Page 168 of Meet Me at the Metro

“You wouldn’t have to pay rent if you came and lived with me.”

“Theo,”I breathe, heart racing.

“I’m serious, Nora. You’re at my place so much as is. What difference does it make?”

“The difference is that I’d belivingwith you. Permanently. All the time. You’d have no personal space for yourself if you wanted it.”

He grins roguishly. “That’s music to my ears.”

“I’m serious,” I reprimand, playfully shoving his chest.

“I am, too. As a fucking heart attack.”

“What about school? The cost of tuition is another thing I’d have to consider, and besides, I don’t even know if they’d accept me for another semester.”

“There are grants I can help you apply for, and you forget that I’ve got connections to the admissions faculty.Remember?”

He flashes his brows mischievously, and I roll my eyes, unwilling to let him see how much hope he’s flared up inside me. My heart aches for home, but it aches more to know what a future with him could look like outside of all the mess we’ve been dealt.

“You haven’t even spoken to Kimberley since your dinner. I don’t know if she’d be so keen on helping us again.”

“Fair point,” he shrugs, “but I’m sure she’d be more than happy to help herprecious baby boy’sbest friend.”

“No,” I object, shaking my head. “I’m not using Connor as a game piece in this.”

“Fine,” Theo huffs, looking to the ceiling for answers. After a few beats of quietude, he informs me, “I’ll handle it.”

“You’ll handle it, huh?” I giggle, pulling myself over his body and straddling his hips. I prod his chest and taunt, “You’re a rather persistent thing, Theodore.”

He snatches my finger and playfully nips it with his teeth, making me quietly squeal. “I’m determined to keep waking up to you. Is that such an awful thing?”

“Not awful at all,” I counter, my grin growing wider. Waking up to Theo was the highlight of most of my days—and nights. I relished every morning kiss and craved every midnight hour spent exploring each other’s bodies. “Let me think about it, alright? We still have a few more months left. We don’t have to figure it all out now.”

“Alright,” he grumbles. “But promise me something?”

“Hmm?”

“You’ll actually consider it—staying here. Because I swear to you, Nora, I’ll make sure you’re taken care of. You know that, right?”

He looks so handsome like this when he allows me to see his vulnerable side—the soft one that he keeps tucked away for only me to know.

My fingers stroke back his tousled dark blonde hair as my eyes travel over the intricate tattoos mapped along the taut skin of his biceps and broad shoulders. It doesn’t seem fair for one to be so effortlessly handsome in the way he is—a perfect image of masculine beauty.

As I study him, discerning the raw, unfiltered plea in his sleepy gaze, I can’t find it to answer him with anything other than, “I know you will.”

“Good,” he grins, rolling us over until our bodies are flush against the bed again. Theo draws me in, pulling me away from the edge of the bed as he nuzzles his head into the crook of my neck and places a lifetime’s worth of tiny kisses along my skin. “Sleep, pretty thing.”

However, he doesn’t know how impossible of a request that is for him to make because, after all the words and prospects that’ve been exchanged between the two of us, sleep is the last thing my mind wants to do.

“Well, that’s just fine,” I say, reading off theChicago the Musicalscript book held in my hands. “Sign right here, Mr. Hart.”

“Happily and gladly. Happily and gladly,” Connor recites from memory.

“Freely and gladly,” I correct, chuckling. This is only the fourth time we’ve run through this line, and he still can’t say it right.

“Ugh!”Connor dramatically throws himself back against the white, plush cushions of his living room couch, his long limbs splayed. “Why do I keep wanting to say happily? It’s freely.Freely and gladly. Freely and gladly. Freely and gladly.”

“Atta boy,” I torment, winking at him. “Fifth time’s a charm.”

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