“No, I think I’m gonna put those off until tomorrow, might as well start when I have a whole day ahead of me.”
“Right,” she dragged out. “You mean, you just want to get back over to Nick’s. Don’t think you can fool me, Ally James. You can’t stay away from that boy for longer than an hour without getting all depressed.”
“Oh, whatever, I’m not that bad.”
“Don’t worry about it.” She waved a hand at me. “I think it’s cute. If Ben lived around here, I would be doing exactly the same thing. Just promise me we’ll do a girls’ night soon. I’m in definite need of one of those.”
“That sounds excellent.” I closed my laptop, and gathered up all of my bows into the basket. “I’m just gonna grab some clean clothes, and head over to Nick’s. I put a check on the counter in the kitchen for you, too.”
She rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything. She must have finally figured out that I was going to give her money for rent and utilities, whether she wanted it or not. Yeah, I wasn’t here that often, but I wasn’t going to be a freeloader. I was still using up some of her space that she could do other things with, and who knew if Nick wanted me to move in. Maybe he just needed to live on his own for a little bit. He and Kara had been together for so long, he might need his own space for a while, and if that’s what he needed, I would give it to him.
“’Kay, Remy. I’ll see ya later, then.”
I called my mom on the way over to Nick’s, just to check in and let her know that we made it back safe and then I called Leah. She hadn’t been very happy because we came on a weekend that they were out of town. I was bummed when I found that we wouldn’t be able to see her and the kids, but it was really the only weekend that worked for Nick.
“So, tell me, how was it? Did your mom grill him the whole time you were there or what?”
I paused, smiling as I heard Ava’s baby talk coming through the speaker. “Are you serious? You know my mom isn’t the grilling type, but she says she loved him. Hopefully that was for real.”
“Your mom loves everyone. I told you I needed to be the one to officially meet him. You aren’t planning another visit anytime soon, are you?”
“No, Leah.” I laughed. “Sorry, maybe you two can have a Facetime date or something, so you can get to know him. Do you want me to set that up?”
“Don’t be a brat.” Without even seeing her, I knew that had earned me an eye roll. Leah’s opinion did mean a lot to me, but it wasn’t like I was going to put my relationship on hold because she hadn’t given me a thumbs up yet.
“I was being completely serious,” I replied, putting my car into park once I came to the end of Nick’s driveway. I heard a loud snort as I slammed my door. “I’ll talk to Nick about it tonight if you want me to.”
“That’s okay, Al. I can tell you’re genuinely happy, and he seems to treat you right most of the time. Just promise me you won’t run off and get married without consulting me this time?”
“I promise,” I replied brightly, the thought of being married to Nick making me a little giddy. You would think marriage would scare me with how my first one ended, but it really didn’t. I knew that Nick and I definitely needed more time getting to know each other, to let our relationship grow, but I could see myself with him forever. It was a definite possibility.
“’Kay, I’m gonna hold you to it. I gotta go give the kids a bath. Love you, and say hi to Nick for me.”
“Love you, L.” I tucked my phone into my purse as I pulled out my keys and slid one into the lock. When Nick had first given me a key, I thought for sure he was going to ask me to move in, but he didn’t. I’m not going to lie, it hurt just a teensy bit, but I got over it really quick when he told me he expected me to use it frequently. At least he wanted me here, and that’s all that counted.
I felt him before he even touched me. My skin prickled with excitement at just the thought, the key sitting unturned in the lock. “I thought you were out having a beer with Danny still. You didn’t need to rush over here.”
“You’re right, I didn’t need to. I wanted to,” he answered, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind. His lips dropped down to my ear, and I tipped my head to the side as he tugged lightly on it before moving further down to feather kisses first behind my ear, and then to my jaw and down my neck.
“I could have used a little alone time,” I teased as he reached around me, and unfortunately removed his lips from my body while he unlocked the front door.