I stare at his hands. They're trembling. The vibrations are coursing through the paper causing it to flutter above the table.
"Thanks, Dad." I kiss his cheek as I rise from the table.
"Sweetie?" he calls after me as I reach the doorway of the dining room. "Don't forget to invite your young man to dinner. I need to meet him."
Chapter 11
"How do you feel about parents?" I take a small sip of the wine Hunter poured for me when I arrived at his place.
"My own or generally?" He raises his brow and smirks. "If it's my own, they drive me nuts."
My response is stalled when I realize he's never spoken of them. "You don't talk about them."
"I've got nothing to say about them." He pushes the words back at me and I instantly recognize it was a way to avoid the subject.
"Are you estranged from them?" It's a stupid question but I don't want the conversation to end before I know more.
"No." He pulls the word tightly across his lips. "I just don't want to discuss them."
I hate when he throws a wall up. This is part of who he is and if he can't talk about his own family, where does that leave us?
I take a bigger swallow of the wine to curb my racing pulse. "The reason I'm asking is my father is in town and he'd like to meet you."
"Your father is back?" He shifts on the couch until he's facing me directly. "You didn't tell me he was coming back."
"We don't talk a lot about everyday things," I murmur. We don't. Our last conversation in his car ended with us kissing for ten minutes before I had to race back to work.
"How's your mother handling his return?" The question is ripe with sarcasm. "She seems a bit adventurous."
"I guess." I feel slightly offended by his insulations about my mother. She may not be the greatest parent but she'd always stayed committed to my dad, or it seemed that way to me.
"Do you like living there with them?"
I'm not sure how to answer. I wasn't expecting him to ask me about that. "It's okay. I only do it on breaks."
"When I was your age I had my own place." His tone is clipped.
"When you were my age?" I parrot back. "That was such a long time ago, Mr. Reynolds. Did they even have heat and water in houses back then?"
He kisses my nose as he chuckles. "You know what I mean. Don't you feel stifled there?"
"Not really." I shrug my shoulders. "They don't even really know I'm there. It's convenient and soon I'll move back to the dorms."
"I wanted to talk to you about that." He tenderly reaches to push my hair behind my ear. "Have you thought about getting an apartment off campus?"
I consider the question. I have thought about it a lot. Not because I need the extra space but it would be amazing to have my own place. Somewhere that I can truly call home. "I've thought about it at times. Why?"
"I don't think your bunkmate is going to appreciate watching us make love in the dorm." He runs his tongue over his bottom lip and I stare at it mesmerized.
"We're going to make love when I'm back at school?" I cringe as I ask the question. We haven't discussed the scope of our relationship since I found out about Coral. "I mean...I... I wasn't sure if this was a temporary thing still or not," I stammer.
"I don't want that." He shifts his body closer to mine and the soft scent of his skin is my reward. "I want to be with you. I want us to see each other as much as we can for as long as we can."
He didn't say forever. Why would he? I study his face for some hint. What does as long as we can mean? "As long as we can," I whisper under my breath.
"I want to move this at a pace you're comfortable with." His lips graze across my cheek and I tremble inside. My body aches for his touch.
"Can't we just come here when we want to...to...you know?" I struggle with the words.