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He buries his head against my chest. “No. No, it won’t.” He turns and looks at the news crews. Someone’s taking pictures of us. “Please, let’s just get out of here.”

I get him onto the bike, and when he puts his arms around me, I relax into the sensation. Suddenly, I know it with absolute clarity. This is the family and home I feel like I’ve been searching for my whole life. This is where I want to be, and who I want to be with, for the rest of my life.

It doesn’t matter that Bastien might not be there yet, and I’m not dumb enough to tell him out loud. It’s okay. All I need to do is shift to playing the long game. All that matters is that at the end of this, I am going to make this man fall for me.

Chapter nine

Bastien

It’s absolutely frigid in the ice cream parlor that Levi’s found for us. I grab a booth by the window. Outside, Levi’s bike is gleaming, and I stare at it. A week ago, I wouldn’t have gone near one of these things, and now I seem to have embraced a lot of things where Levi’s concerned.

Including a segment on live TV that, if it repeats enough times, will get me deported.

“Here we go,” Levi says, depositing a bowl in front of me. He leans down and kisses my left cheek and settles in across from me. Instinctively I glance around the ice cream parlor, but the patrons there are few and far between, and they’re ignoring us. He’s unbelievably cheerful, like he’s just been buoyed up by this event, and he’s having the time of his life.

“Thank you.” I look down. It’s pale yellow, with peach slices and something red swirled in. “What is it?”

“Peach melba. Seasonal specialty. The red is raspberry. You said to surprise you.”

Right. I’d forgotten that peaches are not exotic fruits here. “It’s a good surprise.” Everything with you is a good surprise. Until it isn’t, and I’m blasted over WWAH.

I take my first bite, but I’m not focused on it.

I can’t undo that. So I have two choices. The first choice is damage control, and almost every fiber of my being calls for it.

And the second choice is even more insidious. The cat’s out of the bag, it tells me. You can’t hide it anymore. So just jump into the pool. You’ve already been convicted of the crime.

Jump. I look up at him. He’s smiling at me. There’s something different about him right now, like the light in his eyes has changed a bit more. He’s calmer and more certain, or maybe I’m just rattled enough that I’m looking at him differently.

This is crazy. I’m about to break the rule that I started out with. I really like this man. I can’t even begin to describe the way I felt when I saw him running up that path and realized that I was the only person he was looking for. Maybe we can work out some kind of long-distance thing for a bit. I could invite him down to Fairhaven. No, that would be a bad idea. Maybe we can make an arrangement and I’ll come to him.

All I know is that I want to keep him so much right now. Nobody has ever made me feel so safe in my life. And if this is love, I’m not hating it. I mean, it can’t be love, because that’s crazy. It’s only been four days.

I take the risk, staring at him. “I was thinking that we might want to talk about what happens next.” My pulse feels so loud that I’m surprised my veins don’t just call it a day.

“Please.” He smirks at me while he puts his spoon into his mouth, and then cuts a spoonful for me and stretches his arm across the table to feed me.

“Why are you extra all the fucking time?” I grumble, and I make sure that when I snap my mouth around the spoon, I am wearing the sourest expression I can conjure.

“Simple. I like you. And I like doing things for you. You make me happy.”

Oh. Oh, God. My heart flutters in ways I didn’t think it ever had before. This can’t be happening to me. I look down at my hand, resting on the white Formica table, and have to take a deep breath so I don’t gush and melt under the force of all that charm.

“Baby boy,” he says, reaching across the table and taking my left hand. “You did really well back there. I’m not kidding. I’ve seen people go completely to shit and you held it together. I’m proud of you.”

I shrug happily, staring at his hand. He rubs his thumb across my knuckles. “Thank you. I just did what you said to do. You were the hero, rushing off to get help and everything.” Oh, no. This is who I am now. I’m basking. I think I might even giggle soon. The handsome man just complimented me and I’m going to pieces. Somebody, please make me stop before I embarrass myself.

“So, about our future. I’m glad you brought it up.”

I look up at him. He’s leaning on his elbows.

“I was just figuring out how to work that into the conversation. Yet again, proof of how well we fit?”

“We do?” Please, stop, Bastien. Why am I saying this stuff?

“Lock and key.”

I think dirty, blush, and stumble into the next thing. “I think you might have gotten the wrong impression about me, Levi. I’m normally more of a…you know…not really a…” I don’t know how to say this without sounding like I’m slut-shaming.