Page 118 of Always Yours

“Hell, I was going to say Phillip,” Erik retorts, and that has everyone laughing. I haven’t gotten to meet the rest of Dimitri’s family, but I’m sure if they’re anything like this family, I’ll enjoy them. It’s been a great time, and while Katarina obviously doesn’t want to be here, I don’t hold it against her. I’m sure she’ll warm up as time passes. Though, Dimitri doesn’t seem convinced.

When we’re done with dinner, I help clean up before starting the dishes.

“Oh, Austen, you don’t have to do that. Katarina can.”

“I don’t mind,” I say with a smile. “I want to. Dinner was spectacular.”

“Thank you,” Piper says with a wide smile. “I hear you’re quite the baker. Dimitri brought me over some of those Kartoshka cookie pops you made. They were delightful.”

“Thanks. I enjoy baking.”

“I ate them all, which is why Flynn is faster than me,” Dimitri says, wrapping his arms around my waist and tucking his head in the crook of my neck and shoulder. It’s hard to wash dishes like this, but I won’t ask him to move. I crave his touch.

“You’re super-hot doing dishes.”

I laugh. “Don’t get used to it. If I cook, you wash.”

“But I don’t cook.”

“Which is why you wash,” I remind him, and he smiles against my jaw.

He kisses me there and then says, “I love you.”

I turn my head to meet his lips. Against them, I say, “I love you.”

“How’s apartment hunting going?” his mom asks, and I meet her gaze.

“Okay. We’ve looked at few.”

“We’re thinking of renting a house,” Dimitri says, and his mom nods. He then turns his lips to my ear and whispers, “So no one can hear you when I make you scream.”

I press my lips together and elbow him in the gut. He laughs hard, kissing my cheek.

“A house would be hard to maintain, especially with the season starting. I’d do an apartment,” his dad says, and I agree.

“That’s what I said, but then I said we should just rent the apartment we have now from Elli.”

Piper agrees. “I think that’s a great idea.”

Dimitri squeezes me. “It does hold all my favorite memories.” He isn’t wrong, and I can’t help the grin that fills my face. I look up at him, and he kisses my nose. “We’ll figure it out,” he promises, and I kiss his jaw. Then without warning, he says, “I gotta go talk to my mom. I’ll be back.”

“Okay,” I say before he kisses me once more and walks away. I miss his warmth, but I know I’ll be done faster now without his distracting self.

I don’t realize I’m not alone until Erik says, “Can I ask you something, Austen?”

I jump in surprise, and his laughter reminds me so much of Dimitri’s. My heart flutters. “Didn’t know you were still in here.”

“Sorry.”

“But yes, please do.”

I feel his gaze on me as he leans against the counter. “Do you regret not going forward with the GM position for your grandpa?”

I’m unsure what brought this up, but it’s not a hard answer. “Not at all. I do enjoy what I am doing.”

“But you would have had a team.”

“But I wouldn’t have had Dimitri.” Dimitri’s father seems to absorb my words. “I wasn’t going to let him give up his career. He worked too hard for it, and I really didn’t care one way or another about being a GM. It wasn’t like I was driven to do it or anything. I did it because my peepaw wanted me to and thought I’d be good at it.”

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