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“He is,” I said. “He’s here with me in the car right now. Say hi.” I gestured at Travis and he leaned into the frame.
“Hi, Mister and Missus Lowe.” He waved and smiled at them.
“Oh, that’s exciting. Reuniting with your little friends. Is that why you called?”
“Uh, sort of.” I ran one hand over my shaved head. “Travis and I are together now. I wanted to let you know we’re getting married.”
Mom’s phone clattered to the floor, the video feed going wild as it bounced and then settled face down on her living room floor. “Oh no! I hope it isn’t broken.” She picked up the phone and looked into the camera. “Are you kidding me?”
“What? Is it broken?”
Mom shook her head. “No, you! I mean areyoukidding me?”
“Oh. No, I’m serious. Here,” I said, pulling Travis’s hand into view to show off his ring. “It’s nothing fancy, but I’ll get him a better one soon.”
Mom covered her face with her hands. “I can’t believe this. Len, are you hearing this?”
“I hear him. Are you sure he’s not just pulling our legs?”
“There’s a ring and everything.”
“Hmph. I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Mom turned back to face the camera. “Well, I’m happy for you. We both are. Don’t listen to your father.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“I love you, honey! And you too, Travis!”
“Thanks, Missus Lowe,” he said.
I ended the call. “Now what?”
Travis bit his bottom lip. “I think I want to wait to tell my mom.”
“Oh. Is everything okay?” Worry bolted through me, fear that he wasn’t as serious as I was about the whole thing, or that I’d misread the situation entirely.
He nodded. “Yeah, she just… she hates being put on the spot. I don’t want to make her uncomfortable or make her feel like she has to react a certain way. Worst-case scenario, she’ll read me the riot act in private for making her feel pressured.”
I gave him a little smile. “I wouldn’t want to make my future mother-in-law uncomfortable, especially not so early in our engagement. And I don’t want to get you in trouble. Heaven knows we did enough of that as kids, right?”
He inhaled a deep breath and let it out slowly, grinning. “Thanks for understanding.”
“That’s what partners are for, right?”
His voice was soft when he spoke. “Yeah. Thank you.”
“Anytime.” Silence stretched between us, nervous tension, the air crackling. My heart thumped and thudded. I was sure he could hear it. The tension in my stomach fluttered and roiled, urging me to act.
I swallowed my nerves and leaned close, putting my hand up to cup his face, pulling him close very gently, and we met in the middle with a tender kiss.
The way our lips touched was so tentative. Travis’s sharp inhale was loud in my ears, as was the soft little noise of surprise he made when our tongues met. My entire body was alight, every nerve ending firing at the same time. Travis’s hand found my bicep and gripped me, holding on for dear life as we kissed so slowly. I couldn’t remember a kiss ever being that intense, even the hurried, sexy ones, and I never wanted it to end.
Travis broke the kiss just as gently and carefully as it had started. He backed away, loosening his grip on my arm, and slid back. “Wow,” he whispered. “That was…”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“I think I’m going to like this arrangement,” he said, grinning slowly.
