She brushed her lips across Erin’s in a chaste kiss. “I have an important question for you before we go to sleep.”
“Oh?”
“Big spoon or little spoon?”
A slow smile spread across Erin’s face. “Big spoon, obviously.”
“Figures.” She kissed Erin one last time before rolling over, pressing her back against Erin’s front.
Chapter 21
Erin was the first to wake the next morning.
She hadn’t expected a peaceful night’s sleep—it had been a long time since she’d shared a bed with anyone—but was pleasantly surprised to blink awake at ten a.m. after a restful night.
Beside her, Lia lay on her front, one arm under her pillow and the other curled in the sheet. A bare shoulder peeked out of the covers, the strap of Erin’s tank top slipping from her shoulder to reveal smooth skin.
Powerless to resist the pull, Erin shifted closer, brushing her lips against Lia’s shoulder. Goose bumps erupted beneath her mouth, and Lia hummed in her sleep. Erin kissed the sensitive spot on the back of Lia’s neck before rolling away.
“Why’d you stop?” Lia’s voice was raspy with sleep.
It made Erin smile. “Because I wasn’t sure if you were awake, and we haven’t discussed our boundaries when it comes to that.”
“Mm, well, for the record—that’s a much better way to wake up than to my alarm.” Rolling over onto her back, Lia scrubbed at her face with the heels of her hands. “What time is it?”
“Little after ten.”
“Not too bad.” Lia dropped her hands, blinking at Erin with sleepy eyes. “How did you sleep?”
“Well. Did you?”
“Yes.” Lia snuggled closer, seeking out Erin’s heat. She tucked her head beneath Erin’s chin, fingers lazily tracing the pattern of the tattoo on her ribs.
Before Erin could turn boneless beneath Lia’s idle ministrations, her stomach gave an almighty rumble, reminding her it had been hours since she’d last eaten. “We should probably get up. Did you have any plans for your day off?”
“I was going to visit my grandmother.” Lia’s hand stilled, flattening across Erin’s hip. “What about you? How does the great Erin Finch celebrate her free days?”
After locating some food, Erin would like to spend all day in bed with Lia—but she didn’t want to drag Lia away from her grandmother when their time together was already so short. “Usually with Maisie, but given it’s a school day, probably with Gerrard watching TV.”
“Would you maybe want to come with me instead?”
“To visit your grandmother?” Erin couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to—she knew how important she was to Lia—but Erin had never met anyone’s family before. Was it too soon? Would her grandmother be lucid?
“You don’t have to.”
Before Lia could roll away, Erin curled a hand around her back to keep her close. “It’s not that I don’t want to. I’d love to spend the day with you, and with her. I just don’t want to intrude.”
“You wouldn’t. I know she’d love to see you.”
“Okay, then we’ll go. As long as we can get breakfast somewhere on the way.”
“Deal.”
“And maybe…” Erin hesitated, teeth worrying her bottom lip. “Maybe next time my dad and stepmother are in town, we can go out to dinner with them. So you can meet the rest of my family.”
“You’d want that?”
“Yeah.” It didn’t feel too soon, not with the weight of Lia’s steady gaze on her. Not when it felt like it had taken an age for them to get to this moment, safe in each other’s arms. “I know they’ll want to meet you.”
