Fluffy 25 for either Grace/Judd or TK/Carlos, whichever you get inspired for, please? And congrats on 400! 💜
my love! i am so grateful for your friendship and your endless support! i wnet with grace/judd, first date kind of fic. i hope you like it!
#25 ~ wet kisses after finding refuge from the rain.
kissing in the rain [780 words] | on ao3
Judd can’t believe his luck. Not only has he tricked Tommy into introducing him to the most beautiful woman on this Earth, but he’s managed to get himself a date with said woman — long curly hair, broad smile, intelligent eyes and a vivacious laugh that has enchanted him from the very first moment he’s got to talk to Grace Williams. And here he is walking her back home under clouded skies and hoping against hope it doesn’t start raining, for that would definitely ruin the whole mood they have going on — but it’d be in sync with what’s happened tonight.
Judd has never had a better night in his life, and he’s also never had a date that’s started as badly as this one.
After Tommy introduced them and he managed to make his throat work long enough to praise Grace’s looks and be as polite as his father had taught him to, Judd had been dying to ask for Grace’s phone number. He’d been dying to ask her out ever since he first laid out on her — that’s why he’d nagged Tommy until she’d introduced them to each other. And, by some sort of lucky spell, Judd had managed to snath both a phone number and a first date at Tommy’s birthday party, so he’d started planning the perfect first date.
Which is about to be tanked again by the weather.
Judd knows it’s not been his finest date. First, he’d wanted to invite Grace to Justine’s, the finest French restaurant in the area, but once he checked the menu and the prices he’d quickly noped out and chose to invite her to the food truck park close to Holt Park. Despite her words reassuring him that it was a perfectly fine choice — and even as he watched her eating her burrito with gusto — Judd can’t help scolding himself. He’s never ever felt worse at not having enough money to woo a girl than in this moment.
However, the rest of the date had gone smoothly. Grace had laughed at all his jokes, and she’s even offered to split the bill, but being a gentleman Judd has snatched it from her fingers and paid for it while Grace teased him about it. “I’m a grown-up woman, Ryder,” she’s said. “And a modern one at that. I can pay for my dinner.”
“And I’m a gentleman,” he’s retaliated. “Just, let me, please?”
“Okay, fine, but next time I’ll choose and I’ll pay,” she’s been quick to reply, leaving Judd’s heart beating hard in his chest, because she’s thinking about next time, as though he’s worthy of a second date.
And now they’re walking slowly, close enough to touch but never touching — Judd’s still a gentleman — with the clouds looming over them like some of that Damocles shit Judd learned back at school. He’s about to say something when all hell breaks loose — or better, the skies give out and they begin pouring on them with the anger of a thousand storms.
“Run!” Grace exclaims, laughing. He’s stuck in place, really unmoving, so she reaches out and grabs his hand, and that’s what sets him into motion. They run under the rain, hand in hand, trying to find shelter in a street that apparently doesn’t have any place to hide from a storm.
Judd finds an alley at their right — one of those short streets covered with parachute cloth to keep the sun from hitting too hard — and tugs Grace into it, finally reaching a place where they’re not getting more soaked. He looks down at her, at her long curls completely ruined under the heavy rain, and he’s sure he’s looking horrible, but she’s laughing up at him, bright smile morphing into something else, and Judd can’t help himself.
He leans in and kisses her, sweet and wet because they’re both dripping from their race under the rain. He’s about to pull away, suddenly aware of what he’s risking — he really likes Grace Williams, he can’t mess this up — when Grace is lifting one hand and cupping his neck, keeping him in place as she kisses him back. Judd has never had such a kiss.
It’s not like fireworks — it feels like coming home.
“Well, Cowboy Judd,” she mutters into the kiss. “About damn time.”
“Was trying to be a gentleman,” he mumbles.
“Keep that for the moment you meet my dad, Ryder,” she teases him.
Judd laughs, already completely smitten with her and sure that he’ll meet her father one day — he plans on asking his permission to marry her, he knows that — and then he dives back forward, capturing her lips again and again until the rain stops.
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