Page 58 of When Morning Comes Around

She turned to look up into his eyes. “This is so much more than okay that you might have to peel me off you later.” She covered her eyes with her hand. “At least I’m honest.”

He chuckled. “I like it. We might have a slight problem, though.”

Her heart sank. “Yeah, what’s that?”

His arm tightened around her. “I might not want to peel you off.”

She leaned back against his shoulder and relaxed. “I guess we should enjoy it for now then and worry about that later.”

He set the fork down and wrapped both arms around her middle. When he rested his chin on her shoulder, shivers chased each other down her spine. She turned and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“In case I forget to tell you later, I had a great time tonight, Dominic, thank you.”

“I won’t forget to tell you – I’ll just go repeating myself; I’m having a great time too. Can I ask you a favor?”

“Of course.”

“Would you call me Dom?”

Her heart sank as she wondered if Polly used to call him Dominic and he didn’t want her to do the same.

He tapped her temple. “There’s nothing for you to overthink. It’s just that I feel like people only call me Dominic until they really know me. Damon calls me Dom, so does Jake.” He smiled. “If you think about it, even your dad calls me Dom.”

“And you like that better?”

He smiled. “I do.”

“Okay. I’ll do that, then.”

He chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to start calling you honey bun.”

She had to laugh. “That’s a relief. I love it when my dad says it, but it’d seem strange coming from anyone else. Especially you.”

As if he knew that they were talking about him, her dad called from the living room, “I think I’m going to go to bed now, guys.”

Sadie was shocked to see how late it was. She started to get up. Dominic – no, Dom – kissed her cheek before setting his hands on her waist to help her up.

“Be right there, Dad.”

~ ~ ~

Dom made himself useful and took care of the few dishes they’d used while Sadie helped Harvey get ready for bed. He was wearing a big stupid grin, and he didn’t care. This evening had been great, it had gone way better than he’d hoped. Sadie was awesome.

His smile faded; he hated to think what her life had been like with her ex – dopey Dale, as Harvey called him. Then again, he was kind of grateful to the guy. If Dale had known what a gem he had in Sadie, he would never have let her go, and Dom would never have met her.

He straightened up. Thinking things like that sounded like he was already in deep. He stared out the kitchen window into the darkness as he mulled it over. He reached the conclusion that he probably was in deep – but that didn’t mean that they needed to move quickly. They could take their time, see how things developed – he needed to take a minute to discover if Sadie even felt the same way.

He spun around when the front door rattled, ready to defend Sadie and Harvey against whatever intruder was trying to get in. He relaxed, feeling foolish, when the door opened, and Savannah walked in.

“Hi, Dominic,” she said with a smile. “How’s it going?”

He nodded. “Great, thanks. How about you?”

She smiled. “Business as usual for me. Busy, busy, busy.”

Dominic liked her. She seemed straightforward, and there was no question that she was a hard worker.

“Do you eat at the diner while you’re working?”

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