Page 76 of Totally Opposed

“Well, Gramps is starting to need more care, so—”

“You’re not putting him in a home, are you?” I stop dancing. “I can help out more. I’m just across the alley. I can pop over in the mornings and the afternoons. I’m there at least once a day now, pretty much, but I can visit more.”

“Shh,” he says, pressing a single finger over my lips. “It’s nothing like that,” he says, and he leads us on the dancefloor more towards the edge of the others.

“What is it then?”

“When we get back from visiting your family for Granny’s ninetieth birthday, I’m moving in with Gramps.”

“Oh. Okay. You had me worried there. That’s great. You’ll be right across the alleyway.”

“That wasn’t everything. I have something else that I wanted to ask you.”

“It wasn’t? Oh, sorry. Alright, what do you need to ask?”

He pauses and only now do I see the slight blush that has risen to his cheeks. He’s nervous. But what could he have to be nervous about?

“Do you want to move in, too?” he finally blurts.

“With you and Gramps?”

He lets go of my waist and rubs the back of his neck. “Well, when you say it like that, it doesn’t sound all that romantic, but yeah.”

“Wait, isn’t his place like a one-bedroom?”

“Ha, no. His place is actually a duplex.”

“No way.”

“Yeah, but he hasn’t been up there in years. There is a bedroom, bathroom and I think a small office or study or something.”

“How did I not know this?”

“He’s covered the door with a bookcase in his living room.”

“Oh, I saw that door. I figured it was a closet.”

“Nope, it’s the door to my new room, well, our new room, new space, if you want to move in, too. You didn’t exactly answer me before. And I get if you don’t want to, it’s weird. Asking you to live with me and my grandfather.”

“No, it’s not. It’s exactly why I fell in love with you in the first place.”

“It is?”

“You love your family with all your heart and that told me I could trust you with mine.”

“So you’ll move in with us?”

I laugh, because it does sound a little weird when he puts it like that. But I don’t care. I love Gramps like he’s my own grandfather, and I love Alan more than any man I’ve ever loved.

“I will.”

He wraps me in a hug and spins me around.

“He’ll be so happy you said yes. I think he was more excited to ask you to move in than me.”

“It’s just because he likes my cooking better than yours.”

“He loves your cooking. But I love your everything.”

“I love your everything, too.”

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