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Leaning into his side, I grinned. “Well, I for one am happy you decided that.”
He snorted, an arm tucking around me with a smile. “I figured you would be. Alice was over the moon when I first told her, after she finished checking if I’d been replaced by a pod person.” He rolled his eyes affectionately and I nodded, imagining that conversation with laughable ease.
“Sounds like her. She was equally as excited when I told her we were dating.”
Her exact words were, 'It's about time!' so it wasn't a stretch to say she supported us.
Glancing at my calendar on the wall, I hummed, eyeing the empty spaces. “We haven’t set a date for dinner with my parents yet.” Was it my best subject shift? Not at all, but it was an important one.
William grimaced but gave in without a fight. “Whenever works for you, I can take the day off.”
Considering how hectic my schedule was, that would still be challenging, but maybe… “Does Saturday work for you?”
He nodded, tugging out his phone and glancing at his work week. “I have it off already, so that's fine.” Trailing off, his eyes slid to the opposite wall and asked. “Do you think they’ll hate me?”
I shook my head, cuddling closer on habit. “No, they might be wary of you, but I don’t think full-on hate will be an issue.”
Some of the tension eased out of his shoulders, but not all of it. “I’m going to be verbally dissected, aren’t I?”
I bit my lip, unsure how to answer that. The last thing I wanted was to make him even more worried, but I couldn’t lie either.
“Probably, but I’ll be right there if they start becoming too much.”
He gave a weak smile. “I’m glad, because something tells me I’m going to need all the help I can get on this.”
“Do you want me to invite Devin too?” I asked,“That’d give you a familiar face aside from me.”
Consideration deepened his features before he shrugged. “If he has time, but I get it if he’s busy. His job keeps him working almost constantly.”
Knowing Devin he’d make sure to be there, if for no other reason than to offer backup against Dad should he get on one of his rolls.
“I’ll talk to him later and see what he thinks. In the meantime, do we need to get up for anything?”
He eyed the clock, then shook his head. “It’s already late. While I could go home, I don’t particularly want to.”
“What a coincidence,” I said as I rolled to rest on his chest, “I don’t want you to go anywhere either. Sounds like a sleepover is the perfect solution.”
Then, remembering how some guys got very weird over that, I added.”If you’d like to, but if you’d prefer to not-.”
He kissed me, the motion slow as it wiped away whatever I was going to say next. When I’d completely forgotten my train of thought he pulled back and smiled.
“I don’t mind at all. Though I don’t have an extra set of clothes, and I’m not comfortable changing into anything of Devin’s.”
I eyed his chest, mentally measuring it against my brothers with a snort. “You couldn’t wear his shirts if you tried. They’d look like kids' tops on you. That’s if they would fit that far.”
He tipped his head in agreement, then offered. “I could sleep in my boxers, if you’d feel comfortable with that?”
Pressed up against him all night with only a few layers of fabric between us? Sounded like a good way to spend my time.
At my nod he carefully eased out from under me and snagged his underwear, tugging them on before climbing back into bed. I resituated mine as well, shivering at the nip in the air before he covered us with the blanket again.
Instead of rolling over and going to sleep how I half expected, he pulled out his phone and hummed. “Want to watch something before heading to bed? I’m not tired yet.”
While I was kind of sleepy, it could wait a little bit longer. “Sounds good,” I said, waiting for him to put whatever movie he wanted on, situating his phone so we could both see it and then I cuddled back into him.
Warmth bombarded me from all sides, sinking into my skin until I couldn’t move if I wanted to. His arms were a solid weight around me, and I watched the movie with only half my attention.
I’d dreamed of nights like this as a teenager, being able to just lie down and relax with my partner. After the years of solitude and teasing, it’d almost become a pipe dream, but being here and actually feeling it was something else.
