“Morning,” she said quietly.
She walked around the counter, running her fingers through her sleep-tousled hair, looking sexy as fuck in just my T-shirt and nothing else.
I smiled as she walked up to me, and my arms looped over her shoulders as I pulled her against my bare chest and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “Morning.”
I felt her arms wrap around my middle, her fingers brushing against my back. She tilted her head back, resting her chin against my chest as she looked up at me. “Are you doing anything today?”
I shook my head. “No. Not unlessyoucount,” I quipped with a smirk, earning a chuckle from her. “I thought we could justhang out before we go to dinner tonight.” Her brow furrowed slightly as she blinked up at me. “What?”
“You said ‘beforewego to dinner.’”
“Yes…?”
“You havefamilydinner tonight.”
“Yes.” I tucked her hair behind her ear. “And I want you to come with me.”
“You…you do?”
“Yeah,” I said with a chuckle. “Why do you look shocked?”
“Haley told me how sacred your family dinners were.”
“Oh?” My brow arched. “And when did you two talk about that?”
She snorted. “When we were in Monaco. She wasn’t the biggest fan of acertain someone, and she said she was glad you hadn’t brought her to family dinner because that meant there was ‘still hope’ because you’d never brought anyone, and the day you did, she’d know you were a goner.”
I chuckled, holding her a little tighter. “She wasn’t lying. I’ve never brought anyone. I never wanted to. But I do now. And as far as being a ‘goner,’ she’s not wrong. Not at all. I am so fucking far gone for you, Morgan Hayes, I don’t know where I end and you begin. I’d say that warrants a seat at the Sunday dinner table.”
She smiled at me, leaning up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to my lips.
Morgan and I started out despising one another. We were the two foes among our group of friends, using one another to scratch an itch while affirming our detestment of each other and vowing it would always stay that way.
But somewhere along the way…something changed.
Moments we shared shifted into more intimate andpassionate ones, and vulnerability started to peek through the cracks of our facade. Feelings emerged and flourished, and I unexpectedly found this piece of me I didn’t even know was missing.
I realized that before Morgan, I was simply existing. When I was with her, that’s when I truly felt alive. And all at once, everything I thought I never wanted…I wanted withher. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
When we pulled through the gates of Cliffside Village that evening, I glanced over, seeing the slightly nervous expression Morgan was wearing. I squeezed her hand with mine. “You’ve hung out with Hale, and you've already met my mom before. They already like you. Relax.”
“Okay, well, I wasn’t your girlfriend who was crashing sacred family dinners before.”
I chuckled. “You’re notcrashing.”
“You didn’t tell them I was coming, Wes.”
“The look on their faces when I walk in with you will be worth it. And like I already told you, my mom cooks enough food for a damn army, so it’s no trouble. Ipromise.”
When we pulled into the driveway, Haley’s car was already there, and I grinned even harder, knowing I would get to see both of their reactions at the same time. We got out of the car, walked up the pathway to the front door, and stepped inside.
“Hello?” I singsonged.
“In here!” my mom called out from the kitchen.
My fingers were laced with Morgan’s as I guided her down the hall, and we emerged into the kitchen with my mom’s back to us and Haley on the stool at the counter, scrolling through her phone.
“Hey.”
