Hardwood - K.M. Neuhold Page 0,94

could care less about her dad and I dating. Ev reaches under the table and puts his hand on my knee, giving it a little squeeze and smiling at me.

“I love you,” he whispers.

“I love you.”

The flash mob was incredible, but this moment is worth a million flash mobs. This moment truly feels like it’s the start of forever.

We don’t stay long after dinner, just enough to help clean up and for Ev to spend a few minutes with Livi before she has to get to work on her homework.

“Want to come inside?” he offers as we pull into his driveway.

“It’s getting late,” I point out.

“Do you turn into a pumpkin at midnight?” he teases.

“I might,” I joke back, already unbuckling my seatbelt and reaching for the door handle. “I just meant that I won’t be able to stay long before going home.”

“Or you could sleep here,” Ev offers casually, and my heart leaps in my chest.

“And what if there’s some kind of unexpected emergency with Livi in the middle of the night?” I challenge. There’s a small voice in the back of my head screaming at me not to rock the boat, to take the gesture at face value. But an even bigger part of me needs to test to make sure the foundation is solid this time, that I’m not handing my heart over just to have it shattered.

“What if we get hit by a meteor?” he counters. “Life is short, and I want my boyfriend in my bed where he belongs.”

A shiver of happiness and lust dances down my spine. “Be careful, you may never get me out of your bed if you keep talking like that.”

“Promise?” he asks in a husky voice.

I groan at him and then laugh because there’s just so much fucking happy inside me that it needs some way out. We both get out of the car, and I follow him to the front door.

I wonder if it will be possible for the two of us to ever make it into the house and not immediately start kissing the hell out of each other. I hope not.

The door swings closed, and Ev grabs me by the front of the shirt. A surprised laugh bubbles from my lips and is cut off almost instantly by his mouth on mine. The rough stubble of his cheeks abrades my skin, and I moan as he slips his tongue past my lips.

He pulls back, and I chase his lips with mine.

“Come on, let’s go get ready for bed,” he murmurs. We don’t stumble down the hallway in a passionate kiss this time. Instead, we walk hand in hand, and somehow that feels even better.

Ev grabs a new toothbrush from under the sink and hands it to me, and we stand side by side at the bathroom sink brushing our teeth. My heart swells, and I can’t keep the goofy smile off my face as we get ready for bed.

Back in the bedroom, we both strip down, and Ev pulls back the covers of the bed, gesturing for me to get in.

“This is so domestic. Is it weird it’s turning me on?” I ask, palming my erection as I wiggle beneath the covers to get comfortable. Ev chuckles, coming around the bed and climbing in on the other side.

“I like it too,” he says, scooting close to me so our bare bodies are touching in as many places as possible. He rests his head on my shoulder and presses a kiss to the side of my neck. “Thank you for loving me.”

“Easiest thing I’ve ever done.” I kiss him again, and he sighs against my lips.

“Can we just lay here like this forever?” he asks sleepily, burrowing his face into the crook of my neck and hitching his leg over mine.

“I’m down with that,” I agree, a smile still on my lips. “Forever totally works for me.”

Epilogue

5 Years Later

Watson

My fingers dance over the piano keys while a gaggle of fifth graders sing an off-key rendition of Jingle Bells. They do look cute though in their Santa hats, and I even managed to include a couple of Hanukkah songs in the mix.

I glance over to find my husband sitting in the front row with a look of admiration in his eyes. It doesn’t matter that his own daughter is a teenager now and he has no reason in the world to sit through these holiday concerts, he never misses one.

Ev grins at me and winks.

I still can’t believe how