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He smiled as he covered her hands with his and threaded their fingers together. She’d blown him away when she’d asked him to move in, trusting him to be a permanent part of her life and Ian’s. Less than a year ago, he couldn’t have even imagined this scenario. Wouldn’t have even wanted it. Now, he couldn’t imagine going back to anything prior to this for the rest of his life.
“You busy for lunch today?” he asked.
“I’ll probably be taking a nap in my truck because someone kept me up most of the night.”
“Oh…” He turned around in her arms and rested his hands on her shoulders. “I’m taking all the blame for that, am I?”
“Yep.”
“All right then. Let me make it up to you with lunch.”
She tilted her head. “How about dinner? I’ll see if one of my brothers can watch Ian. Then I get my nap and a night out with my guy.”
“I’m your guy now?”
“Yes you are.”
“I like it.” He grinned as he dipped down for a kiss. “And you’ve got yourself a dinner date. Now, go get ready for work before we’re all late.”
Merit took a step back while raking his gaze down the length of Mae’s red dress and black heels, then back up to her red, glistening lips, and shiny blond hair all wavy about her shoulders.
“Wow. Gorgeous.”
There was a hint of relief in the smile that lit up her face. “Thank you. You don’t look so bad yourself.”
He’d foregone his usual T-shirt and jeans for a crisp, white Brioni and black dress pants. He’d left the scruff on his jaw just for her. Pulling his hand from behind his back, he presented the dozen roses he’d picked up on his way home from work.
“Wow, talk about gorgeous.” She buried her face in the crimson blooms, then rose up on her tiptoes to kiss his lips. “Thank you. Let me put these in some water before we go.”
“How’d your day go?” he asked as she took care of the flowers. It was amazing how much he’d come to love having someone to ask that question the past couple of months.
Mae made a face. “Not so great, unfortunately. I missed my nap because I got to the job site to find out your sister’s clinic was vandalized overnight.”
“What? How bad?”
“Bad enough. We have to reorder a bunch of supplies, and while we’re waiting, I have to put my crew to work at a different site. Once we start that, we have to finish, which means your sister’s job is going to be delayed for a couple of months.”
“She can’t be happy about that.”
“Surprisingly, she’s been very understanding. She was offered a job with a veterinary hospital in Denver and decided maybe this was a sign to get some experience before opening her own place. She’s going to work there until we can get everything squared away.”
After his own difficulties finding a job without experience, that made perfect sense when she’d be dealing with people’s beloved pets. “I wish she’d reconsider the area she’s in.”
It wasn’t anything close to the kind of neighborhood they’d grown up in, and he worried about people taking advantage of her giving, bleeding-heart nature.
“Your sister is as stubborn as you are.”
“I’m not stubborn.”
She snorted her disagreement while crossing the floor to set the vase of flowers on the living room coffee table. Then she swiped up her purse and spoke over her shoulder as she preceded him out the door. “Shelby refuses to look at any other place, even after the senator showed up.”
Bells usually did what their parents wanted, but the location of her vet clinic to serve low income families was the one thing she’d stood her ground on. Merit was proud and worried at the same time.
Mae paused as he held the passenger side door open for her. “Your dad apologized to me, by the way.”
“Good.”
She raised her eyebrows at him as he closed the door and crossed around front to the driver’s side. He ignored her pointed look as he pulled away from the curb. He was not talking about his dad right now.
