Page 58 of Not You Again

I lift the ax and focus on the target. “Do me a favor.”

“Anything.”

“Next time you throw, can you do it real slow so I can enjoy it?”

His laughter mingles with the thud of the ax against the wood of the target.

FIRST LOOK AT FOREVER

SEASON THREE

EPISODE EIGHT

PETRA ASHLING:

Five weeks ago, our couples said “I do.” While they’ve begun to build their own family, they also married into each other’s families.

DR. KENNETH LEON:

Meeting each other’s families is an important step in our couples’ relationships.

DR. LAUREN SHAW:

Family provides a new lens for our couples to view their partners. It can be stressful, but it’s necessary to fully understand where each other came from. Especially in a scenario as unconventional as this one, the support of family can determine the long-term success of their marriages.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOURANDIE

I stand on the sidewalk, squinting through the windows of the restaurant Cassidy told us to be at today. It’s new, and they’ve made sure it was empty for today’s dinner with my mom and Jim. I knew this would be part of the show when I signed up—bringing Kit to dinner and letting my mom get a good look at him now that we’ve been living together.

After our interlude in the bedroom and the farce of a therapy session last week, Kit has been more openly affectionate. I’ve done my best to let him dismantle the walls that keep me safe, brick by precarious brick. We touch more freely, and we meet eyes across the room more than we used to.

Something has definitely shifted. I just wish I knew what came next.

Maybe we should try archery or something.

Kit brushes his knuckles against the back of my hand. His touch makes me feel like I ate a bag of Pop Rocks, my whole body fizzing. Give it a few minutes, and another flash of a new wedding dress will gallop through my mind. Kit’s touch hasn’t failed my muse yet.

Despite the work we’ve been doing, we still haven’t slept together. Or gotten each other off again. At all. My whole body is screaming for more, but I don’t know how to ask for it.

“I like that dress,” he says. Though the cameras aren’t pointed our way just yet, our mics are on in case we get into a fight out here or something. Cassidy doesn’t want to miss any good material. I glance down at my dress—a structured gray-blue sheath with an asymmetrical neckline—just as Kit says, “It must have taken you forever.”

My eyes fly to him as I take in a sharp breath. “How did you know I made it?”

The corner of his mouth lifts into a half grin. Casually, like we do this all the time, he hooks a finger into the fabric at my hip and tugs me closer. “Pockets,” he answers. He bows his head to press his lips to my temple and murmurs, “You look beautiful, Andie.”

Warmth pools in my belly, spreading out through my fingertips. I breathe him in for a moment and tug on his pocket square. He never wears a suit without one now, even to a relatively casual dinner. With my mom. I swallow the nerves tangling in my throat. “Are you nervous?”

He tugs on my pocket again. “Should I be?”

He doesn’t know about my mom’s way of taking care of us. He knows I was a mess during her divorce when we were in college, but he doesn’t have the context to know why. “How many different languages can you say bad idea in?”

Kit presses his lips to the top of my head as he laughs softly. It sends a tingle down my spine. “Maybe three.”

“Oh, then it will be fine.” For now, curled against him in the middle of an Atlanta sidewalk, the world is still, and I am safe. I fight the urge to purr like a kitten in a warm blanket.

Cassidy finds us in our half embrace and cracks a smile. Probably because she thinks she won’t have to lead our conversation tonight. By the end of dinner, I bet she’ll wish she had.

As soon as my mom and Jim take a seat, Kit touches me under the table. He absentmindedly traces the hem of my dress just over my knee, back and forth. It’s not a sexual touch, just a familiar one. One that says I need to feel you next to me.

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