Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88057 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88057 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“Hey, does this count as our movies and chill date?” Dropping his head to my shoulder, he grinned up at me.
“If it does, I want a bunch more like it.” I kissed his head before turning more serious. “Feels like I owe you another steak though.”
“Oh, you can feed me anytime, but it wasn’t your fault that things ended badly.” Taking my hand, Ambrose played with my fingers. “That was on me and my silly fears.”
“Your worries aren’t silly.” I used my thumb to stroke his palm. “You want us to work out. I didn’t do the best job of saying I want that too.”
“I’m still worried about the distance, but I’m trying to trust that if things are supposed to work out, they will.” Eyes uncertain, he gave me a half-smile.
“Things are definitely supposed to work out.” I held him closer. I was working on letting myself believe that, letting myself have this. Hoping for long-term, let alone planning for it, made my stomach all wobbly, old doubts rushing back in. But then I let myself picture changing seasons, holidays, blurry images of a distant future, and I knew with everything I had that I wanted Ambrose in those pictures. “And we’ll figure out the distance. I’m not saying no to possibly taking a contract in Atlanta.”
“You don’t have to,” he said softly, studying the sheets. “I don’t want to force you to come with me.”
“You’re not. And you’re not the only one with worries. I’d rather not be halfway across the country, all in on this thing when you get sick of me—”
He cut me off with an indignant noise. “Not going to happen. I like you. More than like you.”
“I more than like you too.” I kissed his temple. “I realized earlier that here versus there doesn’t matter—I already am all in. I’m working on trusting I’m good enough for someone like you.”
“You’re good enough for anyone but especially good enough for me. You’re perfect.” He tilted his head back, clearly inviting a kiss, which I happily gave him.
“Not sure about perfect.” I laughed self-consciously, busying myself with moving the pizza box to join the drinks on the nightstand.
“We’ve all got flaws.” He nodded pragmatically, and I snorted because if anyone was perfect, it was him, but I let him continue, “Maybe the key is that we balance each other out—not that we’re perfect people, but we’re perfect together.”
“I like that.” Bare minimum of cleanup done, I pulled him back against me, loving the easy way he snuggled in, using my chest as a pillow and making my heart so full it hurt. “Be patient with me on the moving business?”
“I will. I know we’re still relatively new. And the show isn’t likely to resume filming before autumn anyway. We’ve got time to hammer out all the little details. And time for me to brace myself for lots of flying back and forth. I told Cressida I could drive it, but I’m not sure how realistic that is.”
I shrugged. “If you want to drive out there prior to filming starting, I’d drive it with you. Might be a fun road trip. We’re good at those.”
“We are.” He smiled, but his expression stayed wary. “That’s not too much pressure? You can always fly back from Atlanta if you’re due back here for work.”
“Nah, it’s not pressure.” I appreciated the time to decide exactly how I wanted to handle the distance, but it was more a question of when I’d end up in Atlanta, not if, and definitely not why. If Ambrose was there, I wanted to be there too, and that was simply a fact. “You, me, the beast, and the open road. Sounds perfect. I’ll adjust my schedule to be able to take at least a week or so off. Just tell me when.”
“I will.” He turned to look up at me, chin resting on my pec. He was so damn adorable I had to kiss him quickly before letting him go on. “I know your work is important to you. I haven’t done the best job expressing how much I admire what you and Duncan are doing and how proud I am of you. I want to see your company succeed. I don’t want you to be my houseboy or anything like that.”
“I might like the houseboy uniform.” I rubbed my bare leg against his, fuzz crinkling in a way that made my dick start to wake back up. “And there are lots of paths for A-List to succeed. And expand. I gotta work on trusting that too.”
“Trust is hard. And it’s hard to have a vision you believe so deeply in and to trust it can come to fruition.” He held my gaze, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt so seen, like he saw every secret chamber of my heart and understood the value of each. He was right. We were perfect together.