I squeezed her nape. “I wanna explore this.”
Her eyebrows knitted together. “For how long? And to what end?” She smiled gently, bringing her hand up to run her fingers across my jaw. “I like you. My kids like you. My family and friends like you. My mom would love you, but we tried this before, remember?”
“We never tried shit before, Posy,” I argued. “We slept together and ever since, I haven’t been able to get you out of my head.”
She let out a humorless snort. “Not long after, you were making out with another woman.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but she pressed the tip of her fingers to my mouth.
“Let me finish, honey.” She paused briefly to smile and murmured, “It was okay; we had one night, you weren’t my boyfriend, and you made no commitment to me. I’ll even let you off the hook and say it was for the best at the time because I had to leave town soon after, and you had to go back to your unit. But real talk now, D. I liked you, and it hurt more than it should have. It made me realize that the next guy I got serious about would be the one I spent the rest of my life with. I haven’t met anyone since who measured up to that, which is why I’vebeen single for so long...” Her words trailed off, and she took a fortifying breath. “I guess what I’m asking is, are you ready for that?”
I opened my mouth to say yes, but something stopped me.
Was I ready?
To be honest, I didn’t know, but how was I supposed to have all the answers when we hadn’t even been on a date yet? I knew I liked Rosie and her kids. I also knew the woman I eventually did end up committing to would be exactly like her. Still, I also didn’t own a time machine, so I couldn’t beam into the future and take a sneaky peek.
“I don’t know, Posy,” I responded. “But I’m not gonna lie to you and make predictions that I don’t know are true. I like you, and I want to get to know you better. You make me feel things I’ve never felt before, and I want to explore that further. I also know I’m more ready than I’ve ever been to get serious.
“I have two kids, one who looks up to you a lot,” she explained. “If I bring you into his life, I need to know you’ll have a care for him.”
“That I can promise,” I murmured. “We’ll keep DJ and Gabby out of our relationship. I’ll be his buddy, even his employer, but when it comes to you and me, we don’t involve them. It may be a good idea to sit them down and tell them the score. They’re not kids, they can take it.”
“I can do that,” she agreed.
“So does that mean you’ll go out with me tonight?” I asked.
“What about the bar?”
“Adam’s in. He can manage the place for a couple of hours while we go out to eat. As long as I’m back by closing time to cash everyone out, we’ll be good.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What exactly are you expecting to happen? Dinner or...” She lowered her voice sexily and waggled her eyebrows suggestively. “Dinner?”
A chuckle left my throat. “I’m expecting dinner.”
She popped her hip slightly and declared, “Just so you know, I swore allegiance to my vibrator.”
“Say what now?” The words settled in, and my eyebrows hit my hairline. “What was that about a vibrator?”
“I swore allegiance to it, you know, like you swear allegiance to the flag, but I did it to my vibrator. I held a ceremony and everything.”
My lips twitched, and I murmured to myself, “I can’t fucking wait to hear this one.”
She slapped my arm lightly. “Stop teasing me.”
“Tease you?” I shot back. “You’re the one talking about damned vibrators. Jeez.” I dipped my head. “Now, tell me all about it, Posy. When you swore allegiance and held your ceremony, were you like, using it?”
“Ugh,” she exclaimed, slapping me again. “You’re incorrigible. My point is, I’m not sleeping with you on the first date.”
“But we’ve already done it,” I protested. “It’s a bit late to start clutching your pearls now. I’ve tasted you, and I gotta say, you’re the sweetest thing I've ever had.”
“Work for it then,” she demanded.
I nuzzled her neck with my nose and smiled against her soft, perfumed skin. “Oh, I’ll work for it, alright. I’ll lay you down, spread those soft, pretty thighs, and?—”
“Ugh,” a gruff voice rumbled. “It’s too early for this shit.”
Rosie jerked away from me and snapped, “Stop saying shit,” before greeting, “Morning, Son. Coffee?”
