Page 71 of Meant For Love
“That makes no sense at all.” I shake my head. “But somehow, I understood everything you said.” Reaching for my own rag, I clean myself off. I walk back into the room, grabbing one of his T-shirts to put on, and walking out of the room. The cat sits right in front of the door. “Good morning, princess.” I bend to pick up the cat. “Did we have fun exploring the house last night?” I ask her, walking down the steps to the kitchen where I hear cupboards being slammed. “Sounds like Daddy doesn’t know where anything is.” I kiss her neck, putting her down before walking into the laundry room to grab her water bowl, emptying it into the sink, and then giving her fresh water before putting some food into her bowl. “There you go,” I say before walking out of the room, and she follows me to the kitchen.
“There is nothing to make for breakfast,” he says over his shoulder, “so I ordered your favorite bagels.”
I walk beside him as he makes my matcha, going to grab a cup to make his coffee. We finish at the same time, and when I hand him his and he hands me mine, we smile at each other before he bends to kiss my lips. “I love you,” he whispers, and my stomach gets little butterflies.
“I love you back,” I say, bringing the cup to my mouth at the same time the doorbell rings. I don’t have a chance to ask him if he wants me to get it when he puts his cup on the counter and walks to the door, returning with a brown paper bag. I pull out a stool, and he does the same before handing me my bagel and opening his own. “We should talk a bit,” I suggest before I take a bite of my bagel.
“We should,” he agrees. “Now that we got the whole, we love each other thing out of the way, I feel better.”
“Same.” I smile at him. “But I’m going to start by saying we are scrapping the ninety-day thing.” He nods. “We should discuss where we’re going to live.”
“If you want to move to New York, I’ll see what I can do.” I look over at him, and this is one of the reasons I love him.
“No.” I shake my head. “I like California, and besides, I can always travel back here if I miss it.”
“So that’s decided. What else do you want to talk about?” he asks, sipping his coffee.
“Kailyn.” I say her name, and he side-eyes me.
“I’m not discussing her with you.” His tone is tight. “She crossed the line, and nothing, and I mean nothing, you can say will change my mind.”
“Maybe I misunderstood.” I try to see if I might have been wrong. “I was already going through so much, I wasn’t really?—”
“Did you ask her to come into my office?” He asks me an innocent question, so I just nod. “And did she say no?”
“I mean, maybe she thought—” He holds up his hand to stop me from talking.
“I made it perfectly clear to her when we came back from our honeymoon, if at any time you called or needed me, I was to be interrupted. On that I will not go back. I’ve already spoken with a placement company, and I have a couple of interviews lined up on Monday via Zoom.” I know that nothing I say will change his mind. “I would like if you have time to sit in with me.”
“Okay, I have lunch with my mother and cousin,” I tell him, “in about two hours.”
“Do you want to have dinner with my parents tonight?” he asks, and I nod. “I’ll call my father.” He leans over, and I lean in and kiss him. “Love you, Zoey.” I smirk at him.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing you say it,” I admit to him.
“Good, because I’m never going to stop saying it.” He puts his bagel down. “Are you ready to go take a shower?”
“Is that another code word for ‘do you want to suck my cock?’” I laugh as I wrap up the little bit of bagel I have left. “Because if it is, the answer is yes.” I wink at him and watch him push away from the counter before grabbing me.
“Mommy and Daddy are going to play.” He looks at the cat. “We’ll be back.” I don’t have a chance to say anything because my legs wrap around his waist, and my laughter is swallowed by his mouth on mine.
Two hours later, I’m rushing into the restaurant, spotting my mother, Aunt Zoe, and my cousin Zara all sitting at the table waiting for me. “Hi,” I greet them, walking to my mother to kiss her cheek before going over to my aunt and hugging her from the back, kissing her cheek before kissing Zara on the top of her head. “Sorry I’m a bit late.”
“You’re four minutes late,” Zara confirms, picking up her mimosa. “We started without you.”
I laugh as I slide into the empty seat. “Imagine if I was later?” I look at her, putting the linen napkin on my lap.
“You’re glowing,” my mother says, and I look over at her and see tears in her eyes. “I’ve seen you on FaceTime, and I saw you were happy, but now seeing you in person.”
“She might be faking it,” Zara goads, and our mothers gasp at the same time. “What? Gabriella called me yesterday to give me the rundown on her not being herself.”
I take a deep inhale. “She was right,” I admit to them, “but since then, things have changed.”
“It’s been less than twenty-four hours,” Zara blurts, shocked.
“Nash followed me here,” I explain, putting my hand on the table.
“What do you mean ‘followed you here’?” my aunt asks.