I smiled. “More,” I replied. “But who’s counting.”
“We could do that,” he nodded. “But I was actually going to suggest something else for today, if you’re interested.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Sure. What’s your suggestion?”
Chance looked slightly nervous turned to me. “Lunch at my sister’s place?”
My eyes went wide for a moment. “You want to introduce me to your sister?”
“And my brother-in-law and nephew,” he nodded.
“Wow, I was not expecting that.”
“Only if you’re interested.”
“I most definitely am interested,” I said, standing up and walking into his arms. “I’m just a little surprised. You always seemed a bit squeamish about introducing me to your family.”
“I was,” he admitted. “But that was the old me.”
“The old you?” I repeated, with a questioning smile.
“Yeah, the guy who ran from commitment and everything it entailed. I’m not that guy anymore. I’ve grown up. I’ve matured. I’ve realized that living life alone is…it’s just not life.”
I smiled. “That’s quite a realization.”
“I have you to thank for that,” he said, kissing me tenderly on the cheek. “If it hadn’t been for you, I’d probably still be a tumbleweed.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being a tumbleweed,” I said. “I’ve always wanted to be one myself.”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well then, we can be tumbleweeds together?” he suggested. “What do you say?”
It wasn’t a proposal, but it was almost as good. I laughed to myself and hugged Chance tightly, hoping that we would always be like this, happy and in love.
“That’s a difficult proposition to say no to,” I said, winking at him.
He laughed and kissed me hard, before spinning me around towards the table. “Come on now, breakfast time.”
“I’m too nervous to eat now,” I said. “I’m meeting your family today.”
“Nonsense, they’re going to love you,” he assured me. “You and Tommy are going to get along great; I can just feel it.”
I smiled, wondering what I would wear to lunch. I was thrilled that he wanted to introduce me to his sister and her family. It meant that he really did love me. It meant that this relationship was going to last. It meant that nothing could tear us apart – not even Jason.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chance
I was supposed to be grading papers, but I found my mind wandering. I took out my phone and started scrolling through the photo gallery. I had always been the type of guy whose photo library was practically empty, but ever since Natalie came into my life, that had changed.
I scrolled through the most recent pictures from our trip to a local strawberry grove. We had spent a fantastic day picking wild strawberries. Then we’d had lunch in the grove’s café restaurant, paid for our strawberries, and come home to cook with them. It had been such a fun day. In the picture I was looking at, Natalie was standing in the windy orchid, holding her basket of strawberries and trying to hold down her pin-striped dress.
Her blue eyes sparkled with the strength of a thousand diamonds, and her smile was open and uninhibited. She had become more to me than I could have ever imagined. She had even brought me closer to my own family. Sophie and Tommy loved her, and she fit in with them so well that it forced me to fit in, too. It had gotten to the point where I was actually considering proposing to her.
I shook my head, amazed at my own thoughts. I had never thought of myself as the marrying kind. And yet, here I was, sitting behind my desk, fantasizing about watching Natalie walking down the aisle in a beautiful white dress. She was graduating in a month, and once she was no longer a student at North Greenfield, that meant that we were free to take our relationship public.