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The way he says run makes me glower at him, and he smirks back at me.

“Don’t worry about it, love. I have coffee in that pot.”

“Day-old coffee,” I reply and my grandma just rolls her eyes at me.

“It’s delicious, and I hate when things go to waste.”

“What did you get me to eat?” I grumble, trying to change the subject. He sinks down into a chair and reaches for the bag, pulling out a wrapped item.

“A bagel sandwich.”

“Thank you,” I say as I unwrap it. This was so fucking thoughtful. Jude is really fucking nice. He’s more than I thought he’d be. He keeps surprising me.

“You’re welcome.”

I eat the bagel, listening as my grandma and Jude chat back and forth about everything they can think of. He’s a chatterbox when he’s with her, and I learn a lot of new things about him. Like what his favorite food is—fish and chips—and that his favorite color is yellow. And he had a dog growing up but it ran away, and that he gets scared when he’s home alone.

I don’t know how my grandma manages to pry this all out of him, but I sit quietly, listening, soaking it all up like a sponge. When they finally run out of steam, I drag Jude back to my place. But not before my grandma invites him over to dinner one weekend.

I glower at her as I close the front door behind me and she blows me a kiss.

I could hug her.

“I love your grandma. My grandparents died when my parents were young,” he says as we enter my living room.

“Yeah, I am lucky.”

“You really are,” he says and then shifts on his feet, almost nervously.

“Do you work today?” I ask, and he shakes his head.

“No. I don’t have any plans.”

I step closer to him, reaching out and threading my fingers with his. “I have some work to do, but do you want to hang out for a while?”

He bites his bottom lip and nods. “Yeah.”

“Okay,” I say and then pull him to my office where he falls into the oversized bean bag in the corner of the room.

“Oh, I always wanted one of these,” he says, his eyes closing as he inhales.

I keep myself from smiling as I cover him with a blanket and move toward my office chair.

He sighs and I glance back at him and see him pull out his phone, all snuggled up. Fuck, he’s cute, his hair all rumpled, his eyes a little droopy.

“I won’t be long. A few hours at most.”

“Go ahead, I’m going to read.”

Five minutes later, he’s snoring, and I feel lighter, happier. I like that he’s here with me, that he didn’t leave me this morning. A small part of me rears up and insists that I tell him the truth, but I push it down. He doesn’t need to know. It will only hurt him and all that matters is how I move forward with this.

That’s what’s important.

I peek back at him once more and press a hand against my tight chest.

Yeah, that’s all that matters.

CHAPTER 12