Page 66 of Here In Your Arms

“Hey guys,” she greets us as she steps into the house.

“How’s it going, precious?” Wes asks, placing a kiss on top of her head.

“Better now. It’s always better with you guys.”

I walk over and pull her into my arms. My mouth finds her neck, and I give her some soft kisses and a few nibbles.

“I’m glad you’re here, sweetheart.”

“Mmmmm, me too,” she purrs.

We finally all move past the entrance and get settled. There are no plans tonight, no movie, no games, just spending time together. It feels comfortable, like we’re entering the next stage of our relationship. We’re not trying to impress each other, just be together. Wes flips on the TV and Rory looks over at him.

“Please?” she asks, her lip pouting and eyes as big as she can get.

Wes groans in mock misery. “Fine.”

She grins and leans over to kiss his cheek. “Thank you!”

He chuckles and pulls up Nailed It!, and I start laughing before I can help it.

“You guys are ridiculous,” I tell them.

Rory just grins back at me, and we settle in. We’re about three episodes in when I decide it might be worth a try to talk.

“Sweetheart, can we talk for a bit?”

“What’s up?” she asks.

“I wanted to ask more about that guy.”

“What guy?”

“Well, Wes and I have just been calling him ‘Baldie’, I don’t really know his name.”

She snorts out a laugh. “Okay, that’s funny.”

Wes cracks a small smile. “Yeah, the nickname is funny, but we’re both worried about him and how much he’s around.”

Rory goes quiet, her face moving from amused to pensive to worried, and back to pensive. I can tell she’s got thoughts racing through her head, and I’m just hoping that it’s not thoughts of lying to us. She doesn’t seem like that type. I think she would just tell us she doesn’t want to talk about it, but we’ve not really had to have a serious conversation like this yet. It’s hard to know how she’ll react.

She finally heaves a deep sigh. “He’s someone that’s been around the bar a lot. I’m not a big fan, but so far, he’s been pretty harmless.”

“Pretty harmless?” Wes repeats, catching that part of it. “How do you define ‘pretty harmless’?”

“I mean, he hasn’t physically hurt me, he’s just there. Staring. He doesn’t cause a scene at the bar, so pretty harmless.”

“Precious, I feel like there’s something you’re not telling us,” Wes tells her.

“I guess I get uncomfortable about it because of my ex.”

“You’ve never talked about an ex,” I point out.

“That’s for a good reason. He wasn’t a good guy, and I’m honestly a little embarrassed,” she says with a sad smile.

“Do you want to tell us about him?”

She looks over at me, her hand holding onto Wes. “Not really, but I can say he wasn’t someone I should have stayed with. I should have left him long before I did. My mom is still upset that I left him. She doesn’t get it.”

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