Page 129 of January

“That’s it?” Kyle checked. “You don’t want to hit the town?”

“Hit the town? Who are you?” Melinda laughed.

“I just meant go out. You don’t want to go out?”

“No, I want to stay in with you,” Melinda said, taking Kyle’s hand and entwining their fingers.

“Okay,” Kyle replied.

She turned to look out the side window, and Melinda wondered if it reallywasokay.

“Ky?”

Kyle turned back without saying anything.

“Doyouwant to go out tonight?”

“I don’t know. I was just thinking it might be fun. My mom is gone. Jolie is about to board. And I made some big decisions recently. I thought we could go out and unwind.”

“We can go out. Where do you want to go?”

“Now, I feel like you want to stay in.”

“It’s not that, Kyle. This place has a way of sucking people into it. I don’t usually go out a lot. You just met me at a time when Bridgette was hunting for a new lady love, and she’s not a huge fan of online dating.”

“So, you’re saying I shouldn’t get used to us going out every night and partying all the time?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. I’m more of a homebody than you know, probably.”

“You’re getting nervous now, aren’t you?” Kyle asked.

“Nervous? About what?”

“Now, it’s real: I’m here.”

“I’m confused. Were you somewhere else before?” she joked off.

“I mean that before, I was leaving at some point, and this was new and fun. We know by now that it’s real and can be something more than fun, but I was still going back home, and we would’ve been figuring out how to do long-distance. Now, I’m moving here, and you think I’ll find you boring or something.”

“I amnotnervous,” she said as she pulled them off the highway.

“No?”

“No. I just want to make sure you know that I’m pretty boring.”

Kyle laughed and said, “You are anything but boring.”

“I really am, though. I give tours, and I go home. I read and drink coffee and go out when my friends need me there to wingwoman, but that’s about it, Ky.”

“Babe, you literally took me on a helicopter ride.”

“Because I was wooing you. I’ve wooed. You’re here. We’re together.”

Kyle laughed wildly and asked, “So, the wooing is already done?”

“Some of it, at least. I mean, I’ll give you a foot rub every now and then, maybe,” she teased.

“Well, I do love a good foot rub,” Kyle replied.

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