Page 45 of Brighter than the Boss
"Got any vacation time?"
"Huh?"
I twisted around until I was face-to-face with him. "I want you to come with me. Let's go visit my parents."
His eyebrows nearly flew up into his hairline. "Your parents? Oh, babe, I don't know. That's a pretty big deal. And it's not like I don't want to do that, I just think maybe we need some more time."
I shook my head firmly. "No, I think it's exactly the right time. I'm not suggesting meeting my parents because of where we are in our relationship, I'm just absolutely certain that you need to meet and spend time with my parents foryou. If anyone can make you see your worth, it would be my mom and dad."
The Grand Canyon had nothing on the furrows in Cain's forehead at the moment, but I pressed on. "I think you need to heal yourself before anything between us can progress. I don't mean that in a finger-pointing-ultimatum kind of way. I simply mean that Iwantthings to progress, so let's do all we can to heal that hurt I know you still carry. Will you let me help you?"
Cain slumped back onto the bed, his arms loosening their hold around my body. He stared up at the ceiling and I lay there, frozen, fearing his answer. If he didn't want to work on his issues, I couldn't force him. He'd have to want it too.
And if he didn't?
There couldn't really be much of an “us.” And that would be devastating.
After several long moments of tense silence, his gaze came back to mine and I forced myself to breathe.
"I promised you I'd do whatever I had to to become the man you deserved. So, yes, let's go visit your parents. For me and for you. I know you really want to see your mom."
My heart soared, more bricks fell, and my ribs ached with all the pride I felt for this gorgeous, tortured man. I rolled on top of him, watching his hesitant smile turn into the heated look I'd already come to crave.
My hair dragged long his torso as I traveled south.
"I feel like celebrating," I whispered against his firm stomach.
"Oh yeah?" His muscles jumped as I grazed my lips down further.
"Are you too tired?" I knew he wasn't. The proof was poking me in the neck.
"Yes. I'm too tired to take advantage of my hot girlfriend," he deadpanned. Then he reached down and hauled me up, tossing me down onto the bed. He crawled between my legs and proceeded to show me exactly how not tired he was.
22
Cain
The past two weeks had been long and crazy. At work, I was involved in all kinds of extra meetings following the tsunami, assessing whether our evacuation plan had worked well (it had), where we could improve (a whole long list of action items), and assisting with repair damage done to the beach.
On a personal level, Sunny and I were better than ever. We'd made arrangements at work for her to report to Ivan, meaning we could be open about our relationship with our colleagues. We'd booked flights go visit her parents, which I'm not going to lie, was weighing heavily on my mind. I'd had a brief phone conversation with her father one night as I sat on the couch with Sunny and he seemed nice enough, if a little protective of her, which I totally understood.
My hesitation lay in the fact that I was smack-dab in the middle of a relationship that I'd never envisioned for myself. In fact, I'd purposely avoided any kind of entanglements in the past, believing it was the best route for a guy like me. What I now realized was that route was actually the safest, but most lonely. And for the first time since I was a young kid, I actually felt the loneliness. Opening up my heart to Sunny meant opening up my heart to all the other emotions I'd kept buried over the years.
And I was opening myself up to Sunny more and more every single day and that was stretching me plenty. Add in opening up to her parents and I didn't know if I could do it. But I'd promised her my best, so every day, I repeated that promise to myself. I'd never considered myself a coward, but this whole situation was testing that belief, and reaching for a glass of whiskey every night wasn't a solution I cared to continue.
So, I was going to suck it up and deal with her parents head on.
That was why, when our plane landed and we walked out to the baggage claim area, I held back and let Sunny and her father hug while I discretely rubbed my suddenly sweaty hand against my leg. When they broke apart, I immediately reached out to shake Sunny's dad's hand.
"Mr. Miller. Lovely to meet you, sir."
He shook my hand, his grip firm, but friendly. "It's John, and it's nice to meet you too, Cain. I intend to get to know you quite well over the next two days." He had solid gray hair and wore jeans and a faded green t-shirt. He looked fit for his age, and I knew from Sunny that he worked hard around their property to keep in shape since he retired.
I swallowed and nodded. "Sounds good to me."
Scratching and yipping interrupted my lie and all heads turned to the crate I still carried in my left hand.
"Where's my Chili Dog?" John cooed as he bent down to get a good look at the Yorkie we'd flown across half the country with. Chili started panting, trying to get to him, obviously more friendly with him than me. I'd been bringing home treats almost every night, but he merely gave me plenty of space as thanks. We tolerated each other for Sunny's sake, let's put it that way.
