“Best thing I’ve ever done. Are you regretting not telling everyone about us from the start?”
“Now, how would that have gone down? Gator, I’m screwing around with Creed.”
“Is that what you were doing?”
Auralia didn’t answer. He knew better than that. This discussion had been the merry-go-round she’d been on since Gator and D-Day’s wedding.
Creed traced a circle on her thigh. “I told you what I want.”
“Okay. Well. Yeah.” Auralia looked down. This wasn’t the direction she’d meant for this conversation to go. “I’m twenty-five. And here is probably the only place where our age difference makes a difference. I’m not convinced that I’ll ever get married. It’s not something I’ve aspired to do. I can call you my fiancé in my head and in private to show that I am dedicated to a life of loving you. That doesn’t translate to me making governmentally official vows. I just don’t think that fits with who I am.”
“Auralia,” Creed reached up and cupped her cheeks in his palms, “no one’s dragging you down the aisle. That doesn’t mean we can’t tell our friends and families that we’re going to give it our best go at a solid, supportive relationship.”
“And if it doesn’t turn out well, we’ll just be damned uncomfortable at the family gathering from now until forever.”
“That sounds like what you said last year. I’d have hoped you would have evolved past ‘if it doesn’t turn out well.’ Since then, what I’ve heard you say is that this relationship hits the sweet spots. That if you were to design a relationship and describe it to the Heavens, then this was the one you wanted most, which is music to my ears—to my heart.”
“It’s true. It’s good. A little salt, a little sweet, meaty conversations.”
“You must be hungry,” Cree laughed.
Auralia tried on a coquettish curl at the corners of her lips. “Always around you.”
Creed didn’t take the bait. “I have faith in you when you’re far from me. And I have joy in you when you’re with me. I like that you’re headstrong and free-spirited. I like that you go after what you believe is good and right. I think you’ve put those qualities to work in making us an 'us'. I think loving you is one of the great miracles of my lifetime.”
Auralia leaned forward until they were forehead to forehead and rested there, breathing deeply into her lungs and holding it as long as she could, as if releasing the breath would blow out the magic that she wanted to keep lit.
“Imagine for a moment all of our different family members who have gotten married. They love each other for the season they’re supposed to love, then their lives take a turn, and they divorce. When they married, it was always a possibility that they would disappoint their families. Same with us. You and I both know that all they’d ever want is for us to have a—”
Auralia frowned. “Happily ever after.”
“We can’t promise each other that, and we can’t promise our families that.”
“So we take a page from D-Day and Gator’s love story,” Auralia said, feeling some of the tension ease, and she sat up to find his gaze on her, “and we simply love for now. Just for today.”
Creed put his hands on her thighs. “Today, Auralia Rochambeau, I will love you the whole day through.”
“Thank you, and today, Honoré Duchamp, I will love you the same.”
“Here’s the plan: Before work revs up, we grab hold of Gator, take him aside, tell him that we connected in a new way at his wedding.”
Auralia nodded. “Blame it on him for casting enchantments.”
Creed cocked his head to the side. “Does someone need to take the blame for us?”
“No.” Auralia could see how that would have sounded hurtful. She sighed. “I’m nervous. I don’t want Gator to feel betrayed.”
“By us having a relationship or by our keeping it to ourselves.”
“The second one. But I’ll tell him why, explain that we needed time to see how things went without any hopes or expectations.”
Creed chuckled low and deep. “Your mamma.”
“Oh, Lord, Mamma. She is going to be beside herself with joy.” Auralia lifted a finger. “I can’t hurt my mamma. I won’t. So you dammed well better live up to my expectations.”
Creed kissed her long and slow, then tipped her head to look deeply into Auralia’s eyes. “The only way you could hurt your mamma is to do something you didn’t want to do or do it with a person you didn’t want to do it with. Poor in pocket is fine as long as you’re—”
“Rich in heart.” Auralia lifted herself, swinging her leg back around, dismounting from Creed’s lap. “You’re right.”
