into those beautiful, deep, earth brown eyes.