Page 144 of Doughn't Let Me Go

“Porter!” she hisses. “Youthsoccer! Little ears around!”

“I whispered it!”

“You’re impossible.” She buries her face in my chest in an attempt to hide her smile.

“But you love me anyway, right?”

“Sure.”

“Say it, Dory.”

She tilts her head back and smiles up at me with a look I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of, and not just because she finally stopped wearing her colored contacts and finally showed me the real her—different-colored eyes—one a deep blue and one a deep green—and all.

We’ve been together for a year now, and I can safely say it’s been one of the most difficult and rewarding ones of my life, even including the first year with Kyrie.

Navigating a new relationship isn’t easy, and it’s especially hard when you add a kid into the mix. Sure, Dory was Kyrie’s nanny before she was ever my girlfriend, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have new boundaries to set, new guidelines to follow.

Dory was no longer my employee; she was my partner. Kyrie had to learn that new side of our relationship.

Add in the fact that I’m still running a company that’s based across the country,andDory is now attending college full-time, and it’s been quite a challenge.

But we’re making it work.

“I love you, James Porter Jones.”

My lips curl into a smile. “You always say my name like I’m a rock star or something.”

“Iwishyou were a rock star. I’d be much more attracted to you, then.”

“Is that even possible?”

“To be more attracted to you? Yes.”

“Are you saying you’re not already overwhelmingly attracted to me?”

“I’m sorry…have youseenthe way you eat? You’re like a sloppy baby.”

“Sloppy baby is redundant. All babies are sloppy.”

“See? Impossible,” she mutters, rolling her eyes again.

“But you love me,” I remind her. I press my lips to her temple. “Not as much as I love you though.”

“Is that so?”

I nod. “Yep, because I don’t mind the way you eat, which is like a squirrel, for the record. I find it endearing.”

“Endearing is the kind of term a grandmother would use.”

“Is it? I wouldn’t know. Mine is dead, as you so kindly reminded me.”

She shakes her head, moving out of my embrace so we don’t get carried away like we tend to do. “Porter…”

“Doris…” I mock in the same exhausted tone. “I know, I know—what are you going to do with me?”

“Well, if we were married, I’d threaten to divorce you, but since we’re not yet, I’ll settle on threatening to not move in with you if you don’t get your act together.”

“You just tossed that word out there pretty nonchalantly.”

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