“But you’ve got a guest coming.” Dad squeezed my shoulder. “Let’s get cleaned up—I don’t want you to worry about him meeting the parents the first time he shows up here.”
“Yeah. Thanks.” Tears threatened. My dad had just gifted me a condo. That was no small thing. I knew Mom had a life insurance policy—and that Dad had been okay financially. I needed to ask if he’d taken out a mortgage on his new place.
But that could wait.
Fifteen minutes later, Troy and Dad were gone.
Three minutes after that, I buzzed Kellen up.
Two minutes after that, my arms were full of the man I loved.
“I have so much to share.” He vibrated with excitement.
“Well, come into my new condo and share away.”
“Your…” His brow furrowed.
“You go first. I’ll go second.” I helped him remove his coat.
He toed off his boots, then followed me into the main room. “This is a nice place.”
“It’s cozy.”
“I like that.”
“Do you want to sit?”
“Could you? I need to pace.”
“Sure.” I plopped down onto the sofa that didnotpull out into a bed. If it had, Dad and Troy wouldn’t have had to share a bed. They might not have ever gotten together. “Okay, what?”
“I told my dad to fuck off.”
My eyes widened. “I told my dad about you, and he wished me every happiness.”
“Yeah, that was not the reaction I got. Like at all. He’d known I was into guys, but he was expecting me to beg forgiveness. I apologized about the Lambo—because I really am sorry—but then I said I wanted to grow up and…go back to school.”
I cocked my head.
“I was doing an arts degree—with a psychology major. He ridiculed me when he found out. So I dropped out.”
“You never said.” Not that he’d said much at all—we’d only been together thirty-six hours.
“Are you going back to school?”
He nodded. “I’ll probably have to take some remedial courses or something, but I hoped to go back full-time in September.”
“That’s great.”And expensive. I couldn’t give him money on the salary I was pulling in.
“I have an inheritance. I get it when I turn twenty-five. Or when I marry. I think he was going to contest it—have me declared unfit. Now, though, I’ve got a purpose and a direction.”
I couldn’t hold my words in any longer. “And someone who loves you.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Yeah?”
“I mean, it’s too soon.”
He moved swiftly, kneeling at my feet and taking my hands in his. “Not for me, it’s not. I want you. Want to be with you. By your side. As you take on my father. I think—” He grinned mischievously. “I think we’ll make a formidable pair.”
