“He sounds fun. You have a good relationship with him too?”
“Yeah, with all of them. My family is everything to me, Leo,” I said. “I know that’s probably a nerdy thing to say, but I love two things in this world: writing and them. Three if you count Oahu itself.”
“That’s not nerdy, Hawaii. It’s nice. I’m really close with my family too, so I get it.” He smiled. “Tell me all about them. You made a joke about being conceived via whiskey and grief?”
I snorted. “Yep. But if I tell you my whole life story, there will be a quiz.”
“I’d expect nothing less, Professor Grimes.”
“Ew.” I cringed. “My dad is an English professor, remember? If that was supposed to be sexy, it didn’t work.”
“Alright, hurry up. Tell me the story and quiz me before I fuck up again,” he said.
I sighed and launched into the saga, starting at the beginning. “My parents were friends in high school. My dad and Kennedy were a couple and my mom used to date Kennedy’s twin brother, Brandon. He died by suicide around the time they graduated college, and they all made a lot of bad choices in their grief. Kennedy and Dad broke up for a brief period, during which he got my mom pregnant. When Kennedy found out, that news, combined with the grief over her brother’s death and the two miscarriages she’d already experienced, drove her away from everyone for three years. She left Hawaii and now says it’s her biggest regret in life. Eventually, she returned home and she and Dad couldn’t stay apart. He’d been in love with her, waiting for her to come back the whole time. He never loved my mom romantically, but they’d become good friends raising me together. Then Mom met Dave, and we’ve all been one big happy family ever since.”
“Wow. Sounds like one hell of a story.”
“Yep, and that’s why my dad has written three books about it.”
“Text me the books. I’m going to read them.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You’re going to read three romance novels?”
“If it gives me a better understanding of you and something you love this much, yes,” he said sincerely.
I laughed and texted him the first two titles. His phone vibrated in his pocket. “The third isn’t out yet.”
“Thank you,” he said with a smug smile. “Just to make sure I pass the quiz later, I’d like to confirm—Elena is your mom’s daughter with Dave and your dad and Kennedy have the twin boys?”
I nodded. “Ian and Isaac. They’re only nine. Dad and Kennedy had a lot of fertilitychallenges.”
“Got it.” He tapped his temple like he was committing it all to memory. “Do I officially know more about you than anyone outside your family?”
“Is that your goal?”
He shrugged. “It would be a pretty cool byproduct of this budding friendship.”
I smiled. “You know more about my family than I’ve ever shared with someone I’m also having sex with. Conner never knew the backstory, just the players. Does that work for you?”
“I’ll take it.” He pulled a protein bar out of the backpack at his feet and ripped it open. “Okay, my turn.”
I settled back in under his arm as he told me about how his parents met at Harrison’s Bar and Pub when his mom, Sutton, came to Boston to find a man her grandmother had loved during World War II. That man turned out to be the grandfather of Leo’s dad, Adrian, and the tragic love story of his great-grandparents ended up leading to the very successful romance of his parents. Leo had even been named after a great-uncle who had died tragically at the age of eight because his parents wanted to honor their origin story.
“That’s why I got this.” Leo pointed to the infinity symbol on his arm. “My great-grandparents spent their whole lives grieving the love they’d lost during the war. Their loss brought my parents together and the love between my parents is so strong that I’ve always known what love looks like. But the story that brought them together is also the reason I don’t date. I’ll never settle for a relationship that isn’t the real deal because I’ve heard how it feels to live without that, especially after losing it.”
I searched his face, surprised by his confession. Waiting until something was worth pursuing without a doubt was an interesting way to approach love. I was intrigued.
“Hey, Cap!” Devon called from the back of the bus. “We need your help talking through this play.”
Leo turned around to look at him. “Later.”
“It’s okay,” I said quietly as he faced front. I tapped the book in my lap. “I was going to read anyway.”
He smirked at the cover of a shirtless man, Fabio-style. “What’s your book about?”
My cheeks warmed as I looked down. “It’s an erotic romance. I’m trying to do research.”
“By reading erotica on a bus of insanely hot hockey guys?” he teased. “You’re setting yourself up for a whole lot of unquenched arousal. Unless you were planning to sneak into my room tonight.” He winked.
