“God, no. Never.” Kelly shudders.
“Was she really that hung up over me?” I can’t resist asking, and when Kelly elbows me in the stomach, I know I deserve it.
“Worse,” Mila confides, coming to my other side. “Come inside for a muffin and some coffee, and I’ll tell you all about how she was pining over you.”
“I did not pine!”
Mila leans in front of me and pats Kelly on the arm. “Oh sweetie, you pined. Or have you forgotten the day you made so many damn cookies we couldn’t even give them away.”
A little while later, after introducing me to a couple of Kelly’s friends and Mila’s fiancée, Jackson, we’re sitting down at a table near the front window. Mila insisted I try her apple nut muffin, but Kelly has one of the cookies her assistant Barb made — for quality control, she claims.
“So. Do you think you could take down that damn dating site profile now?” I ask, folding my arms across my chest and smirking at Kelly, who has her cookie halfway up to her mouth. She slowly finishes taking a bite before giving me a devious smile.
“That depends,dog dad,are you willing to discuss me being more than just Oliver’s fun Aunt Kelly?”
I lift up out of my chair, lean over, and kiss her hard. “If I have it my way, pretty soon you’re gonna be adog mom.”
The surprise on Kelly’s face quickly morphs into joy. “That sounds good to me.” She takes another bite of her cookie before one upping me, yet again. “But that means no apartment hunting.”
“Why?” I ask, even though I think I know the answer.
“Because I will not share custody of our fur baby. It’s all or nothing. You and Oliver move into my house, or he stays and you go.”
“Ouch. You’d pick our dog over me?”
Kelly looks me in the eye, a dead serious expression on her face but a twinkle in her eye that gives it away. “Absolutely.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Fine, final offer. You and Oliver both move into my house, or I move into wherever you decide to live.”
“Deal.” I take out my phone. “I’m cancelling the apartment tours now.”
The smile Kelly gives me is blinding. Impulsively, I grab her hand. “I love you, Kelly.”
She tilts her head to the side. “I know. I love you, too.”
No, she doesn’t know.
“I mean I’min lovewith you. That kind of love. The kind that makes me want to be with you, like this, forever.”
Her mouth falls open, and I reach over to gently push her chin up to close it. Her eyes blink rapidly, and her tongue darts out to moisten her lips.
“I’m in love with you, too, Jensen. I think…I think I always have been.”
I take her hand in mine and raise it up so I can press my lips to the back of it. “It might have taken us a while to get here, but I’m so damn happy. You’re the best part of my past, and all of my future.”
This time, Kelly initiates the kiss. But you best believe I won’t let it end for a long time. A lifetime, if I have my way.
Epilogue
Kelly
I hold my breath as I slowly lower the tower of cupcakes to the table as gingerly as possible. Somehow, luck is on my side, and I manage to put it down without a single one tipping over.
“Nicely done, babe.”
I turn at Jensen’s voice and crouch down to love up on Ollie.
