Page 100 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?!
Because where there was one gnome, there were twenty—or more.
So I’d tell him tomorrow when we could do something about it. It was way too late to start a project that big right now, and honestly, the gnomes weren’t going to harm anything.
Unless Miles had a cursed object in the house, but the likelihood of that was nearly zero.
Right?
Right. Yes. No curses. Obviously.
Shaking my head at myself, I made my way back into the living room with the ketchup bottle in hand.
“Everything okay?” he asked, looking innocent and sexy and beautiful all at once.
I offered a smile. “Yeah… yeah, it is.”
Then I set the ketchup on the coffee table and bent down to kiss him before I sat down so I could dig in.
No more problems today.
Tonight was about Miles and me spending time together, worry-free. Hopefully, we could make out and joke around and have a nice, peaceful, faerie-free evening.
Together.
Chapter Thirty
Miles
After we finished eating, Winter pulled me into his side so we could curl up on the couch together. We were currently looking for something to watch, but I couldn’t pay much attention until I got something off my chest.
So I took a breath and finally said what I’d been wanting to say all night. “I know this is a million years too late, but… thank you for what you did for me in high school.”
He made a sort of disgusted face. “What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything.”
“After that day… after you stood up for me, whenever you were around, the bullies stayed away.”
He stared at me for a long time before saying, “So that means they still bothered you when I wasn’t around.” He said it like a statement, and I was grateful I didn’t really have to answer because who wanted to go down that road right now?
I shrugged and looked down, not really wanting to get into it. That had been a long time ago, but even after all these years, sometimes, it still hurt to think about. But I refused to let my past ruin our night together. Especially not when this charming and sexy man had his arms around me.
That thought made me realize there was still something else I wanted to bring up that might ruin this whole thing for us both. But I… I had to say it before this went any further.
“Winter?”
“Yeah, sweetheart?”
My belly swooped. No one had ever called me that—or any of the other nicknames he’d given me—before. Of course right now would be the time when he called me something romantic instead of something ridiculous.
I turned to face him and cleared my throat. “I know this might change things between us, and I’m really sorry about the timing. It’s just… well, I think I should ask you before we take this any further, just in case you change your mind.”
His brow furrowed, but he still brushed the hair off my forehead—I hadn’t gelled it after my shower, so it was a disaster, but he didn’t seem to mind.
He said, “I’m listening.”
I swallowed thickly. “I, um, I’d really love to hire you on permanently at Carry A Faerie. I’m not sure how much of a raise I can give you, but I’ll definitely pay you more than what you’re making now, and I have a good benefits package and everything. And while I’m obviously the owner, I’m kind of looking for a fieldpartner, so we could hopefully work together and do bigger jobs than what I’ve been doing alone. And the smaller things will take less time too, so I think it’ll be a good move all around. Of course, if you don’t want to, that’s totally okay. I promise I won’t be mad or anything. And this, uh, thing between us, is up to you how you want to move forward. There’s no pressure from me either way on anything, I swear. You can have the job whether you kiss me again or not, or you can kiss me even if you don’t take the job or—fuck, I don’t even know what I’m saying right now. I just—”
He cut me off with a kiss, sufficiently shutting me up, thank fuck.
The kiss lingered for only a moment, but I could feel his smiling lips against mine. When he pulled back, he said, “I’d love to come work for you, My-my. And I’d also love to keep kissing you, if that’s alright?”
