He covered his eyes with his forearm. “Fine.”
I reached over to tap his phone. “Hi Nina, we both can hear you.”
“Hello my boys.” The hum in the background and choppy connection suggested she was calling from her car.
“Hi Mom,” Rowan said.
“We’re on our way. We’ll be at your house in three hours. I hope it’s okay that we’re coming a day early. We’re staying at the Gryffin, but they didn’t have rooms for tonight.”
“Sorry!” Bob’s voice reached us through the car mic.
Rowan rolled his eyes.
I glared at him. “That’s fine. You can take the guest room. I told you not to book a hotel at all.”
“Nonsense. You two need your privacy,” Nina said.
“We’re at the cabin now, but we’ll drive over. You know where the key is, just in case.” I batted Rowan’s hand wandering up my thigh.
“I do. See you soon!” Nina didn’t wait for us to answer and hung up.
“We’ve gotta go. I’m glad we cleaned the house before we left.” I jumped off the bed, kissed Rowan, and headed for the shower.
Within minutes, we were saying goodbye to the cabin. Until next week.
“I wanna drive.” I held my hand up, and Rowan tossed me the keys.
I caught them awkwardly mid-air and cradled them to my chest so as not to drop them. Some things never changed. Evenif I played one-on-one basketball with Rowan at the Wendigo Falls’ public court, I couldn’t catch anything properly.
Then again, other things were different.
I slid into the driver’s seat with not a flinch in sight and drove us toward our home.
Days after the bake-off, I’d gone to Rowan’s condo in Chicago to help him pack. The ultramodern space seemed cold and unlike the Rowan I knew. The underground garage held three sports cars that he’d amassed over the years. At first, I’d panicked at the sight of cars made for fast, reckless driving, but I kept reminding myself that a drunk driver had killed my parents, not a car.
He’d kept one, a silver two-seater that he had to fold himself in half to get into. Apparently, the color reminded him of my eyes. And Ethel loved it when I took her shopping in it.
This time it was my phone ringing incessantly.
I picked it up through the car’s speakers. “Hi Sophia. How’s the best manager in the world doing?” I had learned a lesson that I couldn’t do everything by myself, and had asked Sophia to be the manager at Cryptid Cafe. She’d proven to be the perfect person for the job when I’d needed her over and over. Now, I could direct my energy toward upgrading the cafe’s menu, organizing more evening events in it, and overseeing the renovations.
After the enormous success of the bake-off, we’d become a local attraction and raised enough funds to fix the kitchen, roof, and update the main area.
“Shut up. No wonder you were constantly running around. Even with more staff, it’s still crazy. But I get it. I love it too.” She sighed. “I’m calling to let you know that the new menu cards arrived and the banner for your birthday.”
I frowned, but kept my eyes on the road. “What banner?”
“That’s on me,” Rowan said with zero coyness in his voice. “Since you decided to throw the party at the cafe, I figured we’ll need proper decorations.”
“It’s really cute, Milo, you’ll see.” Sophia cursed under her breath. “Shit. I gotta go.” The line went dead.
Grinning, I reached for Rowan’s hand and put it on my knee where it belonged when I was driving. “Thank you.”
Yes, I was throwing a party this weekend. For my twenty-sixth birthday. At first, I planned for only Rowan, Ethel, and Sophia to be there, but once Nina and Bob got wind of it, my invitations extended to Rowan’s family. My mindset about the day had evolved since meeting Rowan, and only a year into our relationship, I had his parents and three siblings driving over to join in on the celebration.
“Are you happy about it? We can still cancel.”
“It will be great. I have people to celebrate with.” I patted Rowan’s hand. “Tell me about the progress on the adoption center.”
