“It wasn’t. And yes, she’s my girlfriend now,” I say, and Mom joins in on the excitement.
“I always hoped you two would get together,” Mom coos. “I just love Chloe! And she’s so pretty and successful and—” Mom gasps. “She lives in LA! You’re in Chicago. What are you going to do? Certainly one of you is going to have to move. Have you talked about the future? That’ll make it difficult when you get married and have kids and—”
“Mom,” I cut her off. “We haven’t talked in detail yet. She’s been my girlfriend for less than twenty-four hours. I’m not going to talk about marriage and babies yet, and I know she won’t either.”
Mason gets up to put his empty plate in the sink. “It’s about damn time you two hooked up,” he says, clapping me on the back. “You should have twenty years ago.”
“I’d hope not,” Mom counters. “Sam would have been fourteen, which would make Chloe twelve.” Mom looks at me and smiles. “I’m happy you have a nice girlfriend who we know isn’t after your money.”
“That’s always a plus.” I fill my bowl with food and stick it in the microwave. “Where’s Dean?”
“Dad suckered him into helping with another project at the office,” Rory says, sitting at the table next to Mason. Dean’s a contractor, and Dad was all too excited to have a “professional” help him finish the million projects he started over the years. “He should be back soon. Why? Do you want to double date?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of just us hanging out. Chloe has to work on her book before she can do anything.”
“I’d like that.” Rory smiles. “It’s supposed to rain, want to see a movie?”
“Sure,” I reply, not even knowing what’s playing. No matter what, time is going to go by slowly. Adam starts fussing, and Mom rushes to get him. The microwave beeps and I grab my bowl, which I warmed up too much on accident, and join my siblings at the table.
“You can thank me now,” Mason says. “I knew you needed a push.”
Normally, I’d give him shit before giving in, but not today. Because I am so fucking thankful. “I did, so thanks for that.”
“Am I missing something?” Rory asks, looking up from her phone.
“No one but this dumbass missed it,” Mason says, but Rory still looks confused. “Last night he was still saying he didn’t have feelings for Chloe. Which we all knew was bullshit.”
“I wondered from time to time,” Rory confesses. “But I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I’ve always wanted a sister!”
“Don’t you have like a million sisters-in-law?” Mason asks.
“I have four,” Rory replies, rolling her eyes. “And Quinn is going to be so excited! She loves the Nightfall series. Have you told Archer yet?” she asks me. Archer is one of my closest friends, who I met during residency. He’s a surgeon, and we ended up in the OR together more times than not. We shared an apartment during the final years of residency, and he’s married to Dean’s sister, making him Rory’s brother-in-law now.
“You’re acting like I proposed,” I say, getting annoyed. “Calm down.”
“Fine,” Rory huffs. “Just don’t fuck this up. I like Chloe.”
“I won’t now that you said so,” I say sarcastically and take a bite of my breakfast. Though Rory has nothing to worry about. There’s no way I’m fucking this up.“Chloe?” I call, pushing open the gate. I texted her to let her know I was on my way. She said she was on the screened-in porch writing and said to come around. Not wanting to startle her, I call her name again as I walk up to the porch. The sun is just now starting to set, and my heart speeds up and my dick jumps when I see her sitting on the couch on the porch, computer in her lap. She’s wearing headphones and can’t hear me.
I wave, trying to catch her attention before pushing the door open. She looks up right as I’m lifting my arm in the air and smiles. She pulls her earbuds out of her ears and closes the computer, putting it on the glass coffee table in front of her. She strides over, and we meet in the middle. I wrap her in a tight embrace.
“Fuck, I missed you.” I put my lips to hers, losing myself in her kisses.
“I missed you too.” She stands on her toes and rakes her fingers through my hair. My eyes fall shut, and I grip her tight around the waist, pressing her hips against mine. It rained on and off most of the day, lowering the temperature drastically from yesterday. Light rain was just starting to fall as I walked around the house, making it perfect porch-sitting weather.
“Did you get a lot of writing done?”