Page 80 of The Dating Pact

“You gonna massage my feet later?” I asked, half teasing, but he merely smiled.

“You only have to ask.”

I popped a kiss on his lips, tossed my heels into my bag and hid it under the table, and then took his hand in mine. “Come on, let’s go get a drink. I fear my family will drive me to get drunk tonight.”

At the bar, Jude ordered a beer for himself and a white wine for me. “Why’s that?”

“They insist on me telling them everything.”

“About us?”

I accepted my wine from the bartender. “Yup. It’s Sabrina’s wedding, but all she wanted to know about was you.”

“Well…” He sipped his beer and exhaled a rough breath as if he had the world on his shoulders. “I can’t help that they love me more than you.”

I rolled my eyes and thumped him on the chest. He hugged me to him, so I couldn’t hit him anymore, both of us laughing into each other’s shoulders.

“Don’t you two look cozy,” Mom said, and Jude and I both turned to her.

“Told you,” I mumbled.

“Hi, Sheila. How are you?” Jude asked, releasing me to hug my mother.

“I’m fine, and I take it you’re fine too?”

“I’m doing very well. Thank you.”

Mom waved her index finger between us with a little wink. “It’s about damn time you two realized how good you are for each other.”

I downed about a third of my wine while Jude raised his drink to her. “What can I say besides good things take time?”

“That’s right.” Mom practically danced in place. “I need to go mingle. You two have fun.”

But as soon as she left, the bride and groom took her place, and it was the same damn conversation all over again. Then Kimberly and Henry, and then Dad. Even freaking Aunt Maeve got in on the action, only after detailing her gout and bunions. Of course.

As always, Jude charmed each and every person. Not that he hadn’t already endeared himself to them. The next few hours passed in a blur of toasts, music, food, stories, and a late-to-the-game fainting spell, which Maeve recovered from fine. When the DJ announced the last dance of the night, Jude tugged me out to the floor and into his arms, holding me flush against him, and I reveled in his warm embrace, spinning in a slow circle to “Maybe I’m Amazed.”

“Did you have fun?” I asked after a while, and he nodded, adjusting his hold so his palms lay flat on my back.

“I’m really glad I’m here, and I’m really glad I’m here with you.”

His gaze dipped down to my throat, where I wore one of the candy necklaces he’d procured as a favor. He bent, his teeth scraping my skin as he bit one of the hard candies off the string. I felt it everywhere.

“You better knock that off, babe. We’re in public.”

He chewed and swallowed the candy with a cocky smile, and since we wouldn’t be doing a lot of chatting after we ditched this party, I figured we had to have some discussion about us now.

I swallowed a few nerves and asked him outright, “What are we going to do now?”

“Try to sneak out of here without Aunt Maeve seeing us, that’s for sure.”

“I mean after that.”

“After that…” He focused somewhere beyond my shoulder. “It’s going to take time. I wish I could give you a concrete answer. I wish I could walk in the front door with you and have the kids be totally okay with it, but I’m… I’m just not sure.”

“I get that.”

He slanted his head back to me. “Sebastian had tryouts this morning, and he has them again tomorrow.”

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