"I meant what I said," I tell her.
"That's the kind of toast I've been waiting for my whole life," she whispers.
We take a drink of our wine, then we set it aside and once again, she crawls up into my lap against me. And this time I lean over her, laying her down on her back.
"Let's do this again," I say. "This time I want to look down into your eyes when I tell you I love you."
"Maybe we're too spun up in this," she says. "In the moment."
"Does that matter?” I ask her. "What's the worst thing about getting spun up in somebody else, someone who sees you?"
She laughs softly, closing her eyes as my hard cock guides itself once more to her core.
"I want to believe in the impossible," she says.
"I think it's a choice," I tell her, groaning as my cock finds its home.
10
MEADOW
In the morning I wake up in Reuben's arms. I roll over to take him in, the morning light filtering through his window. The promise of a new spring day. My heart is so freaking full it could explode. He kisses my forehead.
"Morning," he says. "You sleep okay?"
A grin spreads across my face. "I could use a few more hours. I think today will require an afternoon nap. You kept me up way too late."
"You regret it?" he asks.
I laugh. "No, not at all."
"Are you a coffee person in the morning?"
"Yes," I say, "with sugar and cream."
He grins. "I can do that." He gets out of bed and pulls on a pair of gray sweatpants and my ovaries practically burst at that sight. I never realized how good they looked on a man with a morning hard-on. I swallow.
"I should probably call my sister. Let her know I'm alive."
"I'll meet you in the kitchen?" he asks.
"Sounds good." I reach for my phone that I left on the bedside table and text Lulu.
Me: So that happened.
Immediately, she replies.
Lulu: Are you safe? Are you good? Are you happy?
Me: Yes. Yes. Very.
She sends me a kissy face emoji and I turn my phone down on the table, reaching for my underwear and a T-shirt from Reuben's drawer that he gave me last night after our 1:00 AM bath. It still smells like him. Like the fresh air and the pine trees. I reach for the crutch then walk into the kitchen. Seeing him make a pot of coffee, my heart thrums with happiness.
"You look beautiful in the morning," he tells me.
I reach for my hair, spinning it in my hand. It's long and messy, but I like that he still finds it attractive, finds me attractive.
He cups my cheek with his hand that practically covers my face. He's so much bigger than me, I think. He kisses me softly. "Do you like to eat when you first wake up?"
I shake my head. "Not usually. I'm a 10:00 AM breakfast kind of girl."
He laughs. "Fair enough. But I need something first thing when I wake up." He reaches for a banana on the kitchen counter and unpeels it then takes a bite as the coffee brews. "So," he says, "I need to go get Plum in a few hours. What's your day like?"
"I don't have much going on," I say.
"Well," he says, "I was wondering..."
"Yeah?"
"If you would want our families to meet."
"Our families?"
"Yeah. Maybe it's too fast or too forward, but..."
I laugh. "Tell me more."
"Well, it’s Sunday, right? And my family always has a big Sunday dinner. It's a Rough family tradition. Everyone has to come. No one's excused. I was wondering... What do you think? Do you want to see if your family would like to come over?"
"You're inviting my parents to your parents' house?"
Reuben nods. "Too fast?"
I think about last night, how we went from zero to 100 in one day flat. "I think we tossed too fast out the window yesterday."
He pours us coffee, shows me the sugar bowl and the creamer. Once our drinks are fixed, we go to the back patio and sit down in chairs at the table.
"It's beautiful out here in the morning," I say. The birds are chirping. There's dew on the trees. "You're pretty lucky to have this every single day."
"I know, right? So I know you're in a family band and you're only here for a week."
"We leave tomorrow," I say.
He nods. "So where are you going next?"
"There's a music festival in Northern California in the Redwoods. You'd love it there, actually."
"Sounds amazing."
"Yeah. Well, it's a festival we go to every year. It's four days and super fun. A lot of family friends will be there. It's a pretty good time. My parents grew up in Sacramento so they know the area."
"That sounds nice," he says. "And after the Redwoods?"
I twist my lips, thinking. "I know we're going to Santa Cruz for a two-day jamboree. Next month I'm pretty sure we're headed down to Baja, to Todos Santos. It's a little artsy community and they have a music festival in the summer. Knowing the triplets, they're going to want to stay as long as possible and my parents have probably booked us some shows at cafes and some local venues. There's a lot of art galleries down there. That sort of thing."