“I did.”
His lips turn up into a smile, and I resist the urge to kiss him. Fuck, do I want to, though. “I made us dinner. I wanted to surprise you. I cleaned some. Nothing crazy, I promise. Made Alfredo.”
Wrapping my arm around his waist, I drag him to me, smiling when he lets out a quick breath, his smile growing. “Sounds delicious. Is there anything I can do to help?”
He raises himself on his tiptoes, bringing his lips so close to mine I can almost taste them. “You can give me a kiss.”
I chuckle breathlessly. “Is that helpful?”
“It’s helpful to me,” Luca whispers.
It’s pretty damn helpful to me too, so I close the minuscule difference between us and kiss him softly.
I’m never in a hurry with Luca. Never. Every single time he blesses me with his lips on mine, I want to savor it. I want to feel it deeper. Like if I kiss him long enough, I can use the magic of it to knit our souls together.
His hand lands on my chest, fingers clutching the fabric of my shirt, and I cup his face tenderly, caressing his smooth skin with my thumb.
He breaks the kiss by dropping from his tiptoes and smiles up at me. God. There’s a new lightness to him today. Something bright and ethereal and fucking gorgeous shining in the depths of his gray eyes.
They’re always stunning, but there’s something about them tonight that takes my breath away.
“What’s the occasion?” I ask.
“No occasion.” He pulls himself from my hold, then grabs my hands and leads me into the kitchen. “Well, okay, I guess a bit of one. I made my first car payment today.”
Pride blasts through my chest, not a slow trickle, but a flood, overwhelming me until it spills out and forces a smile to my lips. “Yeah? That’s so fucking amazing, Luca.”
“Yeah,” he says, like he’s just as proud of himself as I am. “So I stopped at the store and bought groceries, then made dinner.”
“Oh? Got our whole night planned?”
He stops, eyes going wide. “I don’t—if you don’t want… We can—”
I cut off his nervous ramble by grabbing him around the waist and hauling him to me. My lips find his on instinct, and as soon as they do, he practically melts in my hold.
When he whimpers low in his throat, I break the kiss. “It was just a question, baby. I’m so happy to just be here with you. No matter what we’re doing.”
“You really mean that, don’t you?” he whispers, letting all his weight go until I’m supporting him.
“God, with my whole heart.” For a few long moments, we stand together in silence, wrapped up in each other’s arms. “Okay, gorgeous. Let’s eat. Why don’t I make our plates, and we can sit on the floor at the coffee table?”
Luca sighs, stepping out of my embrace. “That sounds nice, but how about I make the plates?”
“Sure.” I smile at him. “How about I keep you company while you tell me about your day?”
Fear flashes in his eyes, there and gone so quickly I can almost convince myself I imagined it. “Okay, yeah. Let’s do it.”
While Luca plates up dinner, complete with homemade fettuccinenoodles, he talks to me about his day. I can do little more than smile at him like a dope. Luca has always been expressive. Always. But there’s just something about him now that gets to me.
The spark is coming back.
Sure, sometimes he slow blinks like he’s caught in a nightmare, and sometimes he wakes up gasping for air before burrowing into my arms and falling back asleep. But those days are happening less and less, and now? Now it’s like he’s coming home. Not to a place, though. Tohimself.He’s feeling safe in his own skin, and that’s worth more to me than almost anything else.
“I love you,” I blurt out, cutting him off in the middle of him telling me about how he almost couldn’t find fresh garlic.
He drops a piece of garlic bread, and it hits the floor as the words settle between us. Gray eyes latch onto mine, wide and terrified, but also relieved and… happy—so many emotions flashing in their depths.
His swallow is audible, his throat bobbing hard. “In, um… in what way?”
