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He nodded and turned to nab a glass.
“Oskar came into town, though, to try to help her find a new place.”
“Yeah?”
“He and Dad had dinner. And apparently, my boyfriend threatened him.”
He stopped pouring and looked at me.
“Fucker couldn’t keep his mouth shut,” he bitched.
“Hale—”
“Are you pissed?”
I smiled at him. “Not even a little bit. Mom signed the settlement offer. It’s over. I’m not sure all the ins and outs of it, why it’s not official yet, but for all intents and purposes, it’s done. Without a lot of acrimony and heartache. So in the end, I owe you my undying gratitude.”
His lips quirked. “Glad you look at it like that, sweetheart. It wasn’t that I was keeping it from you…”
I picked up his trail. “It was just that, when you threaten your girlfriend’s brother, it’s not easy to wedge that intel into a conversation,” I teased.
“Something like that,” he replied, his eyes smiling. “Mostly, you were upset, and I could do something about it, so I did. It worked out for your dad, and that was my goal, so I didn’t see any reason to upset you again by admitting I threatened your brother. I honestly didn’t think he’d tell anyone in order to save face at how easily he caved.”
I smirked my enjoyment of that knowledge.
Hale took that in, his lips again twitching.
Then he went back to pouring.
So, my handsome, sweet, fucked-up, awesome man who I’m falling in love with, what’s going on here, between you and me?
Easy to say, right?
Wrong!
He slid the wine across to me then I watched as he walked to the sofa, where his laptop and the messenger bag he used as a briefcase were resting, along with some files and papers.
He retrieved his beer and came back to me.
He touched his lips to mine when he arrived and asked, “Need something to take the edge off before we head out? I could probably throw together some bruschetta.”
Of course he could “throw together some bruschetta.”
“I can wait for dinner. Speaking of. Are you down with having dinner with Dad sometime this week?”
He leaned against the counter beside me. “Ditto on that, but answer to your question. Yes. Also, Tom and Mika have asked us over. You good to do that?”
Met his mom (both of them, actually).
Now his dad.
What was happening here?
I needed to ask. Just ask. I was me. I asked questions for a living.
And this was important, I needed to know. We both needed to be operating under the same idea of where we stood.
I didn’t ask.
