Page 113 of Just for the Plot

The group is witty, not at all prudish as I’d expect, and all out for a good time.

“Only a few months,” I say as I tug Bower out of her chair and directly into my lap. She comes willingly and loops her arm around my neck, so I wrap my arm around her waist.

“Only a few months?” Anita runs her tongue over her teeth. “Seems like years to me.”

“We’ve known each other for several years,” I say. “And then one day, she gave me a chance after I’ve been pining for her for so long.”

“Isn’t that the sweetest?” Anita brings her attention to Bower as she says, “Why did it take you so long to give in to this man?”

“Didn’t want to get in the way of his dreams,” Bower says, as if it’s the truth, not some fabricated lie to placate the group sitting around a dinner table with us.

“So darling.” Anita pats her chest. “And look at you two now, happily in love.”

“Yup,” I say, looking Bower in the eyes. “Happily in love.”

She smiles, her cheeks going pink as she clears her throat.

“I remember Bower telling me all about Bennett,” Adalade says, swirling her wine in her glass. “It almost seemed like he enamored her. Then, how could you not be? The man is the whole package. Sweet, interested, infatuated, handsome…”

“Can I get that in writing so when she gets mad at me, I can remind her why she’s with me?”

Adalade chuckles. “Want me to write you a letter of recommendation?”

“That would be greatly appreciated. I can’t have this woman running away from me.”

“Oh she’d never,” Anita says. “I can see the way she looks at you, and that means wedding bells should be coming soon, right?”

“Oh, I don’t know about that—” Bower starts to say, but I butt in.

“If I knew she’d say yes, I would have proposed already.”

Her head snaps to mine and all I do is smile up at her fucking gorgeous face, because facts.

I would.

I’d propose so fucking hard.

Because if I know anything, it’s that I want to spend every spare waking hour I have with her. I’ve thought this for so long, but now that she lives close and that I’ve been able to spend even more time with her, the addiction I have for her has grown to where I crave her before bed, when I wake up, before games. I want to text her when I’m gone, call her before I go to sleep, and FaceTime her when I wake up so I can see how rumpled and warm she looks in her bed.

I want to spoil her, be the one who makes her throw her head back and laugh.

Fuck, I want to be the one that calls her pet names, not some jackass who has no right being near her.

“Oooo, looks like there needs to be a discussion had between you two,” Anita says.

“Yes,” Kent clucks, his body swaying back and forth from the port he’sbeen consuming all night. “They need to discuss the love affair he’s having with the cheese.” He hiccups. “Because he was eye-fucking that wheel.”

I snort, along with Bower, while the rest of the table joins in the laughter.

Because Kent is so not the man you would expect to say the wordseye-fucking. He has a toupee, for fuck’s sake!

And I know because he told me.

When the laughter dies down, Bower holds up her hand and says, “You know what? I’ll be the bigger person and step aside. Who am I to be the one who gets in between a man and his need to tongue his cheese?”

“And that’s why he’s in love,” Anita points out as I look up at Bower. “Because she’s willing to step aside so he can truly be happy.”

If only she knew what would truly make me happy…