Page 81 of Long Road Home

I pushed up from the couch, wrapped my hand around his neck and pulled him to me. I held him while he fought against more tears and I grinned down at him. “Now. How about we get that flight scheduled. I figured we can get everything done in a week, rent a truck, get back up here. We can sell most of the stuff, pack the important things, and I can still make sure you have time to see your friends.”

It’d mean he’d start school a week or two late, but that didn’t matter much. He was a straight-A student and jumping into school two weeks late wouldn’t be a problem for him to get caught up.

“I wish we could go back tomorrow,” Toby said, suddenly and finally looking excited. “I mean, if we’re doing this we might as well do it now, right?”

Flights would be more expensive if we left too soon. But if we timed it right… “We could always go next week and take a couple weeks and be back before Rebecca’s wedding,” I suggested, already feeling the stress of that idea. It’d be rushed. Expensive.

Based on Toby’s answering smile, totally worth it. “Are we going to tell Jordan…my dad?”

My dad.Tears threatened to burst, and it took a minute to fight them back.

“Let’s wait until we get the details nailed down. Then we’ll tell him everything, okay?”

“Like a surprise?”

The last time I surprised Jordan, it hadn’t gone over too well. I also wanted to keep what Brooke said in mind, but it’d take a few days, a week at most to get everything lined up. Then I could go to Jordan with a plan. More than anything, I wanted to ask if we could move in together, but that might be way too fast for all of us.

No, it was best to wait. Move into Tillie’s home. Get to be a family again before a family under one roof bickering over dirty dishes and everything else.

“Yeah. A surprise. But we’ll tell him soon, okay?”

I grinned at my phone.It was a text from Toby who had spent the entire day at the County’s Aquatic Center, invited by Jordan’s assistant, Alicia. When she’d called to ask if he wanted to join her girls at the pool for the day, he’d given me a look that clearly said what he thought about spending the day with two girls. So I’d asked Alicia if he could invite Nathan to join them. Brooke and Alicia thought that idea was splendid and further invited Toby for a sleepover at Brooke’s house afterward. Now, the boys were at Brooke’s which meant Jordan and I had the night alone.

He’d convinced me to go with him to The Tavern, a sports bar he’d said would be plenty busy for a Saturday night. Rebecca and Cooper were set to meet us up here any minute, but while Jordan went to the bar and grabbed a beer for him and an iced tea for me, I couldn’t resist checking my phone.

Watching movies. Playing games. Love you.

Short and to the point, but also sweet.

“That Toby?” Jordan asked. He slid into the booth next to me and handed my drink to me. “How’s he doing?”

I was momentarily distracted from his question watching Jordan take a drink of his beer. The throat muscles, the tip of his head showing off the slight scruff on his jaw, the way his throat worked as he swallowed. He spent as much time outside on the course as he did in his office during the day and his already olive skin was a deep tan, and I knew from personal discovery he found time to spend other time in the sun so he didn’t have massive tan lines from his work shirts.

He caught me gawking at him, grinned down at me, and leaned in, sliding his lips across my cheek. “Love that look you’re giving me, honey, but I haven’t been inside you in almost a week so beat that back and answer the question.”

He’d had an insanely busy week. A wedding last night, tournaments during the week, some special project he said he’d dove head first into involving a celebrity tournament next spring. I’d spent most of the week finally getting caught up on work, while making hundreds of phone calls, trying to finalize our plans.

I’d planned on talking to Jordan tonight about everything, now that our flights back home were scheduled but with Rebecca and Cooper coming out with us, Toby at a friend’s house and he wanted to be there to give Jordan the news, it could wait until tomorrow sometime.

That didn’t mean I hadn’t been distracted. Both of us had been, and Jordan was right, it’d been since last weekend since we’d been together. A few nights this week I had to sleep alone. Other nights, Jordan came over close to when Toby was headed to bed and crawled into bed next to me once we knew he was sleeping but he didn’t touch me.

I didn’t initiate anything, either.

I was sleeping in the room I grew up in, Tillie’s empty room down the hall and Toby’s was right across.

“What was the question?” I asked, blinking back all the thoughts and preparations I still had to make, all while getting antsy Allison hadn’t yet given me any indication whether I’d be able to keep my job.

“Toby,” he said, laughing now, and shoulders shaking. “I asked how Toby was.”

“He’s good.” My body leaned toward Jordan, the closeness of us, the press of his knee against my thigh. He’d draped his arm over the back of the booth and his arm brushed my shoulder. The proximity to him, the scent of his cologne, mellow but manly, drew me to him and made the need at the center of my thighs pulse.

“If we weren’t in a bar right now, you’d be ripping my clothes off right now, wouldn’t you?”

Yes. Absolutely. So much so my response was more of a breathy, “Yeah,” than a whisper or spoken word.

“Good.” He brought his bottle of beer to his lips, shooting me that smoldering look of his he knew drove me wild. “Then you’ll light up for me tonight like I want you to.”

I gaped at him, my jaw slack, when movement at his shoulder grabbed my attention.

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