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“I steal all the covers? I'm just taking my share of them back from you! I wake up with no covers, hanging off the edge of the bed. You're a bed and a cover hog!”
He frowned. “I suppose that's plausible. I do like to bundle up.”
“Well you'll have full control of the covers this weekend. My grandmother is coming into town, so she'll be staying at my place.”
“That ruins that idea, I guess,” he grumbled. “I was going to ask you on a real live date. In public.”
“Ooh. That would be different. Bummer,” she said, a little disappointed. “No can do this weekend, though. I'm leaving early to pick her up on Sunday morning. I was going to take her around the city on one of those sightseeing buses. Maybe hit up the food festival they have at the park for dinner. I promised her tacos.”
“Tacos without me, love? I'm a bit hurt,” he joked. “I thought we had plans. Me, you, your grandmother, the butler. She is bringing the butler, right?”
Caroline laughed for a moment. Then, after an awkward pause asked, “Um, well. She did ask me whether she'd be able to meet you. I told her I wasn't sure. Would you want to spend the evening with us? You can totally say no if it's too strange. I wouldn't blame—”
He touched a finger to her lips. “Caroline. Shh. You're rambling, love. I wasn't angling for the invite. I was just making a joke. So if it makes you uncomfortable, then don't worry about it.”
“No, no! It's not that,” she explained. “I just feel weird asking you to meet a member of my family. Is it too soon for that?”
He shifted underneath her, until he lay stretched out on his side, facing her. Tilting her chin up with his hand, he gazed at her. “If you want me there, just ask. I'll tell you if it makes me uncomfortable, love.”
She let out the breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding. “You're right. So, uh. Wanna go get tacos with my grandmother and I on Sunday night?”
“Oh. I think it's a bit too soon for that. Don't you?” Magnus asked, giving her a mock frown. At her poke in the ribs, he wiggled. “Kidding, love. Kidding. Yes. I'd love to. It won't be too late for her? It stays light out for so long during the summer here.”
“Nope. She's a night owl too. She lives in Orillia near my parents. I get the impression she gets bored. She'll be excited to have the company.”
“You don't think she'll have an issue with my being Transfigured?”
“I'd have heard about it by now if she did. She's quizzed me several times so there's been ample opportunity for her to object.”
“Quizzed you? About what?”
“Just some practical stuff,” she said, glossing over it quickly. “Oh, I got an informative lecture on sex, too.”
“Uh, does she understand it's a little late in life for the birds and the bees talk?”
Caroline laughed. “Not that kind of lecture. She went on and on about sampling the merchandise before I buy it. I finally broke down and told her I was sampling it quite extensively so she'd stop.”
Magnus snorted. “Oh God. I can't wait to meet this woman. She sounds amazing!”
“This was a tame discussion in comparison to the time that I told her I was becoming a nun. I had just broken up with a guy in college and I was a total wreck. She just looked me in the eye and suggested that I join a convent that had a cucumber patch.”
He snickered, “Now I know where you get your filthy mind from, love.”
“She's something else,” Caroline agreed, as she relaxed against him again, tucking her head under his chin.
“I must admit, though. Some of the practical questions have occurred to me,” he said, quietly.
She sighed. “Me too. I keep telling myself that it's too early to worry about them, but I've never been very good about going with the flow.”
Caroline felt the unmistakable press of his lips against the crown of her head a moment before he said, “This is an entirely unique experience for me. I've never felt like this before. I... I crave you, Caroline. I know there are things that we'll have to talk about as we move forward, but I very much think they're worth discussing.”
She exhaled the breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding. Caroline leaned back and looked at him, her hand moving up to the side of his face. “You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that I'm not the only one who feels that way.”
“I know I'm not the most expressive, man. I'd blame it on my upbringing, but it's been nearly half a century. I suspect the ball is firmly in my court at this point. I'm trying, though. You're the first person that's ever made me want to try.”
She blinked back the tears that were forming in her eyes and kissed him. She tried to show him without words what she was terrified to say. There was no telling whether he was ready to hear it but Caroline was pretty sure she'd just fallen completely in love with him.
Chapter Eleven
