Him by Carey Heywood (reading strategies book .txt) 📕

"I'm going to take a quick shower. You," I point as he starts to get up with an impish gleam in his eyes, "wait here."

He flops back on to the bed. "At least you aren’t kicking me out this time."

I think back to my first day back. So much has changed since then. I shake my head, grab my toiletries, and head to the bathroom. When I come back into the room, I shiver when Will comes to stand behind me. He holds my arms and bends down to lick a drip of water I missed on my shoulder blade. I push him in the direction of the bed, ordering him to sit and behave. He winks at me and pants like a dog.

"You are such a dork."

"Whatever. You think I'm hot."

He groans when I drop my towel and walk over to my bag. I look back at him like, what? He somehow remains seated, eyes never leaving me, as I dress.

Once my summer dress is on, his eyes lift to mine. "I'm going to make you pay for that."

I walk over to him, ghosting my lips over his before I lick the side of his face from chin to brow.

His mouth drops open as he watches me walk out the door.

I look over my shoulder at him. "Bring it. Oh, and the shower’s free."

He jumps towards me. I squeal and race down the stairs before he can catch me. I'm giggling when I walk in the kitchen.

"It's good to see you so happy." My mother beams up at me.

I blush and strain some orange juice before I go to sit next to her. She leans towards me and kisses my cheek. Will comes down not long after, his hair still damp from his shower. He kisses the top of my head before walking out back to call Sawyer and see how their first morning alone went together. He's laughing when he walks back in.

"What happened?" I ask, lifting a brow.

"I didn’t know your friend spoke Italian. I feel bad for laughing, but after my mom called her a bunch of names thinking she wouldn’t understand, Sawyer told her off. In Italian." He shakes his head. "Man, I wish I saw it."

"Are they going to be okay? That doesn’t seem like a good start," my mom asks.

"Nah, they'll be fine. I think Sawyer might be just what my mom needs."

Our flight is leaving at one. We need to be at the airport at least an hour early. We spend the morning hanging out around the kitchen table, catching up with my parents and uncle Chip. My mom is going to drop us off at the airport.

"Are you going to move back?" my mom asks once we're in the chair.

I look at Will and smile. "Maybe."

Her face breaks into a wide grin. Will laughs when she pulls his face to hers to give him a kiss on the cheek. "You bring my girl home, Will."

She doesn’t park, dropping us off at the departures. She kisses both of us, her eyes wet. We stand on the curb and wave until her car is out of sight before going in and checking our bags. They print our tickets there, and my mouth drops when I see we're both now first class.

Will laughs at my expression. "Sawyer wanted us to sit together."

I shake my head. We get through security and wait at our gate. Once we're boarded, I laugh, thinking how this all started a week ago. But not really. Will and I started that day he walked into my English class and stole my heart. We're landing before too long. Once we've collected our luggage, I pull Sawyer's parking ticket out of my purse. She had written down the row she parked in so we wouldn’t have to try and find her car. Will laughs when he sees her Hummer.

I shrug. "She figures if she gets in an accident she'll just drive over the other car."

"What is her deal?" Will asks as he loads our luggage.

I pause. "She never told me the whole story, but she doesn’t seem to worry about money. It's not something she ever talks about."

As we drive to my condo, I point out places along the way. Mountains, the office of the first business I signed in Colorado, Sawyer’s and my first apartment complex, my office, and finally my home. I pull into my parking spot, suddenly nervous that Will is going to see my place. I wonder what he will think, if he will like it. Once we're inside, I don’t have any time to worry about it before Will has my back pressed up against the inside of the front door.

"Well hello," I breathe as his lips move to my neck.

"Hey," he chuckles, pulling my dress up.

"I have a bed, you know."

"Here's good," he says, unbuttoning his shorts.

~*~

Will comes in to work with me the next day. It's surreal introducing him to all of my employees. At lunch, I drive him back to my condo. He tries his best to convince me to stay with him for the rest of the afternoon. He has ample powers of persuasion, but I want to have a meeting to discuss my move to Atlanta. I want their input. There are multiple ways this could go. I could keep the office intact and work remotely from Atlanta. I could forgo renewing the lease on the office space and let everyone work remotely, or I could sell the entire company and my new business pipeline to a competitor. I don’t see the last option happening. I don’t want to give up my baby.

When I get back to work, I call everyone into our conference room and discuss my plans. We discuss all my ideas and everyone getting to work remotely is the clear favorite. I was hoping it would be because with the money