“Let’s hide out here all weekend. We know when we have to leave on Monday, and everyone told everyone else to leave them alone all weekend. You know Georgia and Regan will be unavailable, and everyone else is catching up on sleep. Stay here with me for the whole weekend, Ember.”
The corners of her mouth lifted slowly into a smile. “Bo, I’ll stay anywhere you want me to, and for a hell of a lot longer than a weekend.”
As she pressed her lips into mine, sliding her hands up the back of my shirt, I hoped that in a few weeks she’d say yes to forever.
“Forever?” I led her toward the bed, pulling my shirt over my head as she leaned back on the mattress. The word came out at the end of my thought, but we’d toyed with the word so often since we’d been together it wasn’t out of place.
“Longer,” she whispered back, pulling me down on top of her.
It was all I could do to stop myself from proposing to her right there. Asking her to be my wife, my partner for as long as eternity lasted. I took a breath and realized that a proposal was far below what I was planning for us.
For us, it really was forever. And it needed to start at the exact moment we were both ready. I’d make sure that moment was under starlight in Napa.
“Do you think anyone will get worried?” Ember rolled over, her soft skin brushing against mine as she set her chin on my chest. “I mean, we’ve all been up each other’s asses all summer …”
I laughed, running my fingers through her hair and down her back to her waist. “They know where to find us if there’s an emergency, Em. Your parents live two houses down.”
That was a thought I tried to keep buried deep in the back of my brain whenever I made love to their daughter.
Ember sat up and straddled my waist, anchoring one knee on each side of my hips. “It hadn’t really occurred to me before the start of the tour how little privacy we’d have.” She leaned forward and kissed my nose, then my mouth, then worked her lips down my jaw and neck.
“True. Two RVs don’t really scream romance, do they?” My voice had stayed steady until Ember’s mouth touched down on my chest, and she started moving her hips.
“And the day after tomorrow, we’ll have to be around all of those old hippies who have zero problem with romance in an RV.”
I laughed even though it was the last thing I wanted to do as Ember shifted down my body, her mouth working lower down my torso. “Well, maybe we’ll have to give those old married hippies a run for their money.”
“Ew, Bo!” Ember sat up and slapped my chest. “My parents are those people!”
“Don’t remind me!” I laughed, sitting up and rolling her over. When she was beneath me, I brushed her wild auburn waves from her face. “We’ll be there someday, too, you know.”
“Where?” She started moving those mouth watering hips under me.
“Old. Married. Maybe not hippies. Well, I’ll save that title for you,” I teased.
“Well, my parents aren’t actually married, I don’t think. Unless they did that sometime when I wasn’t looking.” She shrugged and leaned up to kiss me, but I pulled back.
“What?”
Her eyes moved from side to side. “What?”
“Your parents aren’t married?”
“Why are you acting so surprised?”
I opened and closed my mouth several times, but nothing worth saying came out.
“What’s the big deal?” She asked, sitting up against the headboard as I stared into space.
“Isn’t … marriage a big deal? Didn’t it ever bother you when you were little?”
She grinned and moved to cross her legs. I sat back. “I didn’t know it wasn’t normal, Bo. Sure, I attended lots of commitment ceremonies and things like that when I was little, but …” she trailed off and shrugged. “It just wasn’t a thing. Some people were married, some weren’t, but most were committed, you know? I knew my parents were together, and in it forever, so married didn’t hold any significance.”
“Does it now?” My throat ran dry. The shock here wasn’t that Ember’s parents weren’t married. Once I’d thought about it for a second, I realized how in step with their lifestyle that was. I realized we’d never even discussed marriage. It was lots of lifetimes and eternities, butmarriage hadn’t been verbalized.
“I think marriage is great, if that’s what people want. Josh and Monica, for example. I was a mess when he proposed. Those twoneeded to be married, like, immediately.” She laughed softly and moved her hands to my thighs. I placed my hands over her wrists.
“I mean does it hold significance to you?” I spoke firmly but still quietly. Her eyes met mine with confusion but it slowly registered as her lips parted with a click of her tongue and a sigh.
“I haven’t really …”
“Thought about it?” I cut her off. “Are you kidding?”
“Well, no, I mean … Yes, I’ve thought about it because I knew your parents were married—or at least I assumed they were—and most people prioritize marriage.” Her cheeks were growing pink, right about the rate at which my stomach sank.
“Most people? Like, people who aren’t you?” I didn’t mean the irritation in my voice, but it was hard to contain.