Page 106 of Tide Over

My eyes land on our coffee table before him, and my heart skips a beat.

He’s cut the top, since I wasn’t able to finish it, and he’s screwed the edges in place.

I meet his eyes and immediately step forward, pressing my lips gently to his. When I pull back, he smiles and lightly brushes his thumb over my bottom lip.

“I figured we need our coffee table if we’re going to start using the sunroom,” he says.

I smile and rest my forehead against his. “Yeah. We do.”

He brings his lips to mine again, kissing me slowly in the quiet stillness of the morning, with nowhere to go, and nothing to do. It’s just us, and we have all the time we want and need.

And that feels pretty damn good.

When we part, Liam gestures to the table with a nod. “I just need to attach it to the base. Then we can stain it?”

Excitement stirs inside me, knowing that’s a part of this I can participate in. I nod eagerly and he chuckles.

“Want some coffee?” I ask.

He nods seriously and I laugh, heading back in the house as the drill hums behind me while Liam gets back to work.

I brew us each a coffee and awkwardly tuck one mug between my arm and body, balancing them as I walk carefully back to the workshop.

Liam looks up as I enter and rushes over to grab a mug from me. “I could have helped.”

I give a little shrug. “I’m only wearing some of it.” I glance down at the coffee stain on my shirt where it was jostled out of the mug, and Liam shakes his head with a soft chuckle.

He reaches out, lightly tugging at the wet spot on my shirt to pull me closer as he presses a kiss to my lips.

Liam has the table assembled, so we settle in to start staining. Which is the final step before it’s all done, and ready for the sunroom.

Peaceful silence surrounds us as we work, the swishing of our brushes on the wood mixing with the soft chirps of the birds in the trees outside.

Eventually, I look up at Liam, and hope this question doesn’t disturb his comfort.

“So,” I start hesitantly, “when do you want to go see your parents?”

He glances up at me as he drags the brush along the tabletop with slow, thoughtful strokes and he inhales deeply. “This week?”

I smile, feeling the confidence in him, growing stronger among the lingering uncertainty. “Yeah.”

He watches me as I dip my brush into the stain. “And when do you want to tell your family about us?”

I meet his eyes, and think on that for a moment. “Well… I did want to tell my mom first but… I actually think I’d rather talk to everyone at once. So… tomorrow, at Sunday dinner?” I ask, some nerves still fluttering at the thought.

Liam smiles, nodding in quiet agreement. “Yeah.” He studies me for a moment, looking thoughtful. “No one… mentioned anything to you about… anything?”

I furrow my brow in confusion. “What? Who?”

He shakes his head with a shrug. “I don’t know.” But before I can decipher what that means, he looks up at me again. “I’m proud of you.”

My heart swells as a smile spreads across my face, and I stare into his beautiful eyes.

“I’m proud of you too.”

THIRTY-NINE

My pulse thundersin my ears as Liam pulls the truck onto Mom’s street, and her house slowly comes into view. I’ve been building up the courage for so long to face this moment, and now that it’s here… that courage seems to be slipping away under the weight of my fear.

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