Two Months Later

I was running late for dinner at Mason’s house, but work was crazy. The guy I had been tattooing was not prepared for the commitment he was making when he asked for a full sleeve, and I dreaded having to listen to him bitch through the whole thing during his next session.

I had tattooed eighteen-year-old girls who had handled it better.

He caused me to have a damn headache.

“I’m here. I’m here,” I yelled through the house as I threw my bag down on the table in the living room and moved toward the kitchen.

I almost tripped when I saw the kitchen covered in yellow daisies. My favorite, yellow daisies.

“What’s going on?” I looked at Mason who was leaning against the kitchen counter with a smile on his face.

“Do you like it here?” He didn’t move an inch from where he stood.

“What?” I was so confused.

“Do you like it here? My house? Do you feel at home here?”

I looked around at his house, a house that I had been spending more nights at than my own apartment and turned back to him.

“Of course, I do.”

“But do you really feel at home here?” He took a step toward me and my breath caught in my throat.

“Yes.” I touched one of the yellow daisies. “Why are you asking me that?”

“Because.” He moved another step closer to me and wrapped his arms around my center. “I think it’s time that you start living with both feet on the ground.”

I didn’t know what to say to him. I didn’t know what he was asking of me.

“My house.” He motioned around him. “This place. It means nothing without you. It doesn’t feel like a home without you.” He ran his fingers along my cheek. “I know that it takes a lot for you to trust, but I want you to put your trust in me. I want you to trust that I will always put you first and I will always take care of you. I want you to trust that as long as you’re willing to take a chance on me, I will want you.”

“I do.” I could barely get out the words.

“Then move in with me.”

It may not have seemed like much to some, but it was everything to me. It was everything that he knew what it meant to me. It had been so long since I had truly felt at home, and he was right. It didn’t matter where we were. I wouldn’t feel at home anywhere without him. He had become my home. My safe place.

“Are you sure?” I didn’t want to push him into anything. I didn’t want him to feel like he had to do this.

“I’ve never been more sure about anything.” He pushed a piece of hair out of my face, and I rose on my tiptoes to press my mouth to his.

My hands roamed over his beard, and I kissed him hard.

“Is that a yes?” He mumbled against my lips.

I laughed and nodded over and over again as he slid his arms around me and lifted me off the ground.

“Finn’s excited.”

“He is?” I looked out the window toward his house.

“Yeah. He told me that he could definitely get you to be his girlfriend now that you were his neighbor.”

“And what did you tell him?” I ran her fingers over the back of my neck as he looked down at me.

“I told him that if he wanted to stay best friends, then he needed to back off my girl.”

I pressed my lips together to stop my laughter.

“That little shit told me that he could find more best friends, but he’d never find another girl like you.”

I couldn’t control my laughter then, and Mason pinched my side which only made me laugh harder.

I watched his eyes dance with humor before he started carrying me toward the bedroom. Our bedroom.

“It looks like I taught him something right after all.”

He smiled then leaned down and pressed his lips against mine.

He tossed me onto the bed, and I laughed as I looked at the man that I loved.

And I knew that I could read every romance novel that lined the walls of my apartment, but nothing would ever compare to this.

Because Mason Connor had somehow surpassed every single one of my book boyfriends.