Colson (The Henchmen MC 20)

I was left there smiling as well.

"Told you she was a lunatic," Colson told me, coming into the kitchen as my son rushed away, embarrassed.

"I know. I love her."

I had a feeling Gus and I were going to be good friends.

And me and Colson?

Oh, I had a feeling we were going to be something even better.Colson - 3 months"Do we really need the popcorn on top of all of this?" I asked, getting a scathing glare from Eva who was trying to fit the nachos, brownies, hot pretzels—complete with three different dips that were somehow meant to match different moods—as well as curly fries and waffle fries—which she forced me to admit were entirely different things despite being made of the exact same ingredients—onto a tray to bring over to the living room. She already had bottles of drinks shoved into the pockets of her massive—as promised—sweatpants.

We were finally having our first technical date.

The stars had sort of just aligned for it.

I wasn't working.

She wasn't working.

Thad and Freddie decided to take Jelena to a weekend "girls trip" to go to a spa.

And it also so happened to be the weekend that Jacob's biological dad had come to scoop him up.

Jacob hadn't been keen on the idea when his father first punted it at him a couple weeks before. There was bitterness there for him not being around, not being a part of his daily life. Especially so because his father had married and had kids who he did see daily. But after a couple heart-to-hearts about it, I had convinced Jacob that it was the more mature move to spend some time with his father, to explain how he was feeling, to hash things out.

Eventually, he agreed.

And, what's more, he even seemed happy to go, talking about how he wanted to tell his dad how his martial arts classes were going, and about 'volunteering' (which was the word we'd all decided on) at the club, and about Jelly who he'd formed a friendship with. It was built on music and horror movies I didn't approve of, but the two of them had gotten along well because of all that. And because them getting along was becoming more and more important to me as Eva and I got more and more serious, I let it slide, reminding myself that if I forbid the movies, they would just sneak them in somehow.

"Did you really just ask me that?" Eva said, giving me small eyes as she dramatically ripped open the plastic packaging on the bag of popcorn. "It's like you don't know me at all," she added, tossing it into the microwave. "We always need popcorn. I wait all year for Christmas when those massive tins of popcorn hit the store shelves. You know... sweet, sweet caramel, butter, and everyone's favorite... cheese."

"Babe, you're delusional if you think cheese is better than caramel."

"Oh, God. Did we just break up?" she asked, hand slapping to her heart.

"You're not thinking about this the right way."

"How's that?"

"If I happen to get a tub of multiple popcorns for Christmas, I could give you all my cheese ones."

"Well, not if I have to trade you my caramel. It might be the inferior flavor, but I still want to eat it."

"Okay. You get all the popcorn. I will starve."

"That's all I'm saying," Eva agreed, smiling, turning to grab the popcorn and tossing it into a bowl. "Okay. I think we are all set."

"For the apocalypse? Yeah, I think so," I agreed, following her to my living room couch. She'd decided the date had to be at my house. Because of the wider couch, the bigger TV, and the much more comfortable bed.

"Okay. Pick the movie. I will put a dent in all of this," she said, already digging into the nachos.

"Give me a genre at least."

"We've already established I will eat all of this, fall into a food coma, and miss two-thirds of the movie. Surprise me," she said, giving me a big, happy smile.

She was in full dress-down mode in her sweatpants and my hoodie with fuzzy socks, her hair pulled up, and not a stitch of makeup on her face.

I wasn't sure I'd ever seen a more beautiful woman.

Even with the nacho cheese at the corner of her mouth.

I picked a movie.

We—but mostly Eva—plowed through the food.

Then, as promised, she passed out on me before we even got to the major plot twist.

It was the best fucking date I'd ever had in my life.Eva - 3 months"Oh, Daddy-O!" Gus called, giggling as she threw open Colson's door. "I have brought Mama Dukes home!"

"You had fun, I see," Colson said, coming out of the kitchen to look at the two of us, bleary-eyed, buzzing from our night out.

"Your lady friend is a cheap date," Gus declared. "Two drinks... wasted."