As he poured the pile of onion and garlic into the pot and shifted me out of the way so he could stir, I leaned against the counter and watched him. He had a funny look on his face, as though he was doing his best to contain something he didn’t want to make a big deal out of.

“How are you doing with Hunter being out of the house?” I asked, and he shot a look at me and shrugged.

“Is it that obvious?” He made a face. “It’s weird, you know. I haven’t had him out of the house like this, not with people I don’t know, in the whole time he’s been alive.”

“Well, I know Jason’s parents pretty well,” I assured him. “And they’re good people. A little kooky but harmless, and they adore their son, and they’ll be working their asses off to make sure Hunter has a good time tonight.”

“I’m still going to pick him up first thing tomorrow morning, though.”

“Yeah, you’ll be there at the break of dawn, leaning on the horn,” I teased, and he grinned and shook his head.

“Thanks for coming over tonight,” he told me. “I could use the company. To get me out of my head, you know.”

“And to spend the night with your beautiful, charming lady of choice?” I reminded him.

“But of course,” he agreed, and I shifted back along the floor so I could stand next to him again. I was feeling so fluttery in my chest like a thousand butterflies had sprung to life as soon as I’d walked in here.

“How long till dinner?” I asked him. My stomach was starting to grumble, and whatever he was cooking smelled so delicious.

“Not long,” he promised me. “Fifteen minutes at the most?”

“Perfect.” I loved watching him make dinner. There was something underrated and sexy about watching a man who could cook work his magic in the kitchen. He had to have such confidence, such sureness in what he was doing, and I found myself watching Holden’s hands intently as he went about his business.

He finished cooking and served up the meal, taking us to the small dining table in the living room. I grabbed our wine and followed him, and he laid out the food for us, taking his seat opposite me. I could still see the Hunter thing was weighing on him, the way his eyes darted around as though he was looking for someone he knew wasn’t going to be there, and I reached across the table and patted his hand.

“Hey,” I told him gently. “He’s going to be fine. Really. You can always give them a call if you want to check in.”

“Is it that obvious?” He grinned at me, a little ruefully, and I cocked my head at him.

“Hey, he’s your son,” I pointed out. “I think it would be a little weird if you were totally fine with him skipping off and spending the night with someone you don’t know.”

“Don’t put it like that.” He lifted his hand. “Or else I’ll go down there and pick him up right now.”

“Hey. And leave me here all by myself?”

“Who knows what kind of mischief you’d get up to?” He managed to smile, and he took a sip of his wine.

“This smells awesome,” I told him as I went to tuck into the food. “Thank you for this.”

“Thanks for coming,” he replied, and he touched his glass to mine.

And with that, he seemed to relax a little bit. I knew it was hard for parents to send their kids off like that, and especially so for someone like Holden who was the only caretaker Hunter had ever known. It was natural for him to be feeling a little out-of-sorts, wondering if he’d made the right choice in sending him away. But he unwound as the evening went on, and we made it through a bottle of wine together, chatting about my work friends and the gossip from our separate friend groups. The conversation flowed so easily that I barely even noticed the time passing, the sun dipping in the sky until it was dark outside, and I could convince myself we were the only two people left in the world.

“I have something to show you.” Holden got to his feet when we were done.

“If it’s another glass of wine, I think I’m good.” I held my hand up, but he shook his head

“Trust me, it’s better than that,” he replied, and he took my hand and tugged me to my feet. When he led me upstairs, for a moment I thought he was about to launch some kind of seduction on me, but he took me in the direction of his office at the last minute instead of the bedroom. Which was a relief because I was full of pasta and wasn’t sure I could have handled anything other than cuddling at that moment.

“Look, if you want help with your programming, I’m probably going to come up a little short,” I warned him. “I can just about do enough to teach the kids some basics, but other than that—”

“No, I don’t need your help with the programming.” He guided me into the seat in front of his computer. I leaned back against the leather and looked up at him.

“I think I’ve finally finished putting together that program for the grade curves.” He grinned at me. “You remember? You were telling me what a pain in the ass it was for you to have to put out all that time and effort for them?”

“Holy shit, I can’t believe you finished it,” I exclaimed. “I didn’t think it would be done so soon.”

“I’ve put some of my other work on hold for the time being.” He shrugged. “I wanted to get this done.”

“You didn’t have to.” I smiled at him. “But if this works, you’ve made the lives of every teacher in the county a million times less irritating.”

“Well, then, I totally had to do it.” He booted up the computer and clicked on the program icon. He pulled it up, and I squinted at the screen. It looked like a bunch of boxes to me, and I wasn’t sure what to do to get it to function.

“So how does it work?” I asked, looking up at him hopefully.

“You just have to input the numbers here.” He highlighted one column with the cursor. “And then you press calculate there.”

I put in a selection of numbers, remembering what I could from the grade curves I’d been trying to make all this time, and clicked the calculate button. In a moment, a beautiful graph popped up, the numbers plotted out carefully onto it. My eyes widened.

“Oh, Holy shit, it works!” I exclaimed, peering closer to make sure the numbers were where they all should be. “And how many numbers can it take at a time?”

“As many as you need,” he replied, and I could tell he was trying to play it modest but was secretly pleased with my reaction.

“Honestly, you have no idea how handy this is going to be,” I told him excitedly. “Wait till I tell everyone at work about it. Zoe’s going to be pumped.”

“I’m glad it’s working,” he said. “I still want to do a few more tweaks to make it more user-friendly, but I think this is a good jumping-off point—”

“It’s perfect,” I replied, and I leaned up to plant a kiss on his lips like I was giving my handsome knight a token for his efforts.

“Good.” He grinned and caught my head in his hands to kiss me again, harder this time, a teasing little moment that made my heart pulse with excitement in my chest. He pulled back, and I stood up again.

“I think that’s enough computer programming for tonight,” he murmured, taking my hand and leading me back downstairs.

We curled up on the couch together, and I nestled into his chest, feeling sleepy and happy and a little tipsy. I loved these quiet little moments we spent together. They were the ones I came back to when I needed a boost, when I wanted to let myself revel in a little pop of happiness when I was having a hard day. He stroked my hair gently back from my face, and I laid my head on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart beneath my cheek.

“You didn’t have to go to all that trouble for me,” I told him. “With the program, I mean.”

“Well, it seemed like a gap in the market, and I had to take it,” he replied, and I could tell he was holding something back. I lifted my head to look him in the eyes, and he shrugged and smiled.

“And I wanted to do something nice for you,” he admitted, brushing his fingers over my mouth for a brief second. He paused, took a deep breath, and then continued.

“I don’t think… I don’t think what I feel for you is something I can put into words right now,” he confessed. “I haven’t felt this way about anyone in a long time, Autumn, not for years. Doing this for you—well, it’s some way I can show you how important you are to me. I know things were weird starting out, but I wanted more from the beginning. And now we have it…”

He trailed off once more, and he was looking at me so intently, I nearly let the words slip out of my mouth. They hadn’t occurred to me until that moment, the big I love you, but the way he was looking at me, the things he was saying, they only had one real end. I caught my breath and drew my gaze away from him, cooling myself off. It wasn’t the time. Not quite yet. We hadn’t been together long enough, and besides, it seemed as though he was still getting his head around actually having feelings for someone.

“I know exactly what you mean,” I murmured, and I nestled back into his chest, noticing that his heart was beating a little faster than before. I knew that had been his way of telling me he loved me, the closest he could get to those words for the time being. And I smiled, inhaling his scent, as he wrapped his arms tightly around me. We were both barreling toward admitting how we felt for one another once and for all. And I was okay letting him take his time to get there. He had been through a lot the last ten years, and it made perfect sense that he wouldn’t be forthcoming with those words. But he was showing me they were true, every way he knew how. That made me happier than I could ever imagine.

We lay there together, holding each other, the words unspoken but solid in my mind. I felt so safe in his arms, so safe in his affections, so sure we were doing the right thing by sticking this out. As the light dimmed outside, my eyes grew heavy, and I fell asleep, warm and comfortable, on his chest.