As casual as my tone was, no one would have ever guessed how much I had riding on her reply.
Her eyebrows drew together as she gave me a strange look. “You want me to come home with you?”
“Yes. Why not? You deserve a break too.”
Several emotions crossed her face, but they were mostly in the region of surprise.
Hope unfurled like a living thing in my chest, but then she shook her head and my heart sank.
“You’re right,” she said. “It could be fun. I’d love to see where you grew up and to learn about farming. Everything you’ve told me about it so far sounds fascinating, but I’d have to check with the school first.”
“You’re not saying no?” I asked.
She smiled. “I’m not saying yes, either.”
It didn’t matter because I had a feeling she would be saying yes very, very soon. Crossing the kitchen in two long strides, I lifted her into my arms and spun her around. “But you’re not saying no.”
She laughed as she pulled back, her hands on my shoulders and her hair forming a curtain around us as she looked down at me. “You’re insane. Do you always invite women home with you after you’ve slept with them?”
“No, because I’ve never slept with anyone.” The words came out before I could stop or rephrase them.
Elsie’s lips parted in disbelief and she wiggled until I set her back down on her feet. “It’s not possible that you never slept with anyone before me. I mean, I just can’t believe that you were a virg—”
“Oh, God no. That wasn’t what I meant. I’ve fucked. I just haven’t slept with anyone after.”
She frowned deeply. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
Her frown dissolved into a smile. “Well, I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not that I was your first. Maybe I was just that boring that you couldn’t keep your eyes open.”
“It definitely wasn’t that,” I assured her as I watched her slide the second batch of pancakes out of the pan. The bacon was done as well, as was everything I had gotten ready.
Elsie and I ate at the dining-room table, talking and laughing until our plates were cleared and I caught a glimpse of the time. I rubbed my palms on my thighs and pushed to my feet.
“Thanks for breakfast and for letting me invade your bed, but I should get going.” I helped her carry our plates back to the kitchen and to clean up before saying my goodbyes. “Remember to let me know about Illinois. Find out which dates will work best with your class schedule and we’ll make the trip then.”
“Thanks.” She smiled and came over to me, rising up on her toes to wind her arms around my neck. “And thanks for inviting me to come.”
“No problem.” I returned her hug and brushed a featherlight kiss against her cheek. “I’ll see you soon, okay? Go get back in bed. I wasn’t the only one exhausted after last week.”
“Maybe I will.” She pulled back to look up at me. “You should get some more sleep too. Look after yourself, Taydom. You won’t do me any good if you drop from exhaustion before I get to experience farming firsthand.”
“You got it.” I pressed another kiss to her forehead, then let her go. “Have a good weekend, Elsie.”
I didn’t remind her again to let me know about Illinois, but until she did, I would be checking my phone every minute to see if her answer had come through yet. If she ended up saying no, I was fucked. There were no two ways about it.
Chapter 25
Elsie
“Are you sure you need so many onions?” I asked Beth as she loaded two more bags into her cart.
We were stocking up on supplies for the food truck. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around just how much produce she needed.
She chuckled as she picked up four bunches of green onions as well. “I’ll probably be back before the end of the week for more. Onions, gherkins, and tomato relish make my world go round.”
“Yeah, but really?” I eyed the cart. “That’s a lot of onions. We’re going to use half the space in my trunk just for this.”
“Hey, I didn’t force you to come with me for my inventory restock.” She arched an eyebrow at me. “I know you said you wanted to spend some time together, but we could have done that later. So spill, girlfriend. I know there’s more to it than that.”
“I did want to spend time with you,” I said as I pushed the cart after her when she moved to the next shelf. “But you’re right. I also need to talk to you about something.”
“Yeah? What’s that?” She glanced at me over her shoulder. “Does it have anything to do with your hot landlord?”
I groaned. “Am I that obvious?”
She shrugged, but the corners of her mouth lifted. “Yeah, you kinda are. It’s either school or Taydom with you these days.”
“Well, I mean, those are the only two things going on in my life. Besides, I listen when you talk about the truck and people you date.”
“True.” She winked. “But let’s face it, you’re a little more into him than I have been with any of my last few dates.”
“Maybe,” I admitted as chewed on the inside of my cheeks. “That’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about. I’m not sure what’s happening between us, but he’s invited me home with him.”
“As in, he wants you to meet his family, home, or into his house, home?”
“Meeting his family,” I said, watching her eyes grow bigger in surprise. “Yeah. Tell me about it.”
She cocked her head, and her eyes remained round as she stared at me. “You know he’s notoriously cagey about his family, right?”
“What?”
She nodded. “I’m being serious. All anyone knows about him is that he comes from Illinois. That’s it. He refuses to answer any questions about his family or his past.”
“Wow.” I frowned. “That’s weird. He’s told me a bit about them. It actually seems like he’s close to them. Well, to his mom and his brother at least. He hasn’t mentioned his father much.”
“Interesting.” She plucked a bag of tomatoes up and added it to the cart. “It’s not only interesting that he talks to you about things he’s said time and again that he doesn’t like getting into, but also that he’s actually invited you home with him.”
“Yeah, I don’t know if it’s interesting but it is weird.” An entire bucket of crushed garlic followed the tomatoes while I spoke. “Isn’t it a little soon to be meeting his family?”
She lifted one shoulder. “Depends. Is he taking you as a friend or a girlfriend?”
“A friend, I think. We haven’t exactly discussed the status of our relationship, but it’s hardly reached the stage where we’re boyfriend and girlfriend.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about,” she said as she hooked her fingers around the front of the cart and pulled it after her. “Friends don’t have to wait for any required amount of time before they can meet the parents. Friends who fuck? Well, I’m putting them in the same category.”
“Are there actual rules about this stuff, or are you making it up as you go along?” I teased. “Because it sure sounds like you’re making it up.”
She rubbed the space between her eyebrows with her middle finger, a discreet way of flipping me off right in the middle of the fresh produce market. “Fine. Have it your way. I might be making it up, but consider this. If you introduce a significant other to your parents, they assume it’s because you’re serious about this person. A friend, on the other hand, is just a friend. It doesn’t have them planning a wedding for you in the near future.”
I snorted. “There’s definitely no wedding in our near future.”
“Exactly, which means meeting his parents is no big deal. When are you going?”
“He’s going in a few weeks. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll be joining him, hence the need to have this conversation with you.” I sighed as I reached up to twist my ponytail around my finger. “Would it be weird if I went? I’ve only known him for a few months. Meeting his parents
feels like a big deal, even if it is just as his friend.”
She shrugged. “I guess it could be weird if you make it weird. Don’t make it weird and you’ll be fine.”
“You really think that?” I lifted my brows. “Because I don’t think it’s only up to me not to make it weird. He might make it weird or his family might not believe that we’re just friends.”
“To be fair, you aren’t really just friends. You are also lovers, so they wouldn’t be entirely wrong not to believe you.”
“There’s no love involved.” I shook my head, but my heart did kick a bit at the denial. “Okay, there might be the tiniest amount of feelings involved, but it’s definitely not love.”
She shook her head at me. “I didn’t say it was. I just said the two of you are lovers, which you are. If you don’t like the term lovers, I guess we could just call a spade a spade and call you fuckers.”
She cackled with laughter when a woman walking by gave her an admonishing look. I waited for the poor lady to pass before giving my friend’s shoulder a light slap.
“Thanks a lot for that.”
“What? She doesn’t know who we’re talking about.” She nudged the cart a few steps forward with her hip. “Anyway, let’s not get off topic. He wants you to go home with him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have asked. So what if you do engage in some extracurricular activities of a carnal nature? You like him. Go meet his family and assess whether there could be anything more between the two of you than there already is.”
“I have to meet his family in order to do that?” I felt a deep frown settling between my brows. “Because it seems to me that one should first assess what, if anything, is between them, and only then should family be met.”
“You’re overthinking this,” she said as she reached up and tapped a finger against her temple. “What’s the worst that can happen? You go, meet some new people, get out of the city for a few days, and spend some extra time with a gorgeous billionaire who is your friend and also gives you orgasms from time to time. There’s no downside.”
I hesitated before replying. Beth wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t as simple as all that either. “What if it changes something between us? I like us the way we are now. I don’t want anything to change. Plus, what if his parents don’t like me? There’s a potential downside for you. Despite the distance between them, Taydom is close to his mother. If she doesn’t like me, I could lose him.”
“He’s in his thirties. I doubt he lets his mother choose who he’s allowed to play with, regardless of how close they are.”
“You never know.” I helped her hoist a massive bag of potatoes into the cart, then realized it was just about full. “Whenever my mom didn’t like someone I was spending time with, I seriously reconsidered my opinion about them. I respected her and her instincts, and if I’m being honest, she wasn’t wrong once. Also, do I need to grab another cart?”
She shook her head after glancing at the shopping list she had clutched in her hand. “No, we’re good. Almost done. We just need to make a stop at the bakery on the way back to my place.”
After stuffing the list into her purse, she lifted her gaze back to mine. “Your mom had killer instincts. I get that, but if she told you to stay away from Taydom after spending only a few days with him, would you have done it?”
“I don’t know.” I wanted to say yes and I wanted to say no, for differing reasons, but I just wasn’t sure which one would have won out. “My point remains, though. There are definitely possible downsides to this.”
“Look,” she said as she placed her hand on her hip and gave me a stern look. “It’s just a trip, my friend. You’re not getting married to him. I doubt the trip will change much between you and it gives you the opportunity to travel a bit while you’re still young. You’ve never been to Illinois, right? Go.”
“You’re right,” I said finally as we walked to the checkout counter. “I’ve never been there, and I probably am overthinking it, but I can’t help it. I just wish my mother was still around so I could ask her for her opinion as well.”
Beth slung her arm across my shoulders and gave me a hug while we walked. “I understand, but I think she would have agreed with me. Don’t be afraid to say yes because of things that haven’t even happened yet. If you want to go, go. Don’t let the fear of the unknown hold you back.”
I dragged a deep breath in and then released it slowly. As I thought back to how I had felt in Taydom’s arms, the sense of rightness I got whenever we were together, and how much I enjoyed just sitting and talking to him, the answer wasn’t actually all that unclear.
While I wasn’t in love with him or anything crazy like that, I did like him and I couldn’t deny that my feelings ran deeper than what I was ready to admit. I wanted to spend more time with him. I wanted to see where he’d grown up and meet the people who had raised him.
He’d invited me to do just that, so on some level it had to be what he wanted too. Without any rational reason not to, why the hell couldn’t I agree to what we both wanted?
“You know what? You’re right. I’m going to say yes.”
Beth let out a victorious squeal and threw her arms around me again. “You’re going to Illinois, baby. Yeah!”
I giggled into her dark brown curls and returned her hug. “I guess I am. Ready or not, here I come.”
Chapter 26
Taydom
Bright blue sky stretched as far as the eye could see. It was a cloudless day, perfect for taking a fishing trip with my best friend.
Andrew and I headed out to the marina early and rented a boat. Once our lines were in, we kicked back with a beer and waited for something to happen.
Neither of us were serious fishermen, but we still liked to do it. Sitting out on the water, getting some sun, and being outdoors was relaxing and not something we got to do every day.
A mud-colored ballcap covered Andrew’s blond hair, and sunglasses covered his eyes. He lifted his hands to curl the end of the cap as he turned his head in my direction.
“What’s eating at you?”
I frowned behind my own pair of sunglasses. “What do you mean?”
“Come on, man. I know you, and something’s bothering you.” He pointed at me with the neck of his beer. “You’ve barely said ten words to me since you picked me up.”
“Sorry. I’ve just got a lot on my mind.” Such as the fact that Elsie hadn’t given me an answer yet. It had been a week since I asked her to come to Illinois with me, and the only time we’d discussed it again, she’d said she was still waiting on word from one of her classes.
Andrew crossed his arms over his faded T-shirt. “Am I going to have to drag it out of you?”
“No.” I drained what was left of my beer and reached for a new one in the cooler between our seats. “Things aren’t going well at home.”
His cap moved as his brows lifted. When he pulled his sunglasses down to the tip of his nose, I saw concern darkening his blue eyes. “Why? What’s going on?”
“The industry my parents are in has taken a hit and the farmers are feeling the pinch. I didn’t even hear about it from them. I had to hear about it on the news.”
He whistled under his breath. “That sucks. What are you going to do?”
“I have a plan, but it kind of hinges on Elsie.”
“Elsie?” He frowned. “How does a plan to help your parents hinge on the girl you’re renting the cottage to?”
“She’s a little more than just a tenant, man.” In fact, since that night that we’d slept together, I’d come to the conclusion that she was a lot more than that. “I told you we were friends.”
He rolled his eyes before pushing his glasses back up. I saw my own reflection in the mirrored shades, but I could still feel his gaze on me as he waited for me to explain. “You know my parents wouldn’t accept any help from me financially, so I might have lied to them a little to give myself an excuse to go up there.”
“An excuse to…” He trailed off before
he snapped his fingers and a wide grin spread on his lips. “Oh. That’s why your plan hinges on Elsie. You’re going to use her as the excuse.”
No one ever said Andrew wasn’t sharp, but the way he had phrased it irked me. “You’ve got the gist of it, but I’m not using her. I told my mother I had a girlfriend I wanted to introduce to them, so I asked Elsie to come home with me, but—”
“I’m sorry, but how is that not using her?” I saw a frown line forming above the top of his glasses. “Would you have invited her with you otherwise?”
I cleared my throat. “No, probably not. Fuck.”
He chuckled as he leaned back in his chair. “Well, you’re in too deep now to change anything. If you’ve already told your mom you’re bringing someone home, you’ve got to bring the girl home. Plus, you’ve also already asked her to go with you.”
“Yeah.” I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “I know. I just didn’t think of it as using her. I don’t want her to feel like that’s what I’m doing.”
Fuck.
I hadn’t seen things from that perspective at all. While it was true that I wouldn’t have invited Elsie with me otherwise, I also really did want her to come with me. I was looking forward to showing her around the farm and spending time with her without either of us being distracted by work or school.
I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to going head to head with my father, and I still hadn’t quite figured out how I was going to give them the money, but knowing Elsie might be going with me had put a silver lining around the entire visit. And not just because she would be an excuse to go or a distraction from them while we were there.
Elsie feeling I’d used her if and when she realized what was going on hadn’t been my intention at all, but I could see why Andrew would think what he did. From the outside, that was exactly what it looked like I was trying to do.
“Your brain is going to explode if you keep thinking that hard,” he joked. “Dude, it’s no big deal. If you’re going to get money to your mother, you’re going to have to make the trip. It’s that simple.”
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