Page 37 of Inside Out

“Every day?”

“At least five or six days a week.”

“I’m going to research a diet that will allow me to keep up with your…um…insatiable appetites,” Rome said, but he didn’t look the least bit worried he couldn’t hang with me.

“I have a feeling you’re going to do just fine without any help from super foods.” I ran my fingers through his hair. “In all my fantasies, I never imagined one thing I learned about you tonight.”

“Uh-oh,” he said ominously. “Do I want to know?”

I tweaked his nipple playfully. “I didn’t know you matched your underwear to your shirt.”

Rome threw his head back and laughed. “I don’t. It was pure coincidence.”

I snatched my T-shirt off the floor and wiped both of our chests off before I grabbed the blanket off the back of my couch and covered us. “I want to hear about the rest of your day,” I said.

“I want to hear about yours too.”

“There were some huge revelations today,” I told him while stroking my fingers over his smooth skin. “My brother has grappled with some big decisions lately, but he finally knows what he wants for his life.” I told Rome about the conversation we’d had on the way to our grandparents’ house and then meeting Camilla and Manny. “He wasn’t just my kid brother anymore; he was this grown-ass man with a family. I’ve never seen him look so happy. That little boy has him wrapped around his chubby little finger too.”

“What about you?” Rome asked, tracing a heart on my chest. “Were you wrapped around Manny’s finger too?”

“Completely,” I admitted. Rome hummed happily in my arms. “Besides traumatizing your nieces, what else happened at dinner?”

I listened as Rome told me about the day with his family and was blown away by his openness when he talked about stopping by Peter’s grave. We talked, and we kissed long past the time we should’ve called it a night, considering we both had to be at the school by seven in the morning. I knew I wouldn’t regret the lack of sleep, and I wouldn’t even need to get a caffeine buzz first thing in the morning, because I would be high on the promise I saw in Romeo Bradley’s eyes when he kissed me goodnight.