As I made my way to the bathroom, I smiled to myself. This would be our first night without worrying about plans or stressing over anything.
Forty-five minutes later,we were in the car and headed back to the same place we’d had our first meeting.
Nick kept glancing over at me, and it was creepy as fuck. “I knew I should have fucked you again this morning.”
A nervous laugh erupted from him. “No, three times was enough.”
“I don’t know about that. Did I miss something?” I rubbed my hand across my jaw as myMercedesquietly hummed at a stoplight.
He cleared his throat, and I looked over at him. His beautiful blue eyes were cerulean this morning. “Did I tell you Michael knows about us?”
The grin on my face was uncontrollable. “Yeah? That’s great! Now that fucker knows to keep his hands off you.”
Nick laughed as I pulled away from the light. “Yeah, okay. You’re delusional with that, but that’s not the point. Wanna know how he figured it out?”
I bet I could guess.
“It was all your scowling at him. And evidently, every time you got up, you moved closer to me. That’s how he put it together. You gave us away.”
I laughed. “I knew that would come in handy one day.”
“You know your jealousy isn’t necessary, right? You’re all I see, Preston.” The light airiness from a second ago had faded, and it almost sounded like Nick was pleading with me.
Reaching over, I took his hand. “I know, baby. But why are you so nervous? I’ve never seen you like this before. Not even when the bar is three rows deep with people waiting during a Pub Crawl.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him frown. “You were there?”
I nodded. “Every last one of them, just to see you in action.”
Nick seemed to settle down and relax a bit. He gripped my hand a little tighter, and I squeezed back. I’d take that as a win.
I pulled in and parked away from the other cars. I cut the engine and looked over at him as he gripped my hand. “I feel like I need to say something. This is a big moment for us. I never thought I’d find a new lease on life at forty-five, but you’ve given me a whole new world to consider. And I’m fucking proud of you. That was no easy task for you to accomplish. I feel so fucking lucky to have you.”
His eyes welled with unshed tears as his lips curled in. Nick hung his head and nodded. “After this is over, can we go home and just relax?”
I tried not to get overly excited that he referred to my apartment as home. “Sure, babe. Anything you want. This is your day.”
He smiled, and nodded, then reached for the car door. I don’t think he realized he hadn’t let go of my hand.
“Hey,” I called, tugging him back. “Where’s my kiss?”
The side of his mouth inched up and leaned back. “Always so needy.”
I grinned. My Nick was back.
When we walked into the conference room, before I could say hello to anyone, my attention was drawn away. A large 3-D model of my building sat on the table, waiting to be inspected.
The exterior brick and stone work were from the original build, just like I’d wanted. He’d given the building the fire escapes that made buildings from that era ooze old world charm. It looked as if it belonged in the Little Italy my Nonna loved.
“What do you think?” he whispered to me. “It reminds me of the exterior of the bakery.”
I nodded and tried to control my affection for him. “It’s fucking perfect, ba—Nick.”
He chuckled. “I kinda love it, too.”
“What’s all this?” I asked, motioning to the other models.
“You’ll see. I’ll explain it all when we get started.”
