Teddy Spenser Isn't Looking for Love - Kim Fielding Page 0,83
you here. I have room for you.” He pressed his palm to his chest, right over his heart.
Teddy’s knees went weak. Not metaphorically, but real, true wobbliness so strong he had to brace himself against the wall. “You’re offering to let me move in with you?”
“Yes.”
“But your family just met me. Maybe they can’t stand me.”
Romeo snorted. “I’ve seen what happens when they disapprove of a boyfriend, and it ain’t what’s happening here today. I’m actually a little worried Mama and at least one of my sisters are going to kidnap you and keep you here in chains.” His expression turned stubborn. “And anyway, what matters is how I feel about you. And the only thing I can’t stand about you is the idea of...of not being with you.”
Little cogs and gears turned frantically inside Teddy’s brain, but his mouth simply hung open. In fact, he remained silent so long that Romeo shrank a bit.
“I know,” Romeo said. “You don’t believe in insta-love. Sounds like a sugary breakfast cereal, doesn’t it?”
And then it happened. That balloon thing inside of Teddy expanded so much that his body and soul could no longer contain it. The entire state of Illinois could no longer contain it.
It was time to let it out.
Teddy lifted his chin. “I’ve revised my theories this past week due to the acquisition of new data. You ought to appreciate that, Mr. Scientist.”
“What are your modified theories?”
“Not just modified, but improved. More accurate. First, True Love is not a simple marketing concept invented by jewelry manufacturers. It exists. And second, True Love can happen very fast. It’s like putting together a good outfit. Sometimes I’m at a thrift store and I find a pair of vintage trousers...oh, something with a really bold plaid, maybe. And I think I’m never going to find anything perfect to pair with them. Then I stumble onto this amazing patterned bowling shirt. I think, oh no, that’s going to clash horribly. But I try them on and bam! Perfect. Like they were made for each other. It doesn’t take me months to see that—it’s obvious right away.”
Romeo listened to Teddy’s extended metaphor with a fond smile. “I’m a bowling shirt?”
“You can be the trousers if you’d rather.”
“What else can I be, Teddy Spenser?” Romeo stood and crossed the room, stopping only inches away from Teddy.
Teddy looked up at him and knew what he had to say. The universe had aligned itself so that no other words would do.
“You can be the man I love, Romeo Blue. You are the man I love.”
Nothing in the whole world was better than how he felt saying that. No, not true, because that look of wonder in Romeo’s shiny eyes, that soft smile on Romeo’s lips? Those were better still. And when Romeo folded him into a tight embrace, well, that was the best of all.
Until Romeo whispered four little words that topped it all: “I love you too.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
They remained exactly like that, leaning into each other and humming with joy, until a young niece bellowed from the top of the basement stairs. “Romeoooo! Grandma wants to know if you guys want more cake.”
Laughing, Romeo disentangled himself. “You can have our extra pieces,” he called back. He was answered with a muffled cheer.
With very little discussion, Teddy and Romeo agreed that Romeo would stay overnight at Teddy’s again. And again and again and again, because sleeping apart was simply no longer a viable option for either of them.
Then they tromped upstairs to tell Wanda their immediate plans. “It’ll be more convenient, because we have an early morning meeting,” Romeo explained.
Based on her expression, she clearly saw through his excuse. God, they were both probably glowing like a pair of halogen bulbs. But she packed up leftovers for them and insisted on driving them to the Metra station. “I could take you all the way downtown,” she said after they’d piled into her car. “Traffic’s light on Sunday.”
“The train is fine, Mama. And you’ve got a houseful of people.”
“Did it ever occur to you that maybe sometimes I need a break from that mob?” She was laughing as said it, though, and she drove them only into central Evanston.
“Thanks for everything,” Teddy said before he got out of the car. “I’m so glad I met you.”
“You better be planning on coming every Sunday now that we have a place for you at the table.”