Page 84 of Forgotten Romance

Of fucking course there is. “I watched The Hobbit. And the two after. You’re telling me there’s a series too?”

“Wait. You skipped Lord of the Rings?”

I do not like where this is going. “Umm … if you promise not to ask me for any of the details … no?”

“You did!”

“I thought there was just The Hobbit! They already squeezed three movies out of the one book. What else could they have done?”

He sighs and steps closer, then pulls out one … two … three heavy books. “These are the Lord of the Rings. Three books, three movies. The director’s cut versions are over three hours long. And the effects? They were unmatched in those days. Legolas, Gandalf, and Bilbo are both in this trilogy too and?—”

My hand comes down over his mouth. “Slow down there, nerd.” His eyes light up. “What I’m hearing is that I’m not nearly caught up enough and we have a movie marathon in our future.”

He snatches my hand away. “We can watch the first on Saturday night when the kids are in bed. Then Sunday morning, your parents always want to take them for a couple of hours, so we can watch the second, and then we’ll wrap up the third on Sunday night. It’ll be perfect.”

And maybe I’m feeling sentimental, or slightly guilty over having to leave again soon, or I’ve just forgotten how much these things are so not my thing, but I agree.

The lengths I’ll go to just to spend time with him.

“You’re letting me pick the snacks.”

DMC GROUP CHAT

Mack: I get the feeling none of you are crossing your fingers for a white Christmas like I asked, and I’m going to need you to do that a little harder.

Art: No matter how much you try, you can’t actually make it snow. You know that, right?

Mack: Can and will. I’ll hunt Jack Frost down myself if I have to.

Griff: Can I come too? He sounds hot.

Payne: A fictional, not at all real, entity sounds hot?

Griff: I bet he’d be the kind to ruin you for anyone else and not call back in the morning.

Orson: Yeah, I doubt he’d ruin anything judging by how my body reacts to being in the snow.

Art: Are we sure the snow is the reason for that issue?

Orson: Either that, or my balls never dropped.

Payne: Art’s the only one with that issue.

Art: Fuck you, my balls are exactly where they’re supposed to be.

Art: In Joey’s mouth.

Keller: You set him up for that one.

26

Mack

“Thanks for doing this,” I say. “I told Davey I had an overtime shift today, so we’ll have to be quick.” Technically, this was supposed to be the kids’ and my first day off for winter break, but I needed to sneak away.

Davey’s mom smiles over the counter at me. She has the same dark freckles over her nose that he does and the same wild black curls. “This is so romantic, Mack. You really do have the biggest heart of anyone I know.”

“Well, Davey deserves the world. He makes it easy to be.”

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