Page 113 of You, with a View

But our amusement is short-lived. He cups my jaw, his fingers fanning over my cheek to bring me to him. His touch ignites me, and this close, he can see it. His mouth curls up right before it brushes against mine.

I let out a quiet, needy sound, fisting his shirt in my hands. He sighs out my name, kisses me softly once and then again. I push in closer, but he keeps it light. Patient.

“Hi,” he murmurs against my mouth.

“Hi,” I manage to get out.

“Today went well?”

My eyes fill. Of course he’d ask about that. “Yes, it was amazing.”

I get his dimple, a brilliant, proud smile. “I knew it would be.”

“It makes it more real now that I’ve told you.” A tear starts to fall down my cheek, but Theo’s there to catch it.

“I’m about to know the feeling,” he says with a private smile I wonder at. But he just kisses me again, lingering like he wants to make sure this is real. “Let’s go talk.”

Leaving my luggage at the door, he leads us to the couch, setting down a bag I didn’t notice before.

“How are you feeling about work?” I ask.

He slides me a look and pulls out a folder, then circles my wrist to pull me down onto the couch.

“It’s a lot, but I’ll be fine,” he says. “I had an oddly civil talk with Anton and Matias and a rough one with my dad.”

“What happened?”

“I told him about the trip Granddad and I took with you. He wasn’t thrilled about our family business being splashed all over the internet.” I grimace, but Theo just shakes his head, looking surprisingly unruffled about it. “I knew he’d hate it. ButIdidn’t.Those two weeks meant everything to me—and to Granddad—and that matters.”

My heart squeezes at the steel in his voice.

“Anyway, he moved on from that to focus on what happened with my job. He’s having a harder time letting go of the dream than I did, but I told him he has to. I’m not going to talk to him until he does. His voice can’t be louder than mine in my own head, you know?” His gaze locks with mine. “And I’ve got people in my corner who’ll help drown it out, anyway.”

I scoot closer to him, my chest tight. It’s a massive step, and I can see in his eyes that he knows it, that some weight has been lifted by finally erecting that boundary. “I’m so proud of you.”

“You didn’t say that like you were about to throw up like last time,” he says, grinning. “Progress.”

I roll my watery eyes, then appraise him, letting my gaze run over his face. “You’re really okay?”

His voice is pitched equally low when he says, “Better now.”

We get caught in an extended moment that weaves between us, a thread added to all the ones we’ve made these past weeks. Invisible. Unbreakable.

There’s so much more I want to hear, though, so I nudge us out of the moment, running my hand up his thigh. My fingers brush against the folder in his lap. “Tell me what you’ve been doing with all your newfound freedom.”

“I, ah,” he starts, scrubbing a hand over his jaw with reluctant amusement, “I actually spent yesterday trying to figure out how to make a TikTok.”

My eyes widen. “What? Why?”

“I wanted to make one for you.” His expression turns self-conscious. “It’s harder than it looks to make something as good as yours, so I eventually gave up and moved to plan B.”

“What’s plan B? Actually, I’m not even sure I understand plan A.”

He laughs softly. “Plan A was a video where I basically laid my heart on the line. Plan B is the same, but hopefully with less trolls in the comment section.”

My throat is so tight, my heart so impossibly full. “No promises.”

Theo grins, a hopeful thing that quickly dissolves into a gentle curl. “I went to see Granddad on Wednesday. Well, you saw me, so you know.”

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