“Okay,” Iagree.
“Okay,” hesays.
“But there’s acondition,” I tell him.
He chuckles ashe lifts my face to his. “What’s that?”
“Mymother can’t find out that you’re calling me your girlfriend. Notyet atleast.”
He presses hislips to mine, slides his tongue into my mouth.
“She’dwield this information like a baby-seeking missile,” I mumble around histongue.
“Sowe’ll keep it between us,” he says, nipping my bottom lip, “if that’ll make youhappy. I won’t tell her or your brothers or my best friend thatyou’re my girlfriend. But I wanna hear you call me your boyfriendat least once.”
“Boyfriend,” Iblurt.
“I wasthinking more like once a day.” He laughs. “Maybe twice a day. Wecould even teach Puckerto call out ‘Ronnie and Danny are in arelationship.’”
“Thatmight be going too far.” I take another draw from thebottle.
“Maybe,”he agrees, stealing thechampagne from my grip. “I can’t believe I was so worriedabout how you would take my suggesting we turn this into an actualrelationship. It was really pretty easy.”
“That’swhy you were acting weird.” It makes sense now. The fiddling, the lack ofconfidence.
“Yeah,well, I wasn’t sure you would want to.” He runs a finger along theinside of his collar.“I’m not exactly a catch.”
“Pfft.”I punch his shoulder and roll my eyes. “You’re a catch. Like asalmon. Only...you’d bethe salmon swimming downstream.”
“You’vehad a lot to drink.” He starts to chuckle butimmediately stops. It’s a little like oneof those monkeys with the cymbals when it runs out of batteries asit dries up. “I’m serious.”
“So amI.”I get up andstraddle his lap. “I want to. I can’t believe I’m saying this, butfor the first time in my life, I’m actually interested in more thanjust getting into a guy’s pants.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
DANNY
“Thatthing you did with the Nutella was hot and all, but I’m not sure itwas worth this,” I say, eyeing the two-story brick Tudorhouse my parents moved intoafter I left. This is the first time I’ve been to their new home.Which isn’t really new, considering they’ve been here for fouryears.
“And Ican’t believe I had to bribe you with a Nutella blowjob justtoget you to havedinner with your own family,” Ronnie says, lifting a casserole dishout of the trunk of the car.
Iextract the oversized bag thatcontains a Caesar salad, breadsticks, and a couple bottlesof merlot to go with the lasagna she made for my mother’s welcomehome dinner. She agrees to be my girlfriend and suddenly she’s SuzyHomemaker. Or, more accurately, Mama Frost Junior.
Don’tget me wrong; I likethis side of Ronnie. This person with the need to take care ofeveryone. She’s suppressed what I suspect is a natural aspect ofher personality for so long, it’s probably going to be a littleoverwhelming for a while, until she gets a handle on it.
Mymother’s stroke, followed by my confession about the Harrisonfamily dynamics,certainly didn’t help. I assume because she likes me, andespecially now that we’ve officially shifted our relationship tothis new level, she’s overcompensating, trying way too hard toplease my family.
And I’m notconfident it’s going to work. In fact, I’m confident it isn’t.
“Prettysure you got a reasonable amount of enjoyment out of it too,” Iquip, falling into mycomfortable role of jokester, casual and carefree guy. The one mydad hates.
Shechuckles. “Actually, I got the bonus package. I got anorgasmandfar moreNutella in one sitting than an adult woman has a right toconsume.”
I’dmanaged to hold outuntil she licked my Popsicle stick clean, and then I’d grabbed herhips and slammed into her like a crazed man, and she climaxed aftermaybe two thrusts. Apparently she’s a big fan of chocolate andhazelnut. And my dick.
Lucky me.
Exceptafterward,she’d hoppedout of bed and headed into the kitchen, whipping up thisdinner-to-go, chattering about how Joe said he couldn’t wait to trythe lasagna her mother had taught her to make.