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He just smirked at me.
Game on, baby.
“I am so fucking hungry,” Sterling groaned as he cut into his pancakes. I rolled my lips into my mouth to hide my laughter… and to keep my smart-ass remark to myself.
Sterling narrowed his eyes at me. “I know that look,” he said, pointing his fork at me. “Go on. Spit it out, Graham.”
“It’s just… Well, after last night, I bet you are hungry.” The dirty look he sent me had me laughing so loud, the older couple at the table next to us shot me a dirty look. I just gave her a little finger wave and turned back to face Sterling. He was shoving pancakes into his mouth and studiously ignoring me. “Oh, come on, babe,” I groaned. “You walked right into that one.”
“Shut up,” he mumbled around a mouthful of food.
His phone suddenly lit up with the picture of his mom requesting a FaceTime call before I could tease him more. Immediately, he set his fork down and grabbed his earbuds, passing me one before he stuck his in his ear. Once we both had ours in, he answered her call and propped his phone up on the napkin dispenser so she could see both of us.
“Good morning, my beautiful, handsome boys!” Mrs. Hardison exclaimed. “Ooh, are those pancakes? Honey, I want pancakes for breakfast!” she called out to her husband.
I laughed. “Good morning, Mrs. Hardison,” I greeted. She was always a pleasant little hurricane. Sterling shoved more pancakes into his mouth, waving at her. “To what do we owe the pleasure?” I teased.
“Trish and I have been talking, and we’re thinking of doing Thanksgiving at your house this year as a big family,” Mrs. Hardison informed us, but she was looking at me. “This way, we can be prepared for family holidays and already have a routine in place for when you two get married.”
Sterling choked but managed to get what he’d swallowed back up before I could move to help him. He gulped down some water as I quietly laughed. I wanted to be like Mrs. Hardison when I got older—absolutely no filter. Just say whatever the hell came to mind. And endlessly tease my kid.
“Mom,” Sterling choked out, “can younot? Christ, we just started dating.”
She waved him off. “We both know Graham’s going to marry you, hun.” Sterling’s cheeks colored. Instead of responding, he just focused on his pancakes. I grinned. Anyway, she wasn’t wrong. I had plans to make Sterling mine in every way I could. “Anyway, I just wanted to call and tell you both to prepare to go to Trish’s for Thanksgiving. We’ll make it a quick affair because I know you have to be back on campus for hockey, right, Graham?”
I nodded. “We have a game that Saturday, so Coach is letting us have Wednesday and Thursday off, but he’s expecting us to be at practice at three on Friday.”
“Good!” she exclaimed. “Then you can show up Wednesday, and we can have some quality family time. I’ll let you two finish your breakfast. Sterling, honey, I’m so happy to see you with a good meal in front of you.”
Sterling smiled at her. She blew him a kiss before ending the call. Sterling arched a brow at me. “My mom is going to steamroll over Mrs. Hurley.”
I shrugged. “My mom loves your mom, so I don’t think we need to worry about any steamrolling. For two people with so much money, your parents are the most down-to-earth people we’ve ever known—aside from you,” I added. Sterling waved me off, letting me know adding that part hadn’t been necessary because he wasn’t offended. “My mom considers them coming into our lives as a blessing.”
Sterling snickered. “Don’t ever let Mom hear you say that. She’ll burst into tears and be a mess for all of Thanksgiving. Making a difference in someone’s life is all my mom strives to do.”
I chuckled. “Noted.”
Sterling twined our legs together under the table and tucked back into his pancakes. My heart was fluttering in my chest, ready to explode with how happy and in love with him I was.
“I love you,” I blurted.
Sterling smiled at me. “I know. I love you, too, babe. Now let me eat please.”
I laughed and tucked back into my own food, letting comfortable silence settle between us.
10
Sterling
Graham parked my car alongside the curb in front of his mom’s house. We’d considered driving his car since he was more comfortable with it and we both knew I wasn’t going to drive, but he needed an oil change and a new tire on his car since the tread on one of his was pretty low. I’d already texted Mom about it as soon as he mentioned it this morning, so I knew by the time we got back to campus, both things would be taken care of for him.
She was always taking care of little things like that for him so he could focus on school. Whenever he told her she didn’t need to, she just came back with, “Well, it’s on my insurance, and I’d rather my rate not go up if you have an accident so I can spend extra money on margaritas on the weekends.” And he’d shut right up.
The front door opened, and both of our moms rushed out of the house. I laughed and quickly got out, shutting the door behind me. Mom catapulted herself into my arms, and I quickly caught her, squeezing her to me.
She cupped my cheeks when I set her on her feet. “Oh, my boy, you are positivelyglowing!” she squealed. She hugged me again, pressing a kiss to my cheek. I didn’t even need a mirror to know she’d left red lipstick on my skin. It was her signature color. If it wasn’t a blood-red shade, it was the wrong color. “I’m so glad you’re happy,” she told me.
I smiled at her and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “I missed you, Mom.”
