Page 65 of Fumbled Into Love

“How did you know I was going to call?”

There’s a noticeable scowl on my face.

“Call it my scientific intuition.” She pauses, snickering at her joke. “What’s up?”

“Nathalie’s on her period, and Declan and I are in the period aisle. There are so many options…” I trail off.

“You brought Declan!” Maren’s laughter fills the other side of the line, and if I didn’t desperately need her help, I would hang up. Instead, I wait out her laughter. She sucks in a few deep breaths and switches the phone to FaceTime.

Her face is beet red when I answer.

“What does the list say?”

“Is she laughing at us?” Declan asks, inspecting a box on the shelf.

“Yes.”

I read off the list and show Maren the shelves. She points out the items and how many of each to get. If she tells me to get one, I quadruple the quantity, just in case.

“The pads have sticky ‘wings’ that fold over on the underwear,” Maren explains when I ask about the special pads. I grab half a dozen of those boxes and thank Maren profusely. She’s a lifesaver, even if I’ll never live it down.

“This made my week,” she chuckles, “I can’t wait to tell Jack.”

I frown, and her laughter grows. Maren hangs up, and we make it to the register where the high school-aged girl’s gaze bounces between Declan and me as she scans the boxes of pads and tampons and candy. Declan snatches the bags, squirming beneath her gaze, and I quickly tap my card and scurry out the door.

“Was she judging us?” Declan asks.

“I can still feel her withering gaze,” I say, rolling my shoulders.

“Oh, the things we do for fake relationships,” he sighs.

I regret bringing him with me.

Nathalie sits up as the front door creaks open, hair plastered against her head. I stop in the doorway, breathless with how beautiful she is. I am in big fucking trouble.

“You’re back,” she murmurs, holding Gordie in her arms.

“I’m back.”

She scoots on the couch, and I drop the bags onto the coffee table.

“Deon.” She coughs to hide her laughter, “This is way more than I needed.”

I glance at the 14 boxes of pads and tampons, the four packs of Midol, the three Gatorades, and the family-sized bag of gummy bears. Maybe it’s a bit much, but I don’t want her worrying about not having what she needs.

“I may have gone overboard…” I admit, leaning in to brush a kiss on her forehead before remembering the stupid fucking rule and stopping at the last possible moment.

My instinct is to comfort her with physical touch, but that’s not what she wants outside of ‘sexy time.’ I need to remind myself of that.

Nathalie sighs, stuffing the items back into a bag and padding into the bathroom. While she’s gone, I tidy up the space, lining her shoes in the mudroom and returning her keys and sunglasses to the catch-all by the front door.

If it were anyone else, I would find the mess annoying, but I find her chaos wildly endearing, even if I’ve almost wiped out on a rogue Converse a few times since she moved in.

Nathalie returns to the couch, groaning as she sits.

I drop to the corner of the couch, pulling out a new puzzle I bought and setting it up on the coffee table, when her gaze becomes so heavy that I pause to look at her.

“Is everything okay?”

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