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I remind myself to make sure I get the door for her every time. A queen needs to be treated like one.
Once we’re free from the station, out of the hustle and bustle of most of the heavy traffic, I ask if she’d like the top down on the car.
“Your car,” she says quietly with a shrug looking away, so I decide to keep it up for now.
“Lemee, know if you do,” I tell her, wondering what’s gotten into her so suddenly.
She must have noticed my confusion because she’s quick to say something.
“Sorry,” she murmurs. “Just a car like this is worth more than our whole house…”
I open my mouth to remind her it’s just a rental but remember my own car is worth twice this, I keep that to myself for now though.
Driving in silence for a while I can see Natasha’s thinking things over in her head. Replaying the past few days.
The good and the bad, by the looks.
I’m on cloud nine, and only want to see things getting better for her. For both of us from here on in.
“Where’s your other stuff? All your belongings from college,” I ask, not being nosy but just focusing on the practical side of things, which is in my nature.
“I shipped it all over before I left. It should’ve arrived by now,” she says absently, pretending to admire the view of the freeway that’s starting to bank up.
She mentions the neighborhood when I ask where exactly it is she lives, and then I understand a little better.
Where she lived, I should say.
I haven’t seen her place but I’m familiar with the name of the area.
It’s not a place I want to see her driving through let alone living in.
In a single moment, it’s settled. In my mind at least.
She’s not going home.
Home is here, with me from now on.
Us.
Chapter Seventeen
Natasha
I’d rather die than have Michael see where I live, but he reminds me about my stuff which sets off an avalanche of thoughts in my mind.
All the ‘what ifs’ that I haven’t dwelled on so far start to bubble up, especially once we cruise past a half dozen turn-offs I know would lead us straight to my place.
My old place, I remind myself.
“I’m just a bit...” I trail off, reaching over for Michael’s hand.
“I know,” he replies, lifting my hand while keeping his eyes on the road and kissing my fingers.
“I am a bit too,” he confides, glancing at me in the rearview mirror and making a face that sees me smiling instantly.
“I could use a hot shower and a life-sized bed,” he exclaims, keeping hold of my hand as he pops his neck.
“How do you manage? Traveling like that I mean,” I ask.
“I don’t,” he says bluntly, but meeting my eyes with his once we slow to a halt behind some traffic, he doesn’t look like he minds as long as he’s with me.
“I think we can travel in anything except a train from now on,” he says and I can’t help but feel a ripple of anxiety across my belly.
“Or planes,” I add quickly, making him shoot me an inquiring look with a raised brow.
“Or planes,” he agrees without even asking why, making me sigh with relief but also with admiration.
I love how Michael just accepts me, without trying to tell me what I should or shouldn’t do, think, or anything else.
He takes me as I am. Although I can see his mind working, trying to figure out the best way for us to get around.
Something tells me he doesn’t have plans for us to stay here for too long.
Even though we just go there, I sense that Michael has a dozen things on his mind, and most of them involve surprising and most likely spoiling me.
It’s not that I expect that, I can just tell that’s the kind of man he is. He knows what he wants, and goes after it. And when he has it, he treats it with the respect it deserves.
The ‘it’ in this case is me, which I know is gonna take some getting used to if my hunch about how full on Michael is turns out to be true.
“What exactly did you do back there for Suze?” I eventually ask, steering the conversation back to her because I really thought Michael didn’t like her.
Shrugging innocently again, Michael explains that all he did was give Patrick, the steward, a little nudge in the right direction.
“But how did you know he was interested in Suze? She never said anything to me,” I wonder aloud.
Michael chuckles. “You two weren’t exactly best buds for a while there… All I did was tell Patrick to speak up and tell her how he felt. He’d kinda noticed how we’d hit it off, but wasn’t sure how to approach his own feelings.”
