“I see what you’re doin’,” Tate said with a gruff chuckle, cutting him off as he put his hands on Donovan’s hips.
“What am I doin’?”
“You’re…” Tate shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Donovan’s laugh was so deep it reverberated through Tate’s entire body and lightened something inside him.
But then it stopped, and Donovan cupped his face, staring down at him. “I’ve never been more serious about anything,” he whispered. “The other mornin’ … when I woke up in your bed alone, I wasn’t pissed that you left. Maybe a little. But more so, I was disappointed that you weren’t there. I wanted to open my eyes and see you. I wanted to pull you against me so I could feel you. And yeah, maybe I wanted to get inside you again, but that was secondary.
“I realized then that it wasn’t about sex. I wantedyou, Tate. And fine, maybe I don’t know everything about you or vice versa, but I want to learn those things. I don’t want to do the dance because I already know that it’s love. I want to expand on that. I want to give you everything you could ever want. Me. No one else. I don’t see a reason to wait, but I will if that’s what you need.
“So, no, you don’t have to move in here. We can take this one day at a time. That’s fine with me. I know I’m not a patient man. Not when it comes to gettin’ somethin’ I want.” He leaned down. “But that’s because I don’t want much, so when I find somethin’—or in this case, someone—that I can see myself spendin’ the rest of my life with, I don’t want to waste a second. It might not make sense to you that I want to spend every spare second I have with you, but that’s okay. You don’t have to feel the same. You don’t have—”
Tate put his hand over Donovan’s mouth. “I love you.”
Donovan’s smile caused the corners of his eyes to crinkle as he pulled Tate’s hand down.
“I love you, too.” Donovan exhaled heavily. “We do have to table this for a little while, though. We’re late as it is.”
Tate looked around as though he might find a clock on the bathroom wall. “Oh, shit.”
“Yeah. And bein’ late means my sister gets first dibs on the pies.”
Tate grinned. “She probably hid them already.”
“Probably.” Donovan stepped back, still holding his gaze. “We good?”
“Yeah. We’re good.”
And as soon as the words were out of his mouth, Tate realized it was the truth.
***
When Brady pulled the SUV down herparents’ driveway, Reilly wasn’t sure what she was feeling. Giddy? Anxious? Both? For her, the physical sensations were often the same, so she couldn’t decipher which emotion churned in her veins. She was feeling something, though.
“You good?”
Her head started bobbing up and down. Yeah. She was good. Definitely that.
“Hey,” Brady said as he parked, his hand covering hers to get her attention.
“I love you,” she exclaimed, snapping her gaze to his. “I just wanted you to hear it when we weren’t … you know.” God, her face was hot. “I love you. I’ve loved you for a long time, and I know I’ll love you even longer. I just—”
He squeezed her hand. “I love you, too.”
His tone was as sincere as the love she saw in his eyes, and it made her chest ache. In a good way.
Brady held her gaze as he brushed her hair back from her face, his eyes imploring her.
“I’m nervous,” she admitted. “About seein’ my parents. About tellin’ them.”
“Why?”
She knew he was honestly asking. There was no concern or skepticism in his voice.
“This is different. It’s you and me. Not you and Donovan.” She shrugged. “You know what I mean.”
He chuckled softly. “Different is okay,” he assured her.
