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“Surprise!” Everyone shouted as we stepped inside. Rowan squeezed my shoulders from behind as we stood there. Aubrey ran up to him first, cutting between us to hug her Rowie. I hated that name so much.
“Welcome home,” I told him when Aubrey finally let go, receiving his tight embrace and a kiss to my hair in return.
“This is great. Thank you guys so much,” he beamed. It was adorable and sexy, and I couldn’t wait for our friends to leave.
“We figured we didn’t get a real chance to celebrate you winning the damn World Series, so why not do so when you came home?” Ezra added when it was his turn to hug Rowan.
“I love you so much,” he told me. Ethan came to us with my freshened glass of scotch and a new one for Rowan, chatting him up about the trip to DC.
Rowan lit a fire after we ate, most of us too full to move from the living room, and joined me in the kitchen where I was trying to clean up.
“I could get used to this,” he murmured in my ear, wrapping his arms around me from behind.
“You have plenty of people who you pay to do things for you. You don’t know any other way,” I joked, turning on his dishwasher.
“Maybe it’s really just because I enjoy coming home to you. I thought about that a lot over the last month.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I promised him. “I like our sleepovers. I also really like the no-shave look… And feel. Since we’re talking about you.”
Rowan spun me around, his hips holding me against the counter as he caged me in. “What if you didn’t leave after sleeping over? What if we woke up next to each other,” he traced my cheek with the back of his index finger, teasing my skin, “and fell asleep next to each other?”
“Are you asking me to move in with you?”
“Did you want to move in with me?”
“Well,” I froze, “someday. Ask me again in a month.” I knew I’d never leave, no matter where I paid rent, but, as much as I was falling hopelessly in love with Rowan, I wasn’t ready to move that fast.
He looked at his watch, then at me. “Okay. I’ll ask you again on December ninth. What will you say then?”
“I’ll ask if you had as much scotch as you’ve had tonight,” I teased, stepping on my tiptoes to kiss him, “and then I’ll tell you I love you before snuggling up against you in bed. Now, come on. Let’s go kick out our friends so we can go to bed.”
TWENTY-TWO
Harrison stared at me, clicking his black pen while waiting for me to answer his question. It had been a month since he told me about the promotion, and he finally demanded an answer. Of course, his demand was patient and paternal, but it was still a deadline I had to answer.
Thinking about working with the Emeralds more closely than any other organization we had a relationship with was tempting. I loved baseball. I was in love with a baseball player. The player. It made sense. But so did everything relating to Rowan over the last month.
I looked at my baseball calendar, knowing I’d have more than one man in my life to answer to that day. It was December ninth and, with the last four weeks spent in a romantic fantasy switching between our beds, I didn’t know how I’d respond if Rowan asked me to move in with him again.
“Can you tell me something, Harrison?” I asked, thinking more about Rowan and the promotion.
“Ask me anything, Meredith.”
How do I phrase this? I wished I had a clicky pen like Harrison so I could release some of my angst and uncertainty. “I need your assurance that the team’s owner donated the money, and that he wants us, and you’re just putting me up to it because you love me.”
He shook his head at me; the clicking stopped. “If you think I’d let that hot shot boyfriend of yours have any sway over anything we do, you’re gravely mistaken.” I felt myself sink into my body, ashamed for insulting my boss. “If any person thinks I wouldn’t put you and your dedication and work ethic first, then they’re missing the most important piece of this all. I want you to take the promotion because you deserve it. It has nothing to do with your boyfriend. Now,” he smiled again, the sparkle in his wrinkled eyes bringing me back down from the mountain of worry, “you’ll take it?”
I started shaking my head at him, marveling at his manipulative tactic and how I could want my boss to adopt me as his kid. “I will!”
“Thank goodness! Now,” he checked his watch, “aren’t you leaving early today for that wedding?”
We’d talked so long, I lost track of time, and I knew Aubrey would kill me. It was their rehearsal dinner, and I should’ve been there before anyone else getting everything set up.
After I set Maggie up with a task of things to do to cover the next two days, I was on my way. Driving to work that day had the biggest advantage of getting through downtown traffic to the riverfront hotel in less than ten minutes.
“I’ve been calling you for an hour!” Aubrey screamed at me when she saw me pull up, already running out to take her jitters out on me.
“I’m here now. You’re not supposed to be. Why are you here?” I held her shoulders as she sobbed, her mascara running. Maid of honor rule number one was to always have tissue, so I pulled a wad from my clutch and helped Aubrey wipe it up as she tried talking through the tears.
