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“Oh.” His smile. Jesus. He was so beautiful. “Okay. Sure. Just, you know, let me know the dates, and then we can figure out Colorado after that. Where is your family?”
Holy shit. We were doing this?
I put the spoon on a paper towel beside the range. “They’re a little north of Philly. I usually stay in their guest room. I’m sure they’ll let us both stay there, but we can get a hotel if you’d prefer.”
Tanner cocked his head. “Why wouldn’t I want to stay with them?”
“Because you haven’t met them yet?” I half-shrugged, too aware that the warmth in my face wasn’t the heat from the food I was cooking. “Some people aren’t comfortable with… You know, the first time they…” God, why was I such a rambling mess?
Tanner didn’t seem to notice. Or at least, he didn’t mind. “Staying with them sounds fine.” His smile was so bright and adorable. “I’m looking forward to it.”
My God. So was I.
And he wasn’t finished yet.
“There’s also a wedding coming up in July.” He tapped his fingers on the island. “One of my teammates—Buckley—is getting married. In Hawaii.” Tanner met my gaze. “My invite includes a plus one. Would you, um… Like to come with me?”
“A wedding in Hawaii?” I whistled. “Holy shit.” Then I rewound what he’d said. “You… want me to come? Like, not just to stay with your family, but to your teammate’s wedding?”
“Of course.” He smiled. “We’re out and you’ve already met all the guys, so we wouldn’t be upstaging anyone by coming out at the wedding. They all know who you are. And… I’d love it if you came with me.” From the way he was looking at me, I believed him. As much as I still couldn’t fathom what the hell he was getting out of this besides sex, there was a soft plea in his eyes. He really did want me to come to his teammate’s wedding with him.
Because that was a perfectly normal thing for him to do with a boyfriend, and any day now, I’d stop second-guessing whenever he acted like this was a normal relationship. Because somehow, by some miracle, thiswasa normal relationship. With the most amazing man I’d ever known. How? Seriously—how?
Tanner’s shoulders dipped minutely, and I realized I’d been silent a beat too long while my brain had been shorting out.
I shook myself. “I’d love to go! I just… Man. Hawaii. I’ve never been, so it’s… Your teammates don’t do anything halfway, do they?”
He laughed, and I didn’t think I was imagining the relief in his posture. “Hey, if she’s signing on the dotted line to put up with him forever, she deserves a wedding on the beach.”
“Okay, fair.” I chuckled. “I, um… I mean, I’d definitely love to go. I’m not sure I can afford a ticket, but I can—”
“Don’t worry about it.” Tanner waved a hand. “I’m inviting you as my plus one. I’ll make sure you’ve got a ticket.”
“You—really?”
“Well, yeah.” He half-shrugged. “I’m not going to bring you along but leave you to the wolves to get there.” Motioning toward the living room, he added, “I’ll book our tickets later on. And hey, neither of us has to get off work, so… perfect!”
“Good point. Any idea what the dress code is?”
“Formal, but it isn’t black tie. I’m wearing a suit.”
I chewed my lip. “I’ll need to get one. I have a few, but they probably wouldn’t look great at something like this. And they’d probably be too hot.”
Tanner smiled, sweet and adorable as ever. “I’m sure we can find something for you.”
“We?”
“Well, yeah. I can go shopping with you.” He flashed me a toothy grin. “Any excuse to see you in a suit.”
“You’re a dork.”
He shrugged unrepentantly. “And I’m paying for the trip. Suit, too, so we can—”
“No, no.” I shook my head. “I can buy my own suit.”
His eyebrows rose. “You don’t have to, though.”
“No, but…” I didn’t want to make this night awkward by explaining that it made me a little uncomfortable to have him buying me expensive suits. “It won’t be designer, but Men’s Wearhouse has never done me wrong.”
