Page 81 of Soft Tissue Damage
Justine: Same as always but missing you! Can I see where you live? Is that allowed?
I hold my phone and think. I don’t see why it wouldn’t be, but I still feel like I have to ask permission because this is Cullan’s house.
Over dinner that night, I say to Cullan, “Can I have a friend over?”
He looks up from helping Rosie with her pasta. “Of course you can. You don’t even have to ask. Who’s coming over?”
“My friend Justine. She’s the one who took me out on my birthday, and she was looking out for me when you and I left together, just to make sure I was okay.”
“She’s a good friend.”
“She is. I like that Justine knows about us. She doesn’t judge me.”
“Who judges us?” he asks with a frown, and then answers his own question. “Leon and my ex have no rightto have an opinion about our relationship, and neither does anyone else.”
I was actually thinking about my aunts, but I’m distracted by what he just said. “Relationship?”
Cullan’s stormy expression clears, and he smiles. “I like the word relationship for us, don’t you?”
“I like it a lot.” I hesitate and then ask, “Does that make you my boyfriend?”
I marvel at how I’m able to ask this question without breaking into a sweat. It’s always been so hard for me to find my voice and ask for what I want when asking always got me scolded.
“Boyfriend,” Cullan says thoughtfully as he turns the word over in his mind. He leans forward and kisses me. “I like the sound of that. It will do for now.” His kiss is full of promise.
I watch him take Rosie out of her high chair and carry her upstairs. The implication being that he wants to call me something else in the future, something like…wife?
With an excited feeling fizzing in my belly, I text Justine back with my address and what time to arrive tomorrow.
I spend the afternoon baking little sweet and savory treats for me and Justine. Cullan comes in as I’m finishing up some butterfly cupcakes. “I just adore your kitchen. You have everything, and there’s so much counter space.”
Cullan puts his arms around my waist and kisses my throat. “And I adore you. I hope you have fun tonight.”
I turn my head so he can kiss my cheek. “Thank you. Ifeel so excited. I’ve never had a friend over before. Well, I did at my apartment, but it never felt like a proper home, and I couldn’t bake in that awful oven that burned everything.”
He looks confused. “You’ve never had a friend over? What kind of people are your aunts?”
That is a big can of worms I don’t want to open. I suppose I’ll have to talk about them eventually, but I hate the thought of speaking their names in this beautiful house around my lovely boyfriend, as though even the thought of them will taint everything.
Cullan’s phone chimes, and the front doorbell rings, saving me from answering. He shows me the image from the app on his phone. “Is this Justine?”
“That’s her.” I hurry to answer the door.
Justine greets me with a huge smile and hugs me tightly with one arm. In her other hand is a bottle of vodka.
I can feel Cullan’s presence in the hall behind me, and I introduce them. “Justine, this is Cullan Grant. Cullan, this is Justine Joyce.”
He greets her warmly, smiling and shaking her hand. “Lovely to meet you, Justine.”
She smiles up at him like she’s never seen a man half as tall or half as handsome in all her life. “Hello, Mr. Grant.”
Cullan reaches for the vodka bottle. “Would you like me to put this in the freezer for you?”
She passes it over to him, and her gaze lands on his tattooed forearms. “That would be great. Thank you so much, Mr. Grant.”
He gives her a warm smile. “No problem, and Cullan is fine.”
As he turns toward the kitchen, Justine mouths at me,Tattoos?and mimes fanning her face.
