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Why does it feel new?

In the silence, it’s suddenly impossible to ignore that we’re alone, completely alone without the threat of any interruption for the first time ever, and that it might be a bad idea for me.

Because I also can’t ignore how plush his lips are, how his fingers move as he twists and turns his hands, and how his body is barely molding the cushions behind and under him.

The way his bottomless eyes flit over me is captivating. It puts me in some kind of trance that I don’t want to escape, not ever.

Until he speaks—louder and faster than before.

“The boys really missed you at lunch,” he blurts out apropos of nothing, and despite what he’s literally saying, how he’s saying it makes me smile.

It’s an inappropriate reaction, but I can’t curb it.

“You probably guessed they were going to miss you,” he adds, voice softer.

They were pretty clingy during dinner and asked more questions than usual, so I nod.

“I didn’t want to disturb you,” he continues. “Not without asking first, but while they transition to not eating with you at midday, maybe we can have the option of me calling you if the boys really need it one day?”

I’m nodding again before he can finish asking.

“They always eat at the same time, so I can absolutely make sure that a call can come in during that time frame.” I pull out my phone and text Rae. I know she’s not going to respond or even see it at this time of night because we established very rigid limits on her working hours, especially because, during the season, there will be a lot of weekend nights when I’ll need her to work.

We even have a meeting scheduled for Sunday. Just a couple of hours so we can stay on top of the million moving pieces we need to put in place before the draft at the end of the month.

Sunny keeps going when I put my phone away, and it feels so natural, the back and forth, the way he waited for me to finish sending that message, and the way I don’t feel the need to apologize for it, and he doesn’t seem to need an apology for it either.

We . . . understand each other.

At least, so it seems.

“Otherwise, the room is great, more than I need, really, but I appreciate everything you’ve done to make me feel welcome in your home.” He sounds so formal by the end, and he’s sitting so rigidly, like he’s making up for how I’m casually lounging.

I don’t know what happened in his head while he was talking for that change to happen, but I want the easy feeling back, and I don’t know how to get it.

I can only try.

“And the day with the boys?” I probe.

Miraculously, that does the trick, and I feel like I just won some kind of prize, so I keep going, because if he needs to talk about my brothers in order to feel less formal, then I can do that.

“They were great.”

It’s a simple statement, but the accompanying smile makes me want to hear more, more, more.

“I want to apologize for this morning. It’s really not like them at all to wake up so grumpy, but they’d been going on two days with foul moods, and I was running out of ways to calm them down. You’re really magic. The way you figured that out was really amazing, and it just shows me that you really are what we need.”

I see his shoulders rise up to his jaw, so I quickly correct myself.

“What the boys need.”

Again, that works like a charm.

“You really don’t need to apologize,” he says, voice soft and eyes full of understanding. “You’re all adapting to this immense change in your lives, and I think you’re doing great considering everything, but there will be some bumps in the road, always. Try not to let that discourage you.”

“I’ll try,” I murmur. “So, everything went well?”

For the second time tonight, he smiles.