“Ooh, do you feel like a horny schoolgirl?” he asks as he carefully maneuvers the car into his parking garage beneath his building. Everything about August’s apartment building is state of the art, which reminds me that he is here because he’s a Cromwell and this is what is expected. It’s easy to forget his pedigree when he’s chowing down on beer and wings at the bar with me and my friends.
I laugh thinking about how sweetly immature he can be. “I do not, although I am looking forward to seeing you tomorrow night.” I hop out and make my way to the back of the car. He gets out and does the same. “Thank you for taking me tonight. I really enjoyed meeting your brother and hanging out with him. That was fun. I’ve never been to a baseball game before. It was nice.”
He nods. “He really liked you too. And I’m glad that you came with us. It was nice to spend some time with you but away from everyone else. Felt like we were a normal couple tonight.”
I look up at him from under my lashes. “It sure did. Does that scare you?”
“You would think so, but it doesn’t, Hen.” He leans and kisses my nose. “It really doesn’t.”
I giggle. “Good, I’m glad.”
“Come on, before I lose the internal struggle and drag you upstairs to my apartment, I should walk to your car.” He stretches out his hand, and I take it as he leads me to over tothe guest parking. “Make sure you text me when you get home. I wanna know that you made it safely.”
I grin. “Of course, August. And thank you for asking me to do that. It means a lot to me.”
“I keep reminding you that I’m not all that bad. And that you really didn’t hate me. You were just overcome with all of your feelings of love,” he teases.
I know he’s just joking, but he just might be right. It could be that that thin line between love and hate might have just been that thin with us. I lean in and kiss him deeply. “Thank you again for tonight. I had a lot of fun. And I can’t wait to see you tomorrow.”
“I can’t wait to see you tomorrow either and I hope that Ash isn’t too hard on you when you get home.”
“He’ll get over it,” I say with a roll of my eyes, knowing that it’s not going to be that simple when I get home. “Or he won’t. I don’t care.”
“Yes, you do,” he reminds me.
“Yeah, I do. We’ll figure it out, August. He’s not the family that I’m worried about,” I admit to him, speaking of the elephant that I feel like is lingering in any conversation where we talk about us.
“Yeah, well, we’ll deal with Maxwell Cromwell at some point. You don’t worry about that right now. That’ll be something for after we finish out the season,” he tells me.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, you don’t need that much stress before the playoffs. And until then you just relax. I’ll handle my father. I’m not a kid anymore. It won’t be as easy for him to tear me away from you, I promise you that much.” He gives me another kiss, and I know it’s time to go.
“Have a good night, I’ll see you later.” I carefully extract myself from his arms and unlock the BMW.
“Good night, baby,” he says, helping me into the car.
I can still see him as I’m driving out of the garage. He doesn’t go up until I’m out.
When I reach home, I shoot him a text.
Hendrix: I made it home. Night, August.
I add a kissy face emoji and hit send.
August: Good, I’m glad. Good night, Hendrix.
I grin at the phone. I wish I would have stayed. I wanted to so badly, but I have a broody brother upstairs who might still be up. Heading up my stairs, I notice the lights from Amelia’s apartment are out. I’m wondering if she’s with Dex or if she’s already asleep for the night. My money is on Dex’s.
Where August lives. I groan internally as I unlock the door. Placing a smile on my face, I enter.
“Hey, Ash, how was your night?”
He’s lying on the couch in his sleep shorts and T-shirt, watching the TV. I look over and see its Sport Center highlights.
“Good, how was the game? I saw that they won,” he replies.
“It was a lot of fun, actually.” I take a seat beside the couch and watch him carefully. “I had a lot of fun hanging out with him and his brother. And his brother wasn’t rude to me.”
