Chapter Twenty
Eden
“Please, please, please!”
I glared at Adelaide, who was draped dramatically over the checkout counter. “Is there any way to undo three decades of caving to your whining?”
“Sadly, no,” she replied. “Aside from doing what I ask.”
“I have no desire to play Dungeons the fact that I tolerated them at all was owed solely to Addie and her family.
I wrapped her up in a hug until the bell over the door chimed.
“Sorry, should I come back?” Milo called. We had a lunch date scheduled, so he came in bearing brown paper bags of takeout.
“No!” Addie leapt away, squeezed my hands one last time, and grabbed her purse off the counter. “I’m just heading out. Toodles!”
I rolled my eyes as we watched her saunter out of the store, but then Milo set the bags on the counter and slid one hand around the small of my back to pull me toward him.
“Good afternoon,” he murmured. “Everything okay with you two?”
“I just agreed to hang out during the game on Tuesday. She’s been begging me all day to join in, but after her reaction just now, I’m guessing I’ve been played. Again.”
He raised a brow. “So all she really wanted was you to be there during the game?”
“Seems that way. She’s convinced I’m a hermit and it’s her job to lure me out of my cave.”
“There’s a lot to be said for chilling in a cave, as long as the cave is my bed.”
I laughed, but he was absolutely right. “I guess if I have you to keep me company, it won’t be too awkward. Are they going to do voices and stuff?”
“Some of them might. Liv only tends to do them here or there for side characters, but I don’t know all of her new players except Addie and Lucas, the bartender from The Mermaid.”
I nodded, biting my lip until Milo gently freed it with his thumb.
“We’ll have fun, and if you don’t, I’ll take you home. But we can always slip away to a dark corner of the store and make out,” he offered, smiling down at me.
“Now, that idea has some merit.”
Milo laughed as he kissed me, the taste of mirth on his tongue turning to fizzing champagne bubbles in my brain.
It always surprised me how firm his body was under my hands compared to the softness of his mouth, moving so tenderly, so masterfully.
He made each kiss feel like something more, something deeper.
Those kisses made me feel like I’d transformed into someone new. The word metamorphosis echoed through my head.
When he eased back, he brushed his nose along mine. “Hungry?”
“Famished,” I replied.
Milo gave me a pointed look and muttered, “Insatiable,” but there was a clear glint of amusement in his eyes.
“Well, that hunger will have to wait until later. For right now, I need actual food.”
We settled behind the counter with falafel wraps and pita chips, drinking the cherry cola Milo remembered was my favorite, and once I was relaxed and feeling good, he dropped the bomb.
“My parents asked if we’d come for dinner sometime in the next couple weeks.”
My entire body froze. This was not something I had done before—mostly because I’d had very few long-term relationships, though also because my last one was with someone whose parents lived in California.
What if they hated me? What if they felt I wasn’t good enough for their son?
A trickle of panic crept up my spine even as I tried to remind myself that my own parents’ opinions about me were not universal.
“Eden, breathe,” Milo murmured.
I sucked in a huge breath, then nearly choked on the pita chip I’d been chewing when he tipped the world on its axis. As I coughed until my eyes watered, Milo rubbed his hand between my shoulder blades, staring at me with a mixture of horror and concern.
“Really, it’s okay. I’ll tell them we need more time. I didn’t think it would be a big deal, since you already met the rest of the family.”
“No!” I yelped, my voice hoarse from choking. “No, you can’t postpone. They’ll be insulted. They’ll think I’m rude for putting them off. They’ll—”
“Eden,” Milo interrupted, using that low tone that cut straight through my freakout. “Take a breath, one that hopefully won’t require the Heimlich, okay?”
I grabbed my soda, sucked down a sip to soothe my throat, then tried to draw in enough oxygen to clear my head. Milo still had one hand on my back, moving in soft circles, and the other was on my knee, his thumb brushing slowly back and forth.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
“Nothing to be sorry for. I didn’t mean to spring anything on you. I promise you, though, they won’t think anything bad about you even if we need to push it off, okay? My brothers and Libby have already vouched for how awesome you are. Mom and Dad won’t mind waiting.”
I rotated in my chair so I could drop my forehead against his shoulder, but Milo only laughed softly into my hair as his arms came around me. After I pulled myself together, he tipped my chin up with one finger and placed a chaste kiss to my lips.
“You know I’m crazy about you, right?” he asked.
“I got that impression, yes.”
He smiled sweetly. “Then you know you have nothing to worry about.”
I tried for a scowl and grumbled, “I wasn’t worried.”
“No? You almost choked on pita chips because you’re totally nonchalant about meeting my parents?”
“My epiglottis betrayed me.”
“Eden,” he said, grinning now, “you freaked out, and I appreciate that you want to make a good impression, but they’re going to love you.”
“Fine. Set a date. Can we just please stop talking about it now and finish our lunch?”
My disgruntled expression apparently did nothing to fend off his good mood, so Milo just captured my lips for a more thorough kiss, winked at me, and took his arms back so he could grab his food. I sighed as I reached for my own.
Opening a store, starting a relationship, finally making friends—what was one more milestone on top of it all?