Valentine(28)

“Uh no!” I shook my head. “You will inevitably face Voldemort at the end of the Tri Wizard Tournament.”

“Still not as difficult as The Hunger Games, Babe.”

“Hello, it’s Voldemort. He’s the second most powerful wizard in the world.”

“Third if you count Harry Potter.”

“But not at the Tri Wizard Tournament point in the books and movies.”

“That Voldemort guy has no nose. How scary can a man without a nose be?”

“He has nostrils.”

“But no nose.”

“I feel like you’re underestimating him.”

“I feel like you’re underestimating the games. There are people with weapons and mutated dogs and acidic fog in the games. It’s Battle Royale on steroids.”

I huffed. “Please, Battle Royale was way bloodier than the Hunger Games.”

“Because of a rating issue. In reality the games are extremely violent and futuristically sadistic.”

“I feel like you care about these movies way too much. Is it the Jennifer Lawrence thing?”

Nate laughed. “No. You asked me a ‘would you rather’ and I gave my answer.”

“Well…” I sighed heavily. “I hope you’re happy because you’ve separated us. You’re in the Tri Wizard Tournament facing he who shall not be named and I’m in The Hunger Games trying to avoid killing freaking Katniss because she’s awesome.”

We stared each other a moment as we processed our conversation.

“We never really grew up did we?” Nate mused.

“No, we really didn’t.”

“Our kids are going to out mature us.”

“Probably. Definitely January. She’s already more mature than you.”

Nate tickled my feet in payback and I laughed as I tried to pull away. He grabbed onto me and tugged on my leg so I slid down the couch.

“Hey!” I giggled, holding my beer out so it wouldn’t spoil.

Nate’s answer was to take the beer off me and put it on our coffee table next to his. He then braced himself over me, nudging my legs apart and I wrapped them around his hips as he stared down into my eyes. His dimple flashed as he smiled at me.

“You’re beautiful, you know that.”

I grinned. “You’re drunk.”

“I’ve had half a beer.” He shook his head. “I just… sometimes I forget how beautiful you are and then I look over at you and you’re smiling at the kids and your beauty punches me in the chest. How did I get so lucky, Liv?”

I slid my arms under his shirt and around his back, stroking his warm, smooth skin. “I asked you to teach me to be good at sex and you very kindly obliged. The rest is history.”

“Oh. Right.” he grinned, still smiling as he pressed a kiss to my lips. Very suddenly he frowned, however, and pulled back.

“What?”

“We are never telling our kids the story of house we fell in love.”