Page 43 of Loved

"Of course I like it. It's going to be like we're in a movie theater. Thank you."

I laughed and smiled down at her. "And there's one more thing." I held out the small box. "Now, before you start protesting, it didn't even cost me anything. It's just something that I really want you to have. And after today, I think maybe now's the best time ever." I tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

Penny’s eyes grew round.

I looked back down at the box. It was a really small box. I looked back at her and realized what she was probably thinking. It was a ring sized box. I really wasn’t ready to get married any time soon. But being engaged? That sounded pretty good to me. I wanted my ring on her finger so everyone knew she was mine. But she was clearly panicking at the thought. I lowered my eyebrows. "Are you okay?"

"What? Yeah."

I grabbed her hand and put the box in her palm. "Open it, Penny."One step at a time.

She took off the bow, slowly unwrapped the box, and lifted the lid. There were two plastic cards inside with her name on them. She looked up at me.

"Welcome home,” I said.

"Are these access cards to get into your apartment?"

"Ourapartment, yes."

She ran her finger along her embossed name as a smile spread across her face.

"I find it incredibly hard to fall asleep when you're not beside me. I'd like you to move in.”Officially.“If that's what you want too."

She looked up at me.

We had talked about this before. Before our fight. This was a big step. Not as big as an engagement, but still big. And she looked so damn excited.

I wrapped my arms around her. "So what do you say?"

"Yes. Absolutely yes." She hugged me, pressing the side of her face against my chest.

I wondered if she could tell how fast my heart was racing. Because now that I was thinking about giving her a ring…I really wanted to do it. I wanted her in my arms like this forever. It finally felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be. I just hoped when I proposed she wouldn’t look so panicked.

Chapter 13

Thursday

"Close," I said and sat down next to Penny on the sofa. I scanned the math she’d done to solve the equation. She’d gone wrong somewhere… “Okay, there. You forgot to transform the random variable into a z-score."

"Oh. Oops. I knew to do that too." She bit her lip as she fixed the equation.

I loved watching her when she was concentrating. I liked it even better when she got the equations correct, because I’d been rewarding her with kisses. And I really liked rewarding her when she was good.

She lifted her pencil, stared at the equation for another second, and then handed the paper back to me. “How's this,ProfessorHunter?"

Fucking hell.I wasn’t sure how I’d ever taught in a room with her. She smiled at me and I laughed. She really was distracting. I looked down at the sheet of paper. "Much better." I leaned down and kissed her.

My phone started buzzing again. It had been buzzing nonstop all morning.

"Are you sure you don't want to answer that?" she asked. "Maybe it would be best to just get it over with."

It was never a good idea to talk to paparazzi. "Talking to them will make it worse. If I ignore them, they'll get bored and move on to the next thing." I stood up and walked back over to the T.V. mount I was screwing into the wall. It had been a long time since I’d done something like this myself. I was sure Ian was laughing at the camera footage right now. But it was good to be using my hands. Ilifted the power drill. When it stopped whirring, Penny filled the silence.

"But you don't even know who it is. You haven't listened to any of your messages. You could always answer and hang up."

"Which means I refused to comment. Which looks bad."

"Oh."

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