Page 62 of Liberating Love

I turn in his arms and drape my arms around his neck. “This is our first party—or whatever you want to call it—that we’re throwing together. I want it to be perfect.” Mom and I moved in with Delaney about six weeks ago, and so far, it’s been going really great. It took a while for my mom to really settle, but having a set routine where she gets to spend time with people throughout the day—mostly Delaney, her nurse, and me, but Holds and Gav visit often to play board games—has been really good for her. It’s been good for me, too, truth be told. Having Delaney here, shouldering some of the responsibilities has helped my anxiety a lot. If something goes wrong or I’m having a bad day—or Mom is—I know that he’ll be there to help or even to simply hold me or be with me. Knowing that has made a world of difference.

Of course living together is taking some getting used to, and I know I’ve been driving him a little crazy with my inability to leave my keys and wallet in the same place every day, just like he’s driving me nuts by leaving his socks on the stairs. Like, why? If they’re on the stairs, he’s already making his way up the steps, so why not wait till you get to the hamper? But the good—like having my own muscly heater in bed or being able to snuggle in with him on the couch, not to mention the mind-blowing sex—outweigh the bad by a long shot, and I’m loving living here. He tells me daily that he loves it as well, and Mom is happy—thank god.

“Freckles, you have nothing to prove to anybody. Everyone that’s coming is family,” Delaney says, kissing the tip of my nose. “Even if everything goes wrong and all the food gets burnt or whatever, it’s not going to matter because we’ll still have a good time. And we can always order pizzas if we run out of food.”

My eyes widen. “Don’t jinx the burgers, D. I’ve been looking forward to them all week.”

He laughs and pulls me in to kiss me. “How could I forget? You only double-checked that I would use my recipe about a million times.”

“Mm. My mouth is already watering thinking about it.”

With a snort, he covers my lips with his, but we’re both smiling, so the kiss is pretty sloppy, not that I care because it’s him kissing me. He can kiss me however he wants, anytime, and I’ll be happy. He grabs my ass, pulling me in, and I have the urge to jump up into his arms, wrap my legs around him, and ground our hips together, but somehow I resist. If only because Mom’s right in the other room, and people will be here any minute. With monumental effort, I pull my hips back, break the kiss, and push away from him, trying to catch my breath. I point toward the back door and breathe out, “Go… check the grill.”

He grins, eyeing my obvious hard-on, before he winks and heads outside.

After adjusting myself, I carry a giant bowl of potato salad out, then head into the living room to check on Mom for the millionth time. “You doing okay, Ma?”

She grins up at me with a nod. “It smells good in here. What are you making?”

“I made a ton of food, and Delaney’s cooking out on the grill. Are you hungry now or do you want to wait until our friends get here?”

She waves me off. “I’m fine, sweetie.” She turns back to her puzzle, so I lean down to kiss the top of her head and walk back to the kitchen. I was a little worried about having people over for a cookout, even though it’s only our friends and not a huge party or anything, but Delaney and I talked about it—and we discussed it with my mom—and we all decided to give it a try. If Mom needs a break from people or if she seems agitated, her bedroom is all set up with a TV and everything.

A knock on the door has me changing course, and I open it, not even a little surprised that Holds and Jameson are the first ones here. “Hey, guys.”

They greet me, and Holds pulls me into a tight hug while Jameson fist-bumps me behind his boyfriend’s back, then walks off to find his dad after he drops a bowl of food on the table. Holds releases me and asks, “What do you need help with?”

“Um… I was about to finish putting the dip together, but I think everything else is done. Just need to bring out the rest of the stuff from the fridge.”

He nods and heads to the kitchen. “Okay, I can do that.”

Not bothering to argue—since I know I won’t win—I trail after him, asking, “Did you guys pick a date yet?” Holds and Jameson got engaged a couple of weeks ago, and I’m really happy for them. The look on Delaney’s face when they told him had been adorable. I wish I would’ve recorded it.

Holds sighs. “No. We know we want to wait until next summer so we have plenty of time to plan, but I think we’ll have to pick a venue and see what they have available. The first two places we tried didn’t have anything that works for us.”

“That sucks.”

He shrugs and offers a smile. “We’ll figure it out.” He peeks into the living room, then asks, “Is your mom having a good day?”

I nod. “So far, so good. I’m still worried it’ll be too much for her today.”

“I think she’ll be okay, but let me know if there’s anything I can do.”

“She’ll probably want you to play checkers or something at some point.”

Holds grins. “I can do that. She’s a mean checkers player.”

I laugh. “She totally is.”

As the rest of our friends and family arrive, I walk through the living room a million times to make sure my mom really is okay, and as I go to make another pass, I’m snagged around the waist and pulled back into a hard chest. I make an “oomph” sound, then mutter, “You’re so lucky I didn’t elbow you in the abs.”

Delaney chuckles and kisses my cheek as he settles against my back, then grabs a cold beer off the table and pushes it into my hand. “Your mom is fine, Freckles. You worrying over her is going to make her anxious. She’s met everyone here, multiple times, and she seems to be enjoying the attention.” He nods to her sitting on the couch, talking to Gavin, Chet, and Chet’s husband, all of them smiling.

I sag into my boyfriend and sigh. “You’re right. She looks happy.”

“I think she is happy.”

“Me too.”

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