Page 162 of The Husband Game

“Good thing you loved me,” Theo said, kissing his wife on the cheek.

She smiled. “Good thing I still do.”

“Forty years and still going strong!”

Dustin let out a little huff in his parents’ general direction. “I was trying to be a good husband here!”

“I know.” Charlie went up on his toes and kissed Dustin’s cheek. “And I do appreciate the apology. It just feels weird to have you go all formal on me.”

Dustin gave him a lopsided grin. “Noted.”

Meredith smiled. “I think checking in with your partner takes a while to learn and, really, there are always a few bumps like that in your first year of marriage. Even when you have a longer engagement.”

Charlie gave her an awkward smile. “Instead of our uh, whirlwind Vegas marriage with less than an hour between the proposal and the ceremony?”

She laughed. “When it’s right, it’s right. But maybe next summer, you two can have a one-year anniversary celebration your families can actually attend.”

Charlie had no idea how to reply to that since talking about his family was a whole-ass minefield and he had no idea if he and Dustin would still be together in a year.

Charlie wanted it. He was sure of that now. Sure that this relationship was the best thing that had ever landed in his lap. Sure that he couldn’t just walk away from Dustin at the end of the year without a fight.

But they hadn’t talked about it since the beginning and Charlie had no idea how to bring that up to Dustin.

It felt like Dustin loved him and well, he absolutely cared about Dustin too but actually putting himself out there and telling Dustin how he felt and what he wanted was not something he was ready for.

Charlie got a little lightheaded at the thought and maybe he swayed, because Dustin wrapped an arm around his waist, pulling him against his body.

“Sounds good to me. Charlie and I will talk about that when it gets closer.”

And Charlie almost sighed with relief because Dustin was so good at navigating that sort of thing.

Somehow, despite all of the thoughts whirling around in his head, Charlie managed to carry on a perfectly normal conversation with Dustin’s parents about his work and the remodeling they were doing on the house.

Meredith beamed. “Oh thank goodness. I told Dustin if he didn’t hire someone to do something to that dreadful place, I was going to move in and take care of it myself.”

Charlie laughed. “Are you an interior designer?”

“Oh God no.” She gave him a grin. “I have none of the talent you do, just an overabundance of home dec magazine subscriptions. I couldn’t have done that place justice at all. I just got tired of looking at all of that cold white tile and that weird terrarium space by the pool.”

Charlie laughed, glad they were finding some common ground. “Maybe sometime I can show you the plans. And hopefully the kitchen will be done soon. We’re supposed to have the team over for American Thanksgiving and I am crossing my fingers we’ll be done in time. We wound up having to do Canadian Thanksgiving at Matty’s house because there was no way we could manage it at our place.”

“Let me know if you’d ever like tips on hosting a team,” Meredith said. “I have plenty of experience at that. Not that Dustin doesn’t as well but … the demands of the season means it does tend to fall more on the partner not playing hockey.”

“That’s true and, honestly, I’d love your help,” Charlie said and he meant every word of it. “Although, I want to give Dustin a lot of credit. I got busy with work recently and he pulled together an amazing dinner party with Jordan and his girlfriend Natasha with the help of the team chef.”

“Well, color me impressed,” Meredith said, smiling at her son.

Theo cleared his throat. “So, Charlie, I loved the design you did in the condo on Lake Shore Drive last winter.”

Charlie blinked, surprised. “Oh, I … in the twin residential towers designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe?”

“Yeah, it’s a great mid-century building and I thought your design for that condo remodel had some nice nods to the history,” Theo said earnestly.

He seemed a little awkward, like this was a conversation he’d planned out ahead of time and had made little notes about talking points he wanted to hit.

Charlie was touched Theo cared so much about connecting with him.

“Wow. Well, thank you. It wasn’t all me though,” Charlie admitted. “I was still interning at that point so I helped but I wasn’t the main designer.”

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