Page 118 of Take Me Home

“Nothing.” Her fingers tapped lightly across her keyboard,not actually typing, though her eyes were laser focused on her screen. She did this when she was looking for the right words, this erratic non-typing. He assumed she’d leave it at that, but she closed her laptop and fixed him with an intense stare. “Actually, not nothing.”

Ash’s heart rate spiked. Did she know he was thinking of some way-distant, though maybe notthatdistant, future when he asked her to marry him? Christ, he was nervous enough as it was, carrying around a box containing an apartment key. He’d probably develop an ulcer with a ring in there.

She tucked her hair nervously behind her ear. Then, she lifted her chin confidently, looked him straight in the eyes, and said, “I want to move in with you when my lease is up.”

His insides swooped. Was this what zero gravity felt like? What fuckingswooningfelt like? He needed a damn fainting couch. “Haze,” he said with a slightly agonized groan. For all his nerves, he’d wanted to ask her. He’d planned it all out.

“Oh. Is that a no?” She shook her head quickly, waved a hand in the air as if to wipe away what she’d said. “Never mind. It’s stupid. It’s too soon. It’s crazy.”

“No,” he said firmly, reaching for his bag and the box inside it. “Don’t take it back. Just—”

She pressed her hands to her cheeks, embarrassed. “It’s fine. It’s fine.”

He set the box on the table between them. “Why don’t you just open that?”

She eyed him warily as she held the box close to her chest. “Why do you have a box?”

He laughed again. “Don’t panic. It’s not a ring.”

It wasn’t as small as a ring box, and if she’d given it the tiniest shake, she would have heard the key sliding around. She carefully lifted the top and peeked inside. A little frown. Shewas confused. Then, she turned it on its side and dumped the contents into her palm. The key was connected to a miniature green wingback chair, identical to the one she was sitting in.

“I wanted to wait until you were finished working, but you beat me to it.”

“It’s my chair.”

“And a key,” he said, turning it over in her palm. “Just in case you missed that part. I’m asking you to move in with me.”

She blinked across the table, eyes shining. She gave a little shrug that turned into a vigorous nod. “You were right to be optimistic earlier.”

“About what?”

She began packing up her things, pausing only to gesture impatiently for him to do the same.

“You barely got any work done,” he pointed out.

She stood and pulled him up out of his chair, planted a firm kiss to his mouth. “I’m ready to give you my undivided attention. At home.”

“At home,” he repeated, a slow smile tugging at his lips. “So…that’s a yes?”

“Technically, I asked you first.”

“Technically, you didn’t ask. You declared.”

She rolled her eyes.

“It’s a yes,” he said, pulling her back for another kiss.

Hazel’s mouth, soft and electric, dragged to the shell of his ear, and she whispered, “Then take me home.”

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