Page 114 of Always You (A Lilac Bay Novel)

“But you can’t stand people getting in your business!”

In response, he kissed me right there on the dance floor, dipping me back over his arm, making a huge show of it. “Let ‘em watch,” he whispered in my ear, and then kissed me again.

The only time he seemed to get nervous was when Rebecca and Jake danced by a few songs later. “Be nice to my sister,” she instructed, in her old track captain voice. “The two of us have each other’s back, buddy.”

“She’s not kidding,” Jake said, winking at me, before spinning her off into the crowd.

“So,” Andrew said, once they were gone. “What do you think your sister would do to me if I tried to convince you to move to Boston?”

“Boston?”

He shrugged. “We visited when I was little. I liked it. There’s an associate producer job open at Heather Dale’s network, and I figured since you have an in now—”

“You’ve been looking up jobs for me?”

He looked uncomfortable. “I just wanted to know where you might go. How far away it would be.”

I felt a little sick. “Do you still want me to leave? I thought—”

“No,” he said quickly, bringing a finger to my mouth. “I meant for both of us.”

“You want to move to Boston?”

He tilted his head. “I could root for the Red Sox. I draw my line at the Bruins, though. I don’t think Gordie would be cool with that.”

I shook my head, having no idea how to respond to that, and he closed the distance between us, bringing his forehead down to touch mine.

“I meant it, Riley. I’m not going to hold you back. I’ll go wherever you want.”

“What about Traverse City?”

He pulled back, surprised. “Traverse City?”

“There’s an assistant news director job at one of the networks. I thought I might go for it.”

“In Traverse City?”

“Sure. It’s close, you know? Then we could still live here, at least in the summer, and if you were really serious about this working for your dad thing—”

“Riley, aren’t you hearing me? You don’t have to stay here for me.”

“I know.” I kissed the side of his mouth. “I want to stay here forme.” I looked up into his eyes. “This is home, Andrew. It’s where I want to be. It’s where I want our life to be, together.”

He watched me for a long moment.

“Where we start our family?”

My breath caught in my throat, but there was no fear in my chest at the thought.

“Yeah,” I said. “Our family.”

Once again he gave me that cocky little smile, clearly satisfied with himself. He kissed me, his lips trailing over mine.

“I have one condition,” he whispered.

“Name it.”

“You have to make lunch.”