Page 102 of Mr. Charming

“Thanks.”

“Now when you go in there, I’d appreciate a few tears and cover your eye like I hit you.” I’m not sure of the look I give him, but he laughs. “I’m kidding. Jeez, Tedi must run circles around you.”

We go into the house, and Tedi’s at the table with Mason and what looks like homework. She eyes me, then her dad.

“Well, his nuts are still intact, so maybe you’ll have a cousin after all, Mason,” Theo says from the couch.

“Cousin? I want a cousin!” Mason eyes Tedi’s stomach.

She picks up a pencil and throws it at her brother. “That’s how rumors start.”

An hour later, Rowan, Conor, and Henry leave in an Uber, leaving me with the rental car. Toby and Mason leave soon after, much to Mason’s displeasure. Theo sees Rhonda out and cleans off her car. Tedi and I stay for another two hours, talking with her dad.

When he gets up to go to the bathroom, I turn to her. “I want to give you some time alone with your dad, but I don’t want you to go to the hotel by yourself.”

She shakes her head. “I’m kind of beat from the early morning flight. You must be too.”

I stretch because she’s right. I’m exhausted.

Her dad returns. “I was about to kick you two out. You’re young, you shouldn’t be hanging out with an old man.” He doesn’t sit but remains standing and opens his arms.

Tedi stands and hugs him tightly. “Come visit me once in a while.”

He kisses her cheek. “I will. It’s just so busy.” When I walk over and put my hand out, Derin shakes it. “It was nice seeing you again, Tweetie.”

Tedi looks over her shoulder at me.

“Oh, get the hell out of my house.” Derin shoos us with his hand.

We get our shoes and coats on and say one last goodbye.

The ride back to the hotel is uneventful except for the side streets the plows haven’t gotten to yet. By the time I park the rental, drop the keys off at the front desk, and walk Tedi up to her room, I wish we were past this slow pace so I could crawl into bed with her. I miss the days when she’d come to games with Saige and I’d spend the night in her room.

“Thanks for everything today,” she says with her back to the wall right by her door.

I step closer and rest my arm on the wall above her head. “You never have to thank me.”

“I appreciate it. All of it.”

“I know.”

“And my dad? How was that?”

I lift one shoulder. “We’re good.”

She smiles and doesn’t ask me any more questions because she knows I’m not going to tell her.

“Good night, Tedi.” But I still don’t move.

“Okay, one kiss won’t kill us.” She glances down either end of the hall, then grabs my jacket and tugs me to her, crashing her lips against mine.

Fuck yes.

I place my free hand on her hip, bringing her flush to me, my tongue diving in and seeking hers. She meets me with the same intensity. If she’d let me, I’d take her right here. Our mouths are hungry and unapologetic, taking what we want from the other. A voice whispers that if I don’t do what she wants and take this slow, we’ll never get to where I want us to be, so I reluctantly close the kiss. She whimpers but presses her back to the wall, touching her lips.

“Good night, Tedi.” I step back. “Get into your room and lock up.”

She looks as if she wants to second-guess her decision, as though she wants me to go into that room with her.

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