Aiden: Planning on it. Thank Hope again for me.

He felt Dakota’s arms go around his shoulders, and she came around to sit on his lap.

“All done?” he asked as he pushed a strand of her long hair behind her ear.

“Yes!”

“Did you find your Zen?”

“I did. You really should try it.”

“Sunshine, you had me practically wrapping my foot behind my head earlier. Take your win and don’t be greedy.”

“For the record, your foot was nowhere close to being behind your head—”

“Felt like it,” he grumbled.

“And, I’m going to keep bugging you to do yogaandmeditate because they’re good for you. If that makes me greedy, so be it.”

He massaged her tits over her sports bra. “Eating your pussy is like a form of meditation for me… does that count?”

“You’re impossible.”

“I know.” He wasn’t even the littlest bit sorry. “We have a reservation at The Dragonfly Inn, so go pack a bag.”

Her eyes lit up. “Oh, they had an opening?”

“Yes. And the weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow, so we can go look at the leaves. I thought it’d be better if we just went exploring on our own, that way we’re not on someone else’s timetable.”

And we can sneak off to fornicate whenever we want.

“Give me fifteen minutes,” she said as she slid off his lap and started toward the doorway.

“We’re not in a rush, baby. Take your time.”

She didn’t respond, and he heard her racing up the stairs.

Barney lifted his head off his pillow, like he was debating whether to follow her. He must have decided Aiden needed to be supervised downstairs, because he put his head back down and fought to keep his eyes open.

Soon, the pup was snoring, and Aiden couldn’t help but chuckle.

Dakota appeared twenty minutes later in a pair of yoga pants, a grey Boston College sweatshirt, and a pair of bright white tennis shoes. Her hair was damp and pulled back from her face with one of her paisley headbands, and the only makeup she was wearing seemed to be her usual lip gloss and mascara.

She set a red leather weekender bag down by the front door and turned to him with a bright smile. “Are you ready?”

“Do we need to take Barney to Chloe’s?”

Aiden hoped so. He wanted another chance to get to know her family.

“No, I already texted her. She’ll come by after they’ve had breakfast and cleaned up.”

“Oh. Well, maybe I can meet her again when we get back.”

“Aiden…” her tone carried a warning. “We already talked about this. It’s too soon.”

He wasn’t going to let that bother him. “Who knows,” he said as he picked up her bag and opened the front door for her. “Maybe you’ll change your mind after this weekend.”

“Maybe. It’s doubtful, but you never know.”