Tamsin
I walk Demyan to the door and thank him again for the flowers.
“You know,” he says as I pull it open, “there’s a space above the gym that could be made into a dance studio, if you want?”
I smile at him. “Demyan.”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t buy me a dance studio before we’ve even finished our second date.”
“I thought this was our third date?” he says, obviously counting the disastrous first time he came for dinner.
I laugh, my hand automatically reaching for his chest. “To be honest, if the last three times we’ve spent together are considered dates, you need to up your woo-ing game.”
“I don’t know…” he pauses, bending to kiss me lightly on the lips. “This morning seemed pretty good woo to me.”
“Shhhh,” I say, feeling the blush creep up my neck.
“Why not come to mine tonight?” he says, his eyes raking over me.
I want to. Which is part madness and part lust. But that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
“I’m helping Sammie open tomorrow morning. Then the time after I should be able to manage on my own as long as the cats don’t riot and overthrow me.”
“Remember how we said we would communicate?” he says, the question clearly rhetorical. “Well, I’d love for us to move in together. As much as I adore your mom, this place is pretty small, and my place feels too far away.”
“That’s too soon, Demyan. Even for a Federov.”
“Well, at least now you know where I’m standing.” He steps outside and makes his way back down the street to where I assume he parked his car.
I close the door, but only after I can no longer see his ass clearly outlined in his jeans.
“You should go.”
I startle and spin around. “Mom!” I gasp, clutching my chest. “You scared the life out of me.”
“Because I caught you up to no good.” She smiles.
“Live your life Tamsin. And not by anyone else’s rules or what you think society expects.
You were a firecracker from the moment I met you.
You still are. You always lived your life to your own beat and it’s okay to do that now, too. Go be with your man.”
I chew my bottom lip for a moment, considering her words. Then I grab my purse and my coat and run out the door.
“Demyan,” I shout, the cold air wrapping around me quicker than I can put my coat on.
He stops and turns while I’m still half tangled in my coat, and I bump straight into him. His arms come around me and the momentum has us spinning.
“Hey,” he says when we stop turning, my body pressed against his.
“Hey,” I say. “I’ll come to yours tonight. But that doesn’t mean we are moving in together. And I need some stuff. Like a toothbrush, because I ran out of the house without mine. And you’ll need to bring me to Purr & Pour for six-thirty sharp…”
He puts his mouth on mine to shut me up.
“I can make that work,” he says, leading me to his car.
As he drives us past the gallery, the lights flicker off, and I see Natan pull Kimmie into a hug, swaying gently from side to side.
Daisy and Mechislav are just leaving the bookshop. Mechislav looking huge and scary until his eyes land on her and she slides her hand into his.
“I wonder what Family dinners are like in your family…” I observe, turning to Demyan.
“Big and loud. We used to do them weekly… but then with the babies coming along like they have been doing we sort of began to let them slide.”
“Maybe it’s time to bring them back… I’d like to meet your family. Properly. If that’s okay.”
“It’s more than okay,” he says. “I’d really like that, actually.”
We drive past the gym on our way to Demyan’s so he can show it to me, including the space upstairs. He was right, this would be good for a studio.
“I can see what you’re thinking,” I say, a warning tone in my voice. “I already told you, don’t.”
“I wasn’t,” he counters and I raise a questioning eyebrow at him. “I was thinking about flooring.”
I roll my eyes on a huff of laughter.
“It would take a lot of work. But working on a cruise ship means I’ve got nothing to spend my money on, so I have quite a nice little chunk of savings to use.” I look around a little more, then, with my hands on my hips, I say, “I’ll consider it.”
“That’s all I would ever ask for.”
The rest of the drive to his place is spent discussing what part of the film I actually saw last night, which was only a little more than him, it turns out.
“You choose the film tonight,” I say.
“I had other ideas, but if you would like to watch a film first, I suppose I could make that happen.”
My core clenches at his words. I’m still aching a little from this morning, but that doesn’t stop my hormones from making me want to climb him like a tree.
“I think I could go with other ideas,” I say with a grin.