The Assignment

She took it and squeezed. “We both fucked up. But we also grew up. And somehow, in the end we found each other—as much as it might have seemed like an odd pairing in the beginning. We had more in common than we knew, and in a strange way, I feel like you’re the only person who relates to me. Now I can’t imagine myself with anyone else.” She let go of my hand to wrap her arms around my neck. “If I don’t forgive you, I don’t get to love you. And that’s not an option. Because I do love you, Troy Serrano. But you can’t disappear on me like that again.”

Burying my face in her neck, I felt like I could breathe for the first time in weeks. I expelled a long breath onto her skin. “I love you so much, Aspyn.” I pulled back to look at her. “The moment I returned to Seattle, I knew that was no longer home for me. It didn’t feel right anymore, and that’s because you weren’t there. Meadowbrook never felt like home until I realized that home is not about the place. It’s where the person you love the most is. I love you the most, Aspyn. More than anything or anyone. I don’t want to be away from you. I want to be part of your life.”

Her eyes watered as she reached up to kiss me. As our tongues collided, I knew this was probably the happiest moment of my life—the start of a new beginning in Meadowbrook. And I couldn’t wait to find out what the future held.

“I’ll never feel like I deserve you, Dumont,” I said after we broke the kiss.

“You’re not perfect, Serrano. Not by a longshot. Neither am I. But I think we’re perfect for each other.”

That night, I went home with her. On a weeknight. And I never really left.

• • •

A few weeks later, Kiki, Aspyn, and I were at the table having breakfast on a Thursday morning when Kiki turned to me and asked, “Do you live here now?”

I cleared my throat, nearly choking on my Cheerios. “Why do you ask?”

“It just seems like it.”

Dressed for work in her Goofy scrubs, Aspyn smiled behind her coffee mug.

Aspyn and I had talked about officially moving in together. I’d told her that was what I wanted, but only when she was ready. Nothing was official yet. We were sort of just living life and seeing where it took us. And honestly? It was freaking awesome.

I still spent a good portion of the day at my dad’s house, and I didn’t join Aspyn and Kiki for dinner every night. But I hadn’t missed one night in Aspyn’s bed since the day she officially forgave me. Each night, I’d sneak over after Kiki was asleep and make sure I got up at the crack of dawn to avoid her catching us in bed together. Kiki never really knew whether I’d been there the night before or just showed up for breakfast. By some miracle, she hadn’t questioned it, either—until now.

“I really like it here,” I said, finally answering her. “In fact, I like it better than any other place in the world. So I’ve been spending more time here, yeah. Maybe someday I’ll officially move in, if your aunt lets me—and if it’s okay with you, of course.” I gulped.

She looked over at Aspyn. “That would be cool if Troy moved in, wouldn’t it? We could have dinner with him more often, and he wouldn’t have to sneak over late at night so I don’t see him.” Kiki giggled.

My eyes widened. Shit.

Aspyn sighed. “Well, alrighty then.”

“I guess I wasn’t as quiet as I thought, huh?” I scratched my chin.

Kiki shook her head. “Those leather shoes you sometimes wear make a squeaky sound.”

“Damn. Outed by my shoes.”

Aspyn cleared her throat. “I wasn’t sure how you would feel about him fully moving in with us.”

Kiki drank the last of her cereal milk. She set the bowl on the table and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “I do want him to move in. Because he makes you happy.” She shrugged. “And he makes me happy, too.”

My chest constricted—in a good way. “I know you’ve had a bad experience in the past, that you trusted someone else who moved into this place. So just know I don’t take your invitation lightly.”

“Are you sure, Kiki?” Aspyn asked.

She nodded. “Troy’s different. I can just tell. I don’t know how, but when I look at him…” She turned to me. “I feel like he’s…forever.”

Wow.

Aspyn reached for my hand. “Yeah, I know what you mean.” She placed her other hand on Kiki’s arm. “Well, maybe we should ask him now. You want to do the honors?”

Kiki beamed. “Would you want to move in with us, Troy?”

I answered without hesitation. “There’s nothing I want more. Forever is a good way to describe the gut feeling I have about this, too. I can have my stuff here tonight.”

“There’s no rush, you know.” Aspyn chuckled.

“I guess I’m just excited.”

Kiki bounced. “Can we have a movie night tonight since Troy can stay after dinner and doesn’t have to pretend like he doesn’t live here?”

“Yeah, sure we can.” Aspyn smiled.

“Cool!”

A couple of minutes later, Kiki ran off to finish getting ready for school, and Aspyn disappeared to finish getting ready for work.

After I cleaned up our mess from breakfast, I found Aspyn in her bedroom—our bedroom now—as she brushed her hair in front of the mirror. She’d be leaving any minute to drop Kiki off at school on the way to Horizons.

“So…that went differently than I expected,” I said.

She put her brush on the bureau. “I should’ve known she was too smart not to know what was going on. I’m glad it’s out in the open, and you’re finally moving in.” She flipped around to face me. “I feel lucky to be able to spend more time with you.”

Luckywas an understatement of how I felt. I got the sudden urge to lift her up and spin her around, so that’s what I did. And after that, I plopped her down on the bed and began to tickle her.

“Oh my God. What are you doing?” she shrieked.

Moving my fingertips over her sides, I said, “What do you think I’m doing?”

Her laughter echoed throughout the room. “Stop!”

Tickling her faster, I spoke over her giggles. “It’s an expression of love.”

“Says who?” She kicked her legs.

“My grandfather.”

“Uh! Of course. I should’ve known.”

Kiki appeared at the doorway and started to crack up.

I was just about to put Aspyn out of her misery when I heard what sounded like material ripping. I abruptly stopped.

She hopped up and ran over to look at her butt in the mirror. “My work pants ripped.”

“Crap! I’m sorry.”

She pointed to her ass. “Look what you did to your favorite scrubs!”

“Damn it. Split right down the middle of Goofy’s face.” I wrapped my arms around her from behind and kissed the back of her neck. “He’ll never laugh again.”