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He chuckled, his happiness vibrating against me. I fingered his hair, and then he turned to me and nuzzled my hand, closing his eyes. For someone who had never had this with anyone, he sure opened himself up to me beautifully. There was nothing like that feeling.
My phone buzzed with a message, a text popping up on the screen. He looked down at it and said, “She’s asking if we want to go out to dinner with them tonight.”
I liked the idea of going out with friends. I wanted Brian to meet Raya and her wife, but I wasn’t sure it was his thing. He’d told me all about his conversation with Sutton the other day and about planning a get-together soon with them and Em and Sam. I figured Brian would feel comfortable there, around people he knew. But even then, the first day I’d met him, he’d kept to himself, standing under the tree and… “You haven’t been smoking,” I said, that truth just hitting me. He didn’t do it often when we originally began spending time together, but now I couldn’t remember the last time at all.
“Guess I’m addicted to you instead.”
“I’m probably not supposed to like the sound of that. Some might consider it toxic, but I think it’s really hot,” I teased, then grabbed my phone. “I’ll tell her we’re busy tonight.”
Brian placed his hand over mine. “We should go.”
I couldn’t lie, my pulse kicked up a notch. “Are you sure? We don’t have to.”
He sighed. “You can’t change your life for me. You’re a social person. I’m not. We’re gonna have to find a way to make it work. That means me goin’ out sometimes and you stayin’ in sometimes. And when I don’t wanna go, you don’t have to stay home for me.”
I grinned. It was the simplest thing, but still, hearing him say it tied me up in knots. “Okay…and if there’s something you need, you tell me, whether it’s there or afterward. I can’t read your mind. I want to be who you need me to be.”
“You are. Can’t you see that?”
Hearing those words made me feel so good, I almost floated away. “You’re good at this relationship thing. Are you sure you haven’t done it before? I think you’re lying to me.” He rolled his eyes again. “Aw, that’s what you do when you think I’m being charming. Do you think I’m charming, Brian Manning?” I loved playing around with him like this, loved seeing him blush for me.
“I think you’re ridiculous is what I think you are.” He tried to get off me, but I wrapped my arms and legs around him.
“I’m not letting you go until you tell me you think I’m charming…and sexy…and great in the sack.”
He laughed. “How are we together?”
“Because I’m charming, sexy, and great in the sack,” I said again.
“Because you make me feel like I’m somethin’.”
I thought my heart was going to bust through my chest and land inside his, like we already shared the same one anyway. “You’re something with or without me, sweetheart, but I have to admit, I like who we are together.”
He leaned forward and kissed me. “I do too.”
We picked a relaxed, quiet steakhouse for dinner. It wasn’t like one of the establishments I would go to in the city. There were wheelbarrows decorating the front of the building and cowboy hats hanging on the wall.
Raya and Kim were already there, Raya standing up to wave when she spotted us. “I see the rest of our party,” I told the hostess, whose eyes darted down to my hand clasping Brian’s. I cocked a brow at her, and she gave a small, embarrassed smile.
“Enjoy your dinner.”
“We intend to. Thank you.”
“We’re so glad you guys could come,” Raya said. I let go of Brian’s hand to return her hug.
“Thanks for having us. Raya, Kim, this is Brian—Brian, this is Raya and Kim.”
“Nice to meet you, ma’am,” Brian said as he shook Raya’s hand. Jesus, he was cute as shit. All he’d said was ma’am in that shy, polite way of his, and I turned mushy inside.
“You too. Charles talks about you all the time.”
“All good things I hope.”
I slid into the booth first. I wasn’t sure if he would feel more stressed being on the inside or not.
“Of course,” Raya replied.
“You don’t do yoga either?” Kim asked, tying back the hundreds of small braids in her hair. They weren’t just a lesbian couple in a small, rural area, but an interracial one.
“No, ma’am. That’s not really my thing.”
Kim held up her hand for a high five. Brian looked at her for a moment like he wasn’t sure what to do, but then returned it. “Now I have a friend who isn’t obsessed with yoga like my wife. We can form a club…the significant others of the yoga cult?” she teased.
