She was standing at the island in the kitchen, balancing her checkbook, when Tate walked in. She looked over at him and smiled. He had a bright grin on his face, his hair falling in his eyes as he looked at her from head to toe.
“How am I supposed to take you out in public like that, when all I want to do is drag you upstairs?” he asked her as he took off his jacket. Audrey bit her lip while her body sang for his. When he held her gaze with those bedroom eyes of his, she swore it was as if he was ripping her clothes off and having his way with her. If they didn’t have somewhere to be, she would have allowed him to take her upstairs, but they had to be at Fallon’s in less than an hour.
Smiling, she said, “That would be a waste of a really pretty dress.”
Tate nodded as he started toward her. He wrapped her in his arms, meeting his mouth with hers. He looked amazing in black slacks, a dark green tie, and his light green shirt. She bit his lip softly.
“Mm, I love it when you do that,” he said against her lips.
She smiled, nipping again as his hands squeezed her hips. She pulled away then and went back to her checkbook.
Giggling happily, Audrey pulled back, looking up into his eyes. “Tate,” she said softly.
“Yes, love?”
She shot him another small smile before saying, “I thought you said you were gonna wear a yellow shirt.”
Tate shrugged his shoulders. “I changed my mind, why?”
“Because I planned my outfit to coordinate with yours. I wanted us to match. We’d be dressed alike, which basically means we belong together.”
Tate arched a brow, a smile tugging at his lips. “We do belong together, love. We don’t need to match for that.”
“I’d like if we did,” she said with a grin. “Fallon will be watching everything we do.”
Tate shrugged his shoulders. “So? Let her watch. We are great together. Matching outfits will not help or change that.”
Audrey gave him a pouty look, knowing he wasn’t going to budge. When he only grinned at her, shaking his head, she said, “So no matchy matchy?”
Tate shook his head. “No, we don’t want to be too attractive, then it won’t be believable.”
“Too attractive?”
Tate smiled, his eyes drifting down her body. “Yeah, you are so, so hot, and then I am a good-looking guy, so you put us together and it will blow people away. Make us match, and Audrey, I would need to say a prayer for the general public. We are going to your sister’s. We don’t want to make them jealous, do we?”
Audrey was in a fit of giggles. “You’re such a dork!”
“You know it’s true,” he said, smacking her bottom before walking away. Audrey shook her head, still smiling as she finished up with her checkbook. It was hard to concentrate with him moving around the kitchen, picking up different things, glancing at them and putting them back down.
“Are you nervous?” she asked.
Tate chuckled, looking back at her. “Why would I be? It’s Lucas and Fallon.”
She eyed him some more, watching him move his hand through his hair before taking a deep breath. She laughed, pointing a finger at him, saying, “You are nervous!”
Tate’s cheeks grew red as he looked away, shrugging. “Maybe a little. It’s different now.”
“Why do you say that?” she asked.
He shook his head, looking up at the ceiling. “I don’t know what it is. Maybe I am nervous they won’t think I’m good enough to be your boyfriend.”
“You are good enough, babe, and they love you. You know that, don’t worry about it. It’s not like you’re meeting my parents.” Tate looked down quickly, a worried look still on his face.
“When do I do that?” he asked.
Audrey shrugged. “I don’t know. Do you want to?”
In fact, she didn’t know how she felt about Tate meeting her parents. She knew Fallon would love him, and that he and Lucas were already good friends, which was why she wasn’t nervous about them. But her parents? Her dad? Um, yeah, she would need lots of time to prepare for that.
Looking up, Tate shrugged. “Back home, I would have known the parents before the girl, so this is weird.”