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Noah looks across at me with a big grin on his face.

“Who would’ve thought we’d both find so much happiness one day, eh, bro?”

“Not me,” I say breathlessly, still struggling to believe it.

Nothing is standing between us. Nothing is making it impossible to do what I’ve wanted ever since I laid eyes on my step-niece. Fall on one knee, open a ring box, and ask her the most important question of my life.

Noah walks around the table, clapping my arm and pulling me to my feet. We hug like we used to as kids after I took a beating for him.

“I’m so happy for you, bro,” he says. “You deserve this.”

“I’m going to spend every single second for the rest of my life making your daughter happy,” I tell Elena once the hug ends.

Elena grins. She has a mischievous glint in her eyes. “I’d expect nothing less from herstep-uncle.”

This time, when she laughs, we all join in. Mine is pure relief. If Elena can joke about it, it means she approves.

It means I’ll need to speak to her again later… to ask for a different kind of blessing.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

Layla

“You must love it here,” Tess says, running her finger along the obsidian kitchen surface across the lightning-like streaks. I smile broadly at my friend, sun shafting through the window.

Miles rented us an apartment the day after Mom gave us her blessing, and we’ve spent a week here, living as boyfriend and girlfriend without worrying if it’s all going to implode in a mess of guilt and pain.

“Every morning is a gift,” I tell her. “Waking up next to him. Not having to worry if we’re doing the wrong thing. Knowing we’re doing therightthing.”

Tess grins. “I get that, but I meant the kitchen.”

“Oh.” I chuckle. “Yeah, for sure. I’ve been cooking every night that I’m not at the restaurant.”

“Howisthe restaurant after your conversation with Graham?”

“He’s still tough,” I reply, “but less mean now. A couple of days ago, he pulled me aside and apologized. He said that he thought of Dad and what they shared every time he looked at me. Dad was his second chance at love, and he lost him too, which made him cruel.”

Tess walks around the kitchen divider and wraps her arms around me. “You know it’s only going to get better, right? There’s going to be so much love in your life.”

“It’s not too icky?”

She gives me a playful nudge as the hug ends. “Ickiness doesn’t make sense when you’re both this happy, and if people have a problem with it, screw them. They’ll never be as in love as you and Miles are.”

“In love,” I repeat, nodding.

“What is it?” she asks, walking back around the divider and picking up her cocoa.

“I’ve had so many chances to say it.”

I don’t outline these. It would mean delving into the private parts of our relationship, like last night when I knew Miles would be returning late from the office. I went to a lingerie store and bought something that highlighted my curves, an elegant piece with a bow at my cleavage, turning myself into a gift for my man to unwrap.

When we made love,Iwent on top, all my virgin nerves seeming so distant, so pointless, as I rocked atop him. Ultimately, our lips fused, and the pleasure became too frantic. We couldn’t kiss anymore. As we both reached our finish, I almost whispered the words.

“He still hasn’t said it?” Tess asks.

I shake my head. “But there’s no reason to stress, right? Maybe he’s waiting for the right time. It doesn’t mean he’s having doubts. It doesn’t mean he rushed too fast into this, thinking it would never work, and now that ithasworked, he wants it to end. Does it?”

“No,” Tess says, looking pointedly at me. “You need to remindyourselfof that. You’ll be flinging L-words like Cupid arrows soon enough. Don’t worry.”

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