his hand lowered enough to reveal the amusement in his eyes, I joined him, completely stunned that my sweet little girl had just turned into, well, me at that age. This whole situation was completely ridiculous. Never mind that we'd been caught!
"So," Ian finally said, "I guess we're dating now?"
All I could do was shake my head and lift my empty hands. "Clearly, she thinks so!"
He sighed and pushed himself off the counter, leaning over to finally claim one of those glasses of wine. I took the other, then swallowed a healthy gulp. For a long moment, neither of us said a thing. I was pretty sure we didn't know exactly what to say.
So he moved closer, stepping right around my legs without touching me. He dropped his voice so it wouldn't carry past the kitchen. "And I agree with her. I think you should be my woman, and I will keep trying to convince you until you tell me either yes or no. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, this is easy to explain, and what we do behind closed doors is none of their damned business."
For a moment, I just stood there. I could feel my pulse pounding in my chest from nerves, but I'd already made this decision. If he asked again, I wasn't going to say no. I was tired of always running away from the things I might want. That left only one thing I could say.
"Ok," I breathed.
His brows shot up. "Ok?"
I nodded. "Yeah. I mean, you have a point. I think we should try it."
He seemed almost stunned, as if he hadn't expected that. "And we'll take it as slowly as you need," he promised. "Or as fast, but I want you to tell Gabby." He cupped my face, tilting my head up so I was looking at him. "Pick the right time, but I'd like her to know that I'm invested in both of you. I just feel like I owe her that."
"I've been working up to it," I admitted. "I wanted to talk to her about... things. I've just been waiting for the right time to bring it up."
"Us?"
"Yeah. All of you."
A little smile touched his lips. "You know you can ask us to help, right?"
I just leaned into him, pressing my head against his chest. "No, Ian, I never think like that. She's my daughter. Her father never wanted to handle the messy stuff. Not diapers, not when she was sick, and definitely not her tantrums."
"I do." His arms wrapped around my back as if he wanted to shield me from the world. "I want to be the person you call when you're scared and need saving. I want to back you up when she tries to push you down." He bent and kissed the top of my head. "The two of you are amazing, and I just want as much of this as you're willing to share."
Damn if he wasn't pressing every one of my buttons. My natural instinct was to think his words were too good to be true, but for the last few weeks, he'd proven them over and over. I had no idea how long it would last, but was there really any reason I shouldn't enjoy this while I had it? If nothing else, I had to date someone first.
Even if I screwed it up, at least with Ian, I knew I was doing this for the right reasons. Sure, he was one of the sexiest men I'd ever seen, but I honestly hoped everything about him was as good as it appeared. This relationship should be about more than the physical side of things because I did like him. I'd also learned to respect him, and those things lasted longer than beauty.
No matter what logic I tried to come up with, I just wanted things to work out with him - and with his roommates. I could just as easily list off a dozen reasons why this was the dumbest thing I'd ever done, but it felt so right. They made me happy and treated me like I was beautiful. More than that, they made me feel wanted. I just wasn't sure I was ready to tackle everything this entailed, especially not after tonight.
So I sighed, hoping Ian would understand. "Can we wait a bit on the part where I tell her about the four extras?"
"We can," he agreed. "I'll explain everything to them. Just assume they got a transcript