I hummed quietly to myself. That was exactly what I needed to hear.
“I should get back to work,” I said as I rose to my feet.
“Sure.” Leo rose too, then glanced at the door. There was no one around, so he leaned forward, then brushed his thumb across my cheek. “Don’t worry, River. I’ll make sure the theater doesn’t go anywhere.”
I smiled, and when my cheeks warmed, I realized I was blushing. “Thanks, Leo,” I said, then hurried away before I lost control and tried to kiss him with everyone else around.
I sat back at my desk and shoved an earbud in, and as I stared at the computer, that big grin lingered on my face. I shouldn’t have worried at all about the theater, I realized. I should have just assumed that Leo would take care of it. I knew he was capable, and I knew that, when it came down to it, he would never place something like the business above what he truly believed in.
The truth was I could trust him. Maybe because I had resisted running into a relationship with Leo full throttle, I had gotten to know him in a different way. We’d seen our differences and found a way to come together and make it work, and that process had resulted in a lot more trust than the relationships I was used to, where I just offered up my trust like the other person didn’t even have to earn it.
My hands paused over the keyboard. I felt warm from my face down to my chest, and the tingly happy feeling I got in his office wasn’t going away.
I sucked in a breath. What was this feeling, anyway? I wasn’t obsessed. I wasn’t willing to throw my life away for him, especially not now that I was building a life for myself. I wasn’t willing to do any of the things for Leo that I would have done for my exes in the past, but still, he kept impressing me and kept showing me that he cared in these surprising, unexpected ways.
I glanced over my shoulder and watched him, his brow furrowed in sexy concentration as he talked on the phone, and it finally hit me.
I was in love with Leo.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Leo
With old R&Bblasting on the stereo, I whipped up one of my mom’s favorite recipes, a veggie pasta dish with lots of cheese and rich sauce that I’d been eating since I was a kid. River was due to be back soon after a meeting with an admissions counselor on campus, and I wanted to have a nice meal waiting to treat him.
Since he was actively looking for an apartment, I knew I wasn’t going to have as many chances to cook for him. Rather than bum myself out about it, I figured I just needed to take advantage of the chances I had to be sweet while I had them.
It was also exactly one week since our last hookup, and considering Kai was off for a late cocktail with Meredith Bell, I was hoping River and I could catch a little time in bed while we had the condo to ourselves. Things had been going so well. Time with him always put me in an easy, good mood, and I was especially proud of him for keeping focused on his plan while the weeks stretched on.
He never seemed like he was losing his focus, and he never acted obsessed with me, like he feared he would. And we kept opening up to each other more, taking long walks where we talked about our past mistakes and our hopes and fears for the future.
The fact that he was making me take more time off work was icing on the cake. My life had opened up, too, and I remembered for the first time in a long time how nice it was just to spend a quiet evening at home, making dinner for someone I cared about.
“Evening!” River called from up front, and I turned the music down a little.
“In here!”
He dressed up for the meeting and had even pinned one of those purple clematis flowers to his shirt. The smile on his face told me immediately that the meeting had gone well, and I grabbed the open bottle of merlot and poured him a glass. “Tell me about it,” I said eagerly.
“Great.” He took the glass with a wide smile. “They gave me a tour of the photography studios. And it turns out some of my old credits will count, so I won’t have to retake all the basics.”
I raised my drink, and we clinked our glasses together. “Fantastic. You hungry?”
“Very,” he nodded.
I turned to stir the red sauce, fragrant with herbs, while River took a seat at the island. “I thought I’d cook to celebrate,” I explained. “I haven’t made this recipe in a few years, but it’s a family favorite that my mom passed down.”
“To celebrate?” River asked, then laughed lightly. “It was just a meeting, Leo.” He looked around at the mess I’d made in the kitchen, gratification glowing on his face. “But thanks for doing all this.”
“I know it’s just a meeting,” I laughed. “But I’m still happy for you.”
He smiled and fingered the flower, rolling the stem between his thumb and finger. “Yeah, I’m happy for me, too.”
I threw the last of the vegetables in the pan, gave it a quick stir, and joined River at the island with my wine. “Actually, there is something else I wanted to talk to you about.”
He raised an eyebrow. “What’s that?” he asked. His voice was hesitant, almost hopeful, and it made me wonder if he had something else on his mind, too.
I took a sip of the wine. “I was thinking about it, and I realized, did you know I haven’t been with anyone else since we started hooking up?”
