I pulled into the parking lot of the school and drummed my fingers on the wheel. There was a big-ass smile on my face, and there was a damn good reason for that. Today couldn’t have gone much better if I’d been outright trying to make it perfect, and I still had dinner with Autumn before the day was out.

Hunter was down at Raymond’s, and Autumn had asked me to give her an hour after classes finished to make sure she had time to sort everything out before the weekend. I assumed she would have to speak to the administrators at the school after what had happened. I hadn’t heard anything from her, so I was sincerely hoping that whatever happened, they had landed firmly on her side of the matter. I would be more than happy to step up and fight in her corner if I needed to, though I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

Autumn practically skipped out of the school toward me, wearing the very same dress I had purchased for her while she had been in Vegas. If anything, she looked even more beautiful in it now than she had then, my beautiful girlfriend, the woman I still had no idea what I had done to deserve.

“Well, good evening, good sir.” She slipped into the car next to me and gave me a kiss. “And where might we be off to this fine evening?”

“There’s a new Italian place not far from my house,” I told her. ”Thought we could use something hearty to earn back some energy from the last few days, don’t you think?”

“I totally agree.” She nodded with certainty. “Drive on.”

The place was smaller than I had imagined it would be when we arrived, but I liked it well enough. In fact, the quietness felt intimate, allowed me a closeness with Autumn that I had been craving all week. I pulled out her chair for her, and she took her seat, grinning up at me as she did so.

“You remember our first date?” she asked. “When they set us up together?”

“I wouldn’t exactly call that a date,” I pointed out, chuckling. “You were pretty horrified to see me, as I remember.”

“Hey, and you weren’t much better,” she shot back. “I was surprised you didn’t get the fuck up and walk out of there as soon as you saw it was me.”

“Trust me, I thought about it,” I replied, and she giggled.

“Considering it again today?”

“Not so much.” I leaned across the table to steal a brief kiss. We ordered—pasta for both of us, wine for her, and water for me—and she cocked her head at me across the table.

“I guess we have to get it out of the way.” She made a face. “What’s going on with Karla?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, do we have to worry about her anymore?” she asked, shaking her head. “I was on edge all day at school thinking we were going to see her again, but she didn’t turn up, so I assumed…”

“You’re okay,” I promised her gently. “I know it’s scary, but she’s dealt with.”

“Like how?”

“It turns out the cops had her on hold for a few different crimes out of the state.” I raised my eyebrows. “Fraud mostly. Which explains why she didn’t follow through on taking me to court, even after what she said. But they have her now, got her when they brought her in for questioning, so you have nothing to worry about.”

“Thank goodness,” she said with a sigh, planting her hand on her chest. “Well, the stuff with the school turned out all right as well. When I explained to them what was going on, they seemed to come around to my side pretty quickly, which was a relief.”

“So you’re not going to lose your job?”

“No, looks like I’ll hang on to it yet.” She grinned, lifting her glass to me. “Toast to that?”

“Toast to it indeed.” I touched my water to her wine.

“So what happens now?” she asked me, her voice tinged with nervousness.

“In what sense?” I asked, and she cocked her head at me.

“You know, now that Karla is out of the picture, but Hunter knows about her. What happens now?”

“I honestly have no idea.” I shook my head and half-snorted with amusement at my own inability to answer that question. “I never planned for something like this. I never thought I would meet anyone who made me feel the way you do. I never thought I would find a person who… I never thought there would be anyone but me I trusted with Hunter, you know?”

“Oh, trust me, I get it.” She raised her hands. “I didn’t expect to slide into your lives like that. I know it’s going to take time, even after everything that’s happened.”

“Hunter chose you,” I reminded her simply. “It might be hard for you to accept, but it’s true. He wanted you. More than her. Even when he had Karla right in front of him, you were the only one he gave a damn about. And that’s…”

I didn’t know quite how to put it into words. How could I? I wanted to tell her she had changed everything—not only for me but for my son, for our family. Until a few months ago, I could never have imagined embracing a true family like this, but here she was, reminding me every day that there was hope for me, that I wasn’t as shut off as I had always imagined. All the sadness and solitude in my soul seemed to have fallen away as soon as I kissed her for the first time, and, as long as she stuck around, I couldn’t see it returning.

“That’s all that matters,” I told her at last. “That you’re here, that you’re with us. We want you around as long as you’ll have the both of us.”

“Hmm.” She tapped her finger against her bottom lip playfully. “I’ll have to see if I have room in my schedule for you among all my other lovers.”

“We’d appreciate that,” I replied as the waiter turned up with our food. She beamed at me across the table as the two of us tucked in and shared the stories about our days and our work. Of course, there was a little surprise I had up my sleeve for her with regard to the work side of things, but she didn’t need to hear about that yet.

The food was good, fresh and authentic, and I joked about flying her out to Italy one day to try the real thing in person. She had never traveled to Europe before, and I instantly made a mental note of it in my head so I could whisk her off on some adventure, all three of us, perhaps over the summer break. I could bring my work with me while Autumn and Hunter explored Italy and ate all the food they could get their hands on. It would be utterly perfect.

“Mmm, that was amazing.” Autumn leaned back from the table and closed her eyes, and I watched her with a smile. I loved how peaceful she looked after she’d eaten, how much she seemed to genuinely enjoy the food we shared together. There was so much I loved about her, so much that looking at her filled my heart with joy. The warmth, her kindness, her patience that she had shown with Hunter and me, those were what made her who she was. I was proud to be with her.

We finished up—she reached for her wallet, but I tapped her hand away and insisted on covering the meal myself—and we slipped away to the car to drive back to my place.

“We have the whole evening to ourselves,” she said, letting her teeth rest on her bottom lip as though she was already anticipating how much fun it was going to be.

“Why do you think we skipped dessert?”

“Oh, there I was thinking you were a cheapskate,” she teased, and I reached over to squeeze her knee, letting her know what was in store for the two of us. I wanted to affirm my love for her every way I knew how, including with my body. I wanted to hold her so close that it would feel as though we were merging into one being, that there was no gap between her body and mine. We fit together like we had been made that way, and I needed to remind myself of that fact.

We arrived at the house, and I helped her out of the car and to the door.

“I didn’t have that much wine, you know,” she said as I took her hand and opened the front door.

“Yeah, yeah.” I waved my hand. “But in that dress, I want to make sure no one swipes you before I have a chance to get my hands on you.”

“Oh?” She tripped over the doorstep, letting me catch her. “And what exactly did you have in mind for that?”

“I’m more of a show guy, not tell,” I murmured as I rounded on her, wrapping my arms around her waist and pushing the door shut behind her. She wound her arms around my shoulders and grinned, and my heart picking up the pace from being this close to her. How could our chemistry still be so good, so intense, even after all this time? It didn’t make any sense. Was there ever going to be a moment where I didn’t want to touch her, kiss her, fuck her? It seemed so far off as to be impossible.

“Show away,” she breathed, and I leaned forward and pressed my mouth to her neck, guiding her against the wall so she had something to lean on. She ran her fingers lightly through my hair, trailing them gently over my skin and touching me as though there was nothing more she wanted in the world than this. I knew how she felt. Getting time away from Hunter was rare, and it was going to get rarer as he got more attached to Autumn and wanted to spend more time around her, so any moments we got to ourselves were to be savored as much as they could be.

“You feel so good,” she moaned into my ear, and I tucked my hands down beneath her butt and hitched her up. She squealed and hooked her legs around my waist and allowed me to carry her to the stairs and up to the bedroom. I remembered that time in Vegas when she had been wearing the very same dress and I had fucked her as though it was the only thing in the world that mattered. Tonight, I wanted something different. Tonight I wanted to make love to her, to tell her without words that my feelings were deep and real and that I had never shared them with anyone else before.

“Holden…” She moaned into my ear, and for a second, I thought she was going to say the words. But then she turned her head and kissed me. I closed my eyes and lost myself to the comfort of her embrace, knowing this was all I needed from her, all I would ever need.