Page 144 of Wrong For Me

God, I need to get my hands on this woman. I pull her close, ignoring the catcalls from the Littles standing nearby.

“And what about you?” I ask against her lips. “You think I’m gonna be sticking around for a while?”

She sighs dramatically. “I guess that would be okay.”

“Such a pain in my ass, princess,” I murmur then kiss her again, and again. I keep kissing her until her Uncle Lennon passes by and smacks the back of my head.

“Sorry,” she says, but I can tell she’s trying not to laugh.

“Yeah, you sound real sorry,” I mutter as I rub my head.

“You need a little break from the Ransomes?”

“I wouldn’t say no.”

She leads me to a booth in a deserted corner of the restaurant. I sit sideways on the bench, back against the wall, Rose nestled between my legs, her back flush with my chest. “This is nice,” she murmurs as I wrap my long arms around her.

“Very nice.”

We sit like that for several long moments, soaking in the feel of each other, and watching the party. The Littles are playing some kind of freeze tag game completely inappropriate in a crowd this size—they keep bumping into people. Alex, Everly, and Fox are playing cards at a nearby table. Everyone else is chatting or eating.

“It’s a good party,” I murmur.

“Mmmhmm,” she agrees.

“You okay?” I tap the top of her head. “You thinking big thoughts in there?”

She laughs, then sighs, nestling closer to me. “My Aunt Sam talked to me while you were in the bathroom earlier.”

“Will’s mom?”

Rose nods against my chest. “She runs our family’s foundation.”

“The one your mom started?”

“Yeah. Initially Mom and Dad set it up to address bullying but over the years it’s expanded to include a whole bunch of other stuff.” She turns her head a little to look back at me. “Aunt Sam is thinking about funding a few shelters in Los Angeles.”

“That’s a pretty worthy cause.”

She holds my gaze. “She asked if I would be interested in helping her set them up.”

My eyebrows go up. “Wow. What do you think about that?”

Rose chews on her bottom lip. “Honestly? It sounds really freaking awesome. You know how much I love working at Haven House—”

“And you’re really good at it, too.”

She smiles before her expression turns serious again. “I know that most shelters aren’t like Haven House. Most of them don’t have the budget to offer the same programming and the same comforts. But if we could really put some money behind it, we could open more places just as good as Haven House.”

“That sounds pretty awesome.” I finger a strand of her hair, feeling silly for the emotions swirling through my gut. “Does that mean you won’t go back to school? If you decide to help?”

“I’m not sure. I still want to do counseling. It would actually be awesome if I was licensed to counsel at the shelter. Maybe I would do school part time?”

I swallow a strange lump in my throat. “I would miss you. Not seeing you on campus.”

She turns in my arms. “You won’t be seeing me much anyhow. Even if I do come back full time for my master’s. We’ll have different classes.”

I shrug. “I may have been looking forward to secret meetings in my office between classes.”