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truth.
    Elizabeth nodded. “Like perhaps you recognized me even though we didn’t meet until yesterday?” she questioned, looking at him with a serious expression. He was pulling into his driveway and then into the garage.
    “That is exactly how it feels, Lizzy. Does that shock you?”
    “Sort of… I mean, I never thought it could happen, too, but it has… Just like Grandma with Grandpa. He met her on a Thursday and they got married on Saturday! Her parents had a fit, too!” Elizabeth giggled. “They just celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary, and they are still madly in love with each other.” All of a sudden, Elizabeth realized how her words sounded. “I didn’t mean to imply that we would be married, Craig. I was just talking…”
    “I was listening,” he said, pulling her from the car and kissing her.
    It was like an explosion within her body! Elizabeth kissed Craig back, forgetting about anything and everything. She simply couldn’t get enough of his lips, and she wanted him, all of him, in a way she’d never wanted a man before. “Oh goodness!” she whispered when he let her breathe.
    “Sweet goodness,” he corrected her. “Lizzy, I don’t normally react this way to someone I’ve just met and barely know. It’s as though you belong to me already. Two days ago I would have said it was pure nonsense that two people could instantly fall in love, but now that it has happened to us, I am sure of my feelings. It’s as though I’ve known you forever, Lizzy.”
    “Grandma and Grandpa are going to love you, and Mama and Daddy are going to think we’re nuts.” She giggled when he chuckled. They went inside and she noticed that Craig had been busy. “Want some help?” she offered, suddenly hungry.
    “Sure, you can get me a wooden spatula,” he told her, and if she’d looked at him she would have seen the serious look in his dark eyes.
    “Want me to start stir frying the chicken first?” she offered, only to have him take the wooden spatula from her hands and then smack it against her bottom! “Ow! What are you doing?” she screeched, trying to jump out of reach, but he kept his hold on her, and gave her rear another sound spank.
    “I am spanking you for leaving this house by yourself, and for not bothering to say one darn word to me, young lady! If Wally hadn’t called me, I wouldn’t have had the first clue where to start looking.” He spanked her again, and then again. “I want you to think before you do something, Elizabeth! I didn’t just meet you to lose you!” He gave her three more spanks, and then he released her, walked over to the sink and scrubbed the wooden spatula so that he could use it to cook their stir-fry. “You can get out a couple of plates for us.” His voice was perfectly normal.
    “That was totally unnecessary and not one bit fair!” she accused, glaring at him.
    “It was totally unnecessary for you to scare me out of my mind,” he countered.
    “I wasn’t trying to frighten you!” she argued.
    “If I thought you did it on purpose, you would still be getting your pretty fanny spanked,” he said, and the look in his dark eyes assured her that he was very serious.
    “But, I already said I was sorry, Craig. I didn’t need a spanking to remind me that I was foolish. I’m not used to being stalked, or whatever this person is doing!”
    “I know that, too, or you would have found yourself bared.”
    “Craig!” She was blushing and embarrassed by the image of herself in that undignified circumstance. He merely chuckled, and she came to realize that he was once again using a spanking to say that he cared about her. Her parents didn’t believe in corporal punishment, and they would be incensed if they knew that Craig believed in spanking. Her grandparents wouldn’t be surprised, and would welcome him warmly.
    They worked together to make the stir-fry, and then sat on the stools at the counter to eat. “This is very good,” Elizabeth complimented