Maybe that was fair enough.She couldn’t quite work up hate for him, even if she didn’t feel sorry for him anymore.
She wrinkled her nose at her reflection.Her dress was uncomfortable, but it suited a fancy dinner at the Graff.Her makeup was passable.And yes, she was kind of dreading this whole thing, but not enough to make up an excuse not to go.
Aly was her friend again.Jill was getting to be a friend.This was what friends did.
She blew out a breath, then stepped out of the bathroom.Nate was lounging on the bed in sweats.He had a laptop on his lap, no doubt doing some work.They’d been busy again after the trial.Each of them had a stack of cases to see through.
“Well, how do I look?”she asked.
He looked up from the screen.He didn’t say anything at first.“How come you never wear a dress for me?”He set the laptop aside and slid off the bed.
“Because we never go anywhere.Besides it’s uncomfortable as hell.”
He crossed the room to her, but she held up a hand.“Keep your hands off me.I spent way too much time on this makeup, even if it doesn’t look like it.”
He stopped, her hand pushing against his chest.“I like the way you look.”
“Yeah, well… I’ve got to get going.I’m running late thanks to said makeup.”
“Okay, just one thing first.What do girls talk about at these kinds of things?”
She grabbed her purse and started walking out of the room, Nate at her heels.“Womentalk about… I don’t know.I’ve never been to one of these things.”She made it to the door, shrugged on her coat.
“Relationship things?”
“Sure.Maybe.Why?You want me to get the details on Aly and Landon’s sex life?”
“Christ, Sam,” he said, so pained she laughed in spite of her nerves.
She grabbed the little gift she’d gotten Aly.She’d gone in with Jill to get Aly some fancy coffee machine, but Sam had done something uncharacteristically sentimental and found an old set of notes Aly had written her in fifth or sixth grade, where they’d been going back and forth all about what they wanted to do when they grew up—rather than paying attention in math class.
Aly hadn’twrittenmarry Landon Bennet, but everything about her future even then had been about staying at the Bennet Ranch, helping Landon run it.So Sam had put them into a little scrapbook for Aly to have.
Sam still felt weird about giving it to her, but Nate had poked and prodded until she’d felt like shehadto.She never should have told him the idea.
Before she could open the door, Nate recovered from her suggesting he wanted to know about his brother’s sex life.
“If relationship topics come up, maybe you should ask them if you should move in with me.Officially.”
Sam stilled.It wasn’t… that big of a deal.They practicallydidlive together.She was hereallthe time.But they’d never talked about it.Never… made itofficial.
“Like, I’d have to rent out my apartment to somebody?”
“Yeah.”He pulled the hair that was trapped in the collar of her coat out for her.“Like that.”
She looked up at him then.It wasn’t like she’d never thought about it, and it didn’t change anything in their day-to-day.But it was a step.It was an official commitment.
“You think about it.Talk about it.I don’t need an answer right now.”
Sam swallowed the little lump in her throat.No, he wouldn’t.But why stave off the inevitable?This was where they were going, step by step.Maybe it still had the potential to blow up in her face, but a stable, adult relationship was a learning experience, right?
Besides, she loved him, and no amount of anxiety or fear or self-doubt seemed to make that go away.
“I don’t need to think about it or talk to them,” she managed to say.“I’ll put the apartment up for rent tomorrow.”
He grinned at her, but when he bent down, presumably to kiss her, she put her hand on his chest again to stop the forward movement.“But you’re still not ruining my makeup.”
“Tough customer,” he said, but he was still grinning.
