Page 77 of Stealing Home

He squeezes my hand, and it starts to sink in why he made this talk sound so serious. “You want me to meet them,” I state.

His mouth twitches, and I think inside he’s laughing at me a little. I’m glad one of us finds this situation humorous. “You’ve already met them,” he reminds me.

“Right, as the wife of your coach. Are you sure they want to meet me again?” I can’t imagine they’re too happy with our relationship, even if they did tell Scott they’d be open minded.

While I’m starting to freak out again, he is the definition of calm. Scott is my lighthouse, protecting me from danger and bringing me back to safety. Once again he’s showing more emotional maturity than me, proving we’re not as imbalanced as I first thought.

“I can’t say what my parents want. I’ll be honest, I’m sure they’re both hoping this is a phase for both of us, but we both know this is more. At least for me it is. The only reason I can see for you not to spend time with them is if you don’t see us having a future.”

“At this point, I can’t imagine a future without you in it. I’m sorry I’ve given you a reason to doubt that I love you.”

He smiles at me. “Then we need to face them. If we hesitate, they’ll think we aren’t sure, or think we’re doing something wrong. We’re not.”

“I don’t want to hurt your relationship with your parents.” Everything else I know we can handle. The opinions of his teammates and Nando mean nothing in the long run. He’s graduating this semester, and he’s got a job in Seattle. Not that we’ve talked about that much yet, but I assume he’s going to want me to come with him. But, if he were to become estranged from his parents, that is something he’d grow to resent me for.

“I can see you letting your mind wander through all the bad things you think could happen if we get together with my family. I want you to know something.”

“I’m listening,” I say quietly, dropping my eyes to our hands.

“Give me your eyes, Low,” he commands.

A shiver works through my body hearing that authoritative tone in his voice. My eyes snap to his immediately.

He smirks, recognizing the effect he has on me. “Good girl,” he praises.

The sensual tone and naughty smirk disappear, and he becomes serious once more. “I can’t promise that my parents are going to accept us right away. What I can promise you is that nothing will make them turn their backs on me. Being with you will not hurt my relationship with them, and I have faith they’ll come around eventually.”

“If you have faith in them, then I will have faith in you.”

“Thank you,” he says. His thumb sweeps across my knuckles again. “You know what I just realized?”

I cock an eyebrow. Scott keeps me on my toes, that’s for sure.

“Everyone knows about us now. That means we can finally go on a date. Go get dressed, I want to show you off.”

I roll my eyes, but I’m excited to be seen with him too. “Yes sir,” I tease.

* * *

“A club?”I ask as Scott pulls up to a large, converted warehouse. There’s a line around the building that we can see from the parking lot. “I thought you wanted time with just the two of us.”

“I do. No one is meeting us here.” His mouth turns down, and he stares straight out the windshield. “My birthday went so far sideways, I want a do over. I know you may be over this whole scene, but I haven’t done it yet.”

My eyebrows pull together. I really haven’t gone to more than a couple myself. It’s funny how we are so close in experience despite our age gap. “Nando and I got together right before I turned twenty-one, and as you can imagine, he was too controlling to let me go out with my girlfriends to a club. I have only been to a couple clubs.”

I don’t want him to look back every year on his birthday and remember it as the day we almost lost each other. “What did you have in mind?”

Scott looks at me and smirks. “What I wanted in the first place, you and me alone. Plus, this gives me an excuse to have my hands all over you in public.”

My eyebrow cocks. “You dance?”

He shrugs. “Better when my hip isn’t bruised, but I can move a little.”

“Then how about you show me, hotshot.”

Scott is a gentleman even when he’s proposing to feel me up in a club, so naturally he has me wait until he can go around the truck to open my door. He takes my hand and helps me navigate the worn asphalt of the parking lot and the cracked sidewalk. The area might be up and coming, but it still has a long way to go.

It doesn’t help that I chose to wear my sexiest, and most impractical, pair of heels. They’re a strappy pair made of black leather decorated with silver studs and a sharp looking silver heel. I couldn’t resist wearing them knowing how well they went with my tiny black dress that fits like it was sewn on my body. Something I’ve only recently felt the confidence to wear again.

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