Page 106 of Faking It With My Pucking Protector
I don’t remember closing the distance—just her hands sliding up my chest and her mouth finding mine. The kiss is soft at first, then deeper, all that time apart falling away.
I lift her, and she laughs as I carry her up the stairs. In my room, I set her down and we pause, foreheads touching.
“I’ve got you,” I murmur into her hair.
“I know.”
I kiss her again—unhurried—and nudge the door closed. The rest of the night is warm skin and quiet yeses, the kind of night that feels like coming back to something I didn’t know I’d lost.
Feels so damn good to be home.
By the time the sun rises, I’m already up and moving.
Ava’s still asleep, her dark hair spilling across the pillow, her body curled on her side. I don’t wake her. She’s been running herself ragged with gala prep, and she needs the rest.
Practice goes by in a blur. Even with Game 5 tonight, my head’s somewhere else.
Back home. Back with her.
By the time I get home, the boys are already back from school, backpacks dumped by the door and snack wrappers strewn across the counter like confetti.
Ava’s sitting cross-legged in the living room with Liam, helping him with a craft project, while Noah runs in circles wearing a cardboard crown.
It’s chaotic, loud, familiar. And somehow, even better than I remembered.
Ava glances up when I walk in, and her smile hits me straight in the chest—that easy, unguarded kind that says she’s glad I’m here. I drop my bag near the door and step into the living room as she reaches across Liam to help with a glue stick.
She meets my gaze again, then glances at the boys before looking back at me—gives a subtle tilt of her head, a look that says,let’s do this.
It’s time.
I clear my throat lightly and move toward the couch, nudging a few snack crumbs aside as I sit. “Hey,” I say, glancing between the boys. “Can you guys come sit here in the living room for a second?”
Liam pauses, looking up from his construction paper. “Are we in trouble?”
“No,” Ava says gently, patting the seat beside her. “Not at all.”
Noah flops down immediately, still wearing his crown. Liam follows, crawling up beside me. We’re all crowded together now—elbows brushing, knees knocking, energy still buzzing from the school day.
I rest a hand on each of their small backs. “There’s something Ava and I want to tell you.”
They go still. Curious.
“You know how Ava’s been staying here?” I begin.
They nod fast.
“Well… there’s something else. Something important.”
Ava leans in, voice warm but steady. “You know how sometimes people start out as friends…”
“And then sometimes those friends care about each other a little more,” I add, keeping my tone light but sure.
Noah’s brow furrows. “Like boyfriend and girlfriend?”
Ava smiles gently. “Exactly like that.”
Liam looks from her to me, then back again. “You’re Ava’s boyfriend?”
