His gaze was serious. “I’ll show you, every day.”
I closed my eyes, letting my intense joy at that promise swell every cell
of my body. “See you tomorrow.”
We kissed again, a slow, lingering exploration, then I opened the door and stepped out of the car while he followed me with his eyes. Leonard joined me, shouldering my bag from the trunk and insisting on carrying it inside.
“You’ve been driving for hours, Leonard,” I urged the taciturn older man. “It’s a tiny bag. I can carry it.”
He pursed his lips but handed it over to me at the door. “Have a great evening,” he said with a serious tone, though there was a small smile quirking at the edge of his lips.
“I will. Have a great evening yourself.”
“I’ll try to.” He gave me a small nod before returning to the car.
Inside the apartment, I headed to my room and left my bag at the foot of the bed, postponing my unpacking for later. I stretched out on the soft mattress, so happy it seemed likely I could float away on a cloud of delight.
I found him, Mom, I whispered into the silence. I found my home, and I love him, and he loves me.
There was a soft knock on my door. “Daphne?”
“Come in,” I called, knowing it was Amy.
The door opened, and she walked in. “I thought I heard you come in.” She smiled. “How was your trip?”
“Great.” I returned her smile, realizing as I slid to the edge of the bed and lifted myself to a seated position that she probably thought I was still moving out. I paused, unsure how to tell her. “Amy…Jason joined me a few days ago.”
Her eyes widened, but then she caught hold of herself. “His assistant said he was taking a short break.” Her face lit with curiosity. “Did you guys talk?”
The spark of hope in her blue eyes made me want to apologize again for how I’d reacted to what she did.
“We talked, a lot, and we did a lot more than talk.” I drew in a breath. “I think Jason and I will be spending a lot of time together, so if you have any more bombshells, you’d better drop them now.”
“Hmm.” She grinned as she tapped her finger on her cheek “Lemme think, bombshells…” She laughed. “Of course there are no more bombshells!”
“Okay.” I laughed. “Did you have to think for so long?”
She giggled. “I was teasing. Is it crazy that I’m really really happy about this, like insanely happy?”
“I don’t know. It’s kinda weird that you want a roommate who’s dating your brother.”
“Yeah, I’m weird. It is known.” She gave me a hug. “You two are…I don’t know…alike in many ways, and I think you will be perfect together. Plus, Jason is crazy about you. I’ve never seen him as panicked as he was when he came over that morning after I told him what happened and said you’d left…” She shook her head and blew out a long breath. “I don’t believe he’s ever felt that way about anybody before.”
I didn’t want to think about that morning, but knowing the events of that day had rocked Jason as much as they had rocked me…it added to my certainty that I wasn’t making a mistake loving or trusting him.
“I’ve never felt like this either,” I admitted quietly.
“I know! Miss I-don’t-do-love-and-romance.” She stuck out her tongue and gave me a quick hug, her voice bubbly with laughter. “Jason is lucky, you know.”
I felt like I was the lucky one, but it was enough that, at least for the time being, we were all happy and everything had turned out all right.
“You know, I still can’t believe I had no idea,” Amy said. “I mean, how could you guys have been so good at keeping everyone else in the dark?”
Colin had dragged us all to a baseball game as one of his living in America rites of passage. Afterward, Jason treated us to a late lunch at a nearby restaurant.
“I wasn’t totally in the dark,” Colin said. “I mean, I wasn’t completely sure, but I had an inkling—a big inkling, if you will.”
“Same difference,” Amy said. “Come to think of it, Minnie kept asking why I hadn’t set you two up, and when I kept telling her you weren’t interested in Jason, I got the feeling she didn’t believe me. I think she guessed.”