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My brows raise as I chuckle. “Oh, well in that case, I’m going to pass. You know, in the name of women everywhere who don’t let men tell them what to do.”
He rolls his eyes playfully, dropping his half-eaten donut into the open box and standing up. His hands come to rest on either side of me, his face only inches from mine, and the way he licks his lips has my attention so locked on him, it’s pathetic.
“Laiken,” he says seriously. “Will you please move in with me so that I don’t have to spend another cold and lonely night without you for the rest of my life?”
My heart is trying to beat out of my chest as I smile. Trust me when I say that there is nothing I’d love more than to live here with him. Making this placeours. Our own little space where the smell of his cologne and my perfume constantly linger in the air—I want that so bad. Theyesis right there on the tip of my tongue. It would be so easy to say it. But…
“I’d love to,” I tell him, and his grin widens as he exhales. “But I can’t. My parents would literally off us both. I mean, we’ve only been together for a few months. I can only imagine the conniption they would have if I told them I was moving in with you out of wedlock.”
His joy is replaced, but not by disappointment. He looks more thoughtful than anything as he stares into my eyes. God, sometimes I wish I could just read his mind.
Whatever conclusion he comes to, it doesn’t take him long, because he hums, dropping a quick kiss on my lips. “I can work with that.”
Hang on.“Work withwhat?”
But he doesn’t answer as he grabs his donut and holds it with his mouth before picking up his phone and car keys off the counter. Then he heads for the front door without a second glance.
“H, what does that mean?” Still silence. “Hayes!”
He takes the donut out of his mouth as he opens the door. “Love you!”
And then he’s just gone, leaving me to wonder what the actual fuck just happened.
HAVE YOU EVER TRIEDteaching someone how to do something while your brain is laser focused on something else? It’s practically impossible. I spend most of the day in a daze, trying to figure out what the hell he meant by that. I’ve racked my brain for hours, and the only plausible thing I’ve come up with is that he’s going to try getting my parent’s permission to move me in with him. It would be totally out of character for him, but nothing about the way he’s been since we became official has been anything like he used to be—not when it comes to me, anyway.
I’m sitting at dinner with Mali, pushing the salad around my plate while she rambles about how Cam freaked when he realized she drove his Jeep the other night. Normally, I would be completely immersed in everything she’s saying. But normally, I don’t have a bomb dropped on me at breakfast that has me trying to solve the world’s hardest puzzle all day.
Whatever it is he plans on doing, I hope it works. Because even the thought of getting to wake up next to him every single morning makes me feel like I’m floating. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t pictured it while we’ve played house over the last week. I just never let myself believe that was something he wants, too. Never until now.
“For some reason I always thought your brother had an average sized dick, so I was pleasantly surprised.”
I snap myself out of it with a shake of my head. “Wait, what the fuck?”
She leans back and crosses her arms over her chest. “Exactly. You weren’t paying attention to a single word I said.”
“I know it was about my brother and his Jeep.”
“Lai, that was just the lead-in to the story,” she tells me.
I cringe. “Oops?”
“Yeah, oops.” She runs her fingers through her hair. “What’s on your mind?”
I take a deep breath, wondering if it’s better to slowly lead into this or just spit it out. But something tells me trying to beat around the bush with this will only lead to Mali making her own assumptions.
“Hayes asked me to move in with him this morning,” I admit.
Mali is mid sip as the words spill from my mouth, and she chokes on her soda, coughing violently. “Fucking hell, we need to work on your timing.”
“I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m really not.”
She flips me off. “What the hell did you say to that?”
I sigh. “I said no…I think.”
“Youthink?”
“Yeah. I mean, I wanted to say yes.So fucking badly. But you know how my parents are. They’re lenient with a lot of the rules the church believes they should have us abide by, but living with Hayes when we’re not married? Something tells me that’s not going to make the list.”
