Page 90 of The Invitation
He shrugs.
I stare into his blue eyes and see my reflection in them. They’re clear and honest and fill me with a peace that I’ve been searching for my whole life.Who would’ve thought I would find it here?
“Honestly, I don’t know what I want either. I think we both need a little time to clear our heads and be sure about things.” I groan. “And I need to deal with my mother.”
The thought of telling her about Ripley makes my stomach hurl. She’s not going to take it well. At all.
“I would never want to come between you and your mom,” he says, brushing my hair out of my face. “Family’s everything to me. You know that.”
I nod. “All of that being said, today has been pretty eye-opening and I’ve already decided what I want our next date to be.”
He smiles. “What’s that?”
“I want to meet Waffles. And we probably need to do it soon since we didn’t get any footage today.”
His head falls back, and he laughs. “I much prefer the footage that’s in my head from today than I would have the footage we would’ve captured on top of the mountain.”
“Yeah, well, same.”
I thread our fingers together and hold our joined hands between us.
“So what do you say?” I ask. “Can I meet Waffles?”
“You can absolutely meet Waffles. He’ll like you. You have a lot in common.”
“Really?”
“You’re both adorable.”
I kiss him.
“And a little mean.”
I laugh but kiss him again.
“It’s impossible to stop both of you once you get going, although he does listen a bit better than you,” he says, laughing as I gasp. “And you’re both very food motivated.”
I smack him, making him laugh harder.
“I’m going to get a dog just like you and name him Pancakes,” I say, grinning at Ripley’s amusement.
“Oh, really? What’s he going to be like?”
“Very handsome.” I run my fingers through his hair. “Loyal, almost to a fault.”
Ripley’s smile softens.
“He’ll be cocky to hide the fact that he has insecurities—which I won’t hold against him,” I say. “And I think we’ll have potential to share a very loving, fun, and probably argumentative at the time, but it’ll be okay because that’s who we are relationship.”
Ripley wraps his arms around my waist. I pull his head against my chest and hold him tight. It feels so … right.
“The rain has stopped,” I say, noticing the sun peeking through the clouds.
He pulls back and looks up at me. “So we’re friends now?”
“No. We’re friends with benefits.”
“I better be the only friend getting those benefits.”
