I shook my head, breaking off the thought. I couldn't think about that now. As I'd said to Katherine, Lexi and I were still a long way off from marriage. Anyway, I should get back to the kitchen, before Katherine let slip some other meddling line.
But throughout the meal, despite the fact that the conversation moved miles away from my relationship with Lexi, I couldn't help tossing the idea around in my mind.
A springtime wedding to Lexi. It was an idea, anyway.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Lexi
Dinner with Katherine had gone well. There had been a couple weird comments here and there, but that was to be expected. It had been fun. I liked Katherine. She reminded me of Misty in a lot of ways. I could see us becoming friends.
If Andrew let us, that was. Katherine had mentioned that she'd originally planned to take Emma and I out to brunch one morning but that Andrew had changed the plan to dinner at his place at the last minute. She hadn't said it in a pointed way. She'd just wanted to invite us to do that some other time.
But it made me wonder why Andrew hadn't said anything about that plan. Was there a reason he wanted to be present while Emma and I hung out with his sister?
Of course, it was one thing for Andrew to commit to dating me. It was another thing entirely for him to introduce me to his family. That was a much bigger step. Maybe he was suddenly getting cold feet about this whole thing.
Whatever this thing between me and Andrew was. No one seemed to know what Andrew and my relationship was, and that was part of the uncertainty at dinner.
I watched Andrew wipe down the already-clean countertops in the kitchen. My brow furrowed. “Are you okay?” I asked.
He glanced up at me and smiled, but the expression didn't quite reach his eyes. “Why wouldn't I be?” he asked, a little extra vigor in his cleaning.
I stared at him for a long moment and then shrugged carefully. “You just seem tense,” I said. “Just figured I'd ask if you were all right.”
“I'm fine,” he said in a clipped tone.
“Okay,” I said. I finished putting away the leftover food and then paused in the doorway of the kitchen. “Tonight was fun, but I guess I'm going to go to bed, then. Have a good night.”
“Wait,” Andrew said, as I started to retreat. He tossed the rag in the sink and turned towards me, raking a hand back through his hair. “I'm sorry. I'm just distracted.” He paused. “What did you think of Katherine?”
“I liked her,” I assured him. “She's very nice, just like you said. I'm not sure that I'll take her up on the admin job because it's probably better suited to someone with experience in the non-profit field, but it was nice of her to offer. And the doll she brought for Emma is gorgeous.” I smiled. “Actually, Katherine reminds me a lot of my friend Misty.”
“Good,” Andrew said, but he still seemed distracted. I waited, wondering if he'd say anything else. But when he spoke again, his words caught me off guard. “Come to bed with me.”
I blinked. We'd had sex a couple times now, but I still spent most nights alone in the guest bedroom. I knew he was probably horny, having gone from sleeping with multiple women per week to sleeping with nobody after he broke up with Renée, but he'd been very good about keeping his hands to himself.
The fact that we'd just had dinner with his sister made this seem like something more, maybe. Like he wasn't just asking for sex.
“Okay,” I said simply.
Andrew glanced around. “I want to finish up a couple more things down here, but I'll see you up there, okay?”
“Okay.”
I walked slowly upstairs, dragging my hand along the banister in an attempt to ground myself. For the first time all night, I allowed myself to think of some of the comments that Katherine had made, the hints that she'd dropped.
I wasn't stupid. I knew that Andrew had dragged her into the other room so that he could tell her off for hinting that our relationship had a future. But maybe she knew something that I didn't. Maybe he'd only been telling her off for spoiling the surprise?
But Andrew didn't seem like he was ready to propose, and to be honest, I didn't know what I'd say if he did. I wanted to get my feet back under me before I thought about marriage. We weren't even saying that we loved one another yet. Getting engaged already would feel too hurried, like we weren't thinking things through. Like maybe he was acting out of guilt rather than love.
You couldn't build a solid relationship based on guilt. And I had no desire to have a loveless relationship like my parents.
Andrew came up to bed a few minutes after I'd lain down. He stripped, his eyes on me the whole time, and then crawled into bed next to me, pulling me into his arms.
“I'm glad you liked Kate,” he said quietly.
“I hope she liked me,” I mumbled. “I know how important her opinion is to you.”