Chapter Ten
Arlo
Damn, Ilovescrambling Nolan’s brain like that.
I know he’s following me as I wind my way through the service department and back to the sales office, where I tell them I have dibs on the Toyota trade-in. I already test-drove it earlier today and once they told me it was solid mechanically, I knew it’d be mine.
But I wanted to hear Nolan askthatquestion.
I honestly thought I’d have to nudge and coach him a little longer than that to get it out of him, though.
I have to reach down and adjust myself because I’m so damn hard right now.
Ten minutes later, we’re heading home, and damn right I spend the entire ride with my hand resting on his thigh.
I can’t wait to tell Lucas about his new ride.
Yes, it’s in our budget. Yes, it’s coming from my end of the budget, butdamnright I’m going to transfer the money into our new joint account and write the check for it out of there.
Because all three of our names are going on the title. This car is forourson. Therefore, it’s only right it comes out ofouraccount.
From this point forward, except for our income taxes, everything’s a joint venture.
Everything.
And I’ll keep hammering that point home to our guy until it finally sinks in and becomes second-nature to him. Might take a while, and I get that. Even though Zoey had been away from Bill for a couple of years, there were still old, dysfunctional habits she defaulted to when we first got together. Patience, love, and repetition finally helped her past them.
When we make it home, Lucas and Caine are there, sitting in the living room, listening to music, and doing their homework.
I know I should wait until Zoey’s home to tell him, but I’m too excited. I take out my phone and pull up the picture of his car that I took earlier today. “By this time tomorrow, you’ll have a car. Now you’ll have to learn how to drive.”
His jaw literally drops. Nolan watches, looking amused, as Lucas launches himself from the couch and nearly knocks me over with the force of his hug.
“Oh, my god! Thank you!” He grabs my hand and stares at my phone. “That’s amazing! Thank you!”
“Aw,” Caine jokes. “I like driving him.”
“You’ll still get to,” I tell him. “He’s going to be a while before we let him drive alone. He needs practice. One of us will probably drive him to school, and let him practice, and you can bring him home after school. Besides, I want to have some things done to it first.”
Lucas brushes tears away. “Thank you!”
I reach over and ruffle his hair. “You’re very welcome. Keep your grades up, though. And like I said, we’ll have some rules about it.”
He nods.
Finally, he releases my hand and Nolan and I head to the bedroom to change clothes.
Once we’re locked behind our bedroom door, Nolan pulls me into his arms and kisses me.
“You know, if she comes home and catches us screwing when we should be getting dinner started, or at the very least working on the house, she’s liable to chew us out, right?” I tease.
He smiles. “You knowyouare getting yourself laid tonight, right?”
“I can hope.”
“The look on his face.” He slowly shakes his head. “That was fantastic. I think you’ve done more to help him on the road to healing over the past forty-eight hours than any amount of counseling could do for him.”
“We’re afamily. He’sourson.” I stare into his sweet brown eyes and pick out the flecks of amber and honey in them. “Ourmeaningyours, too.”
