“He really didn’t tell you?”
“No. It must have slipped his mind.”Or he wanted to surprise you.
My heart could possibly burst from the reality that Declan planned this all for me. I dropped the idea after he protested it, so knowing he went out of his way to plan it anyway…
It makes me want to kiss him.
Or fuck him.
Or kiss himandfuck him.
Cal holds up the sparkling apple cider bottle with a scrunched nose. “Do you have some exciting news to share with me or is this an insult to injury?”
I laugh. “I’m not pregnant.”
Declan re-enters the room. “Not yet at least.”
My whole body feels about twenty degrees too hot. The way this man looks at me makes me wonder if it’s possible to get pregnant via intense staring and palpable longing. Inquiring minds want to know.
“Well, that’s my cue to go find something stronger to drink. There’s no way I’ll get through being the fifth wheel without wanting to chop my own dick off.”
Declan shoots Cal a withering look as he leaves the living room.
“So…” I start.
He uses the now working remote to turn on the TV and find the right channel.
“What’s the real reason you planned this all?”
His back muscles shift underneath his T-shirt. “Gezelligheid1.”
I pull out my phone and stare at the search bar with a pinched expression.
“G-E-Z-E-L-L-I-G-H-E-I-D.” He spells it out slowly without me even asking.
“Where did you learn this one?”
“During my month studying abroad in the Netherlands.”
I laugh when the page loads. “Cozy? That’s why you did this?”
He shakes his head. “It’s more than that. It’s about creating a place where people can relax and feel happy.”
“Since when do you care about making people happy?”
“I couldn’t care less about anyone else’s happiness besides your own.”
My chest aches from his confession. “That has to be one of the sweetest—but extremely fucked up—things anyone has ever said to me.”
“Fucked up how?” He seems genuinely confused by my statement.
“Because you should do nice things because you want to, not because you think it would make me happy.”
“Iwantto make you happy, so therefore, I do nice things.”
Well, I can’t exactly debate his kind of logic on that one, especially when it makes me want to kiss him until we’re both breathless.
I bite down on my lip. “What happens when what makes me happy goes against what you want?”