Page 41 of This Time Around

I couldn’t keep from grimacing, but then I realized what word he’d just used. “Well, I want myboyfriendto be happy, so if wearing makeup and gowns does that for him, then I’ll find a way to deal with it.”

“You’re so adorable,” Milo said. “I see what you did with tricking me into saying we were boyfriends.”

“I did nothing of the sort,” I denied. “But I admit that I love hearing it.”

“Is that what’s bothering you, Andy? You don’t know where you stand with me?”

I tipped my head to the side then gave a little nod.

“You didn’t just wear me down, Slugger. I’ve wanted you right here all along. It took us a ridiculously long time to reach this point, but here you sit beside me. Tonight, I’ll lay my head on the pillow next to yours and thank God that you’re alive and healthy. Tomorrow, I’ll wake up and thank him that I get another day to love you.”

“Wow,” I said breathlessly. “That’s an incredibly sweet thing for you to say.”

“Then, I’ll show that appreciation by fucking or sucking your cock.”

“There’s my guy,” I said then threw my head back and laughed. “Where do you see this thing going between us?”

“We’ll know when we get there, won’t we?”

He had an excellent point. We could write down a list of everything we expected to happen between us, but we had no idea if they’d come true. Besides, isn’t the journey the best part?

“So, where are you taking me?” Milo asked when I picked him up for our date.

“We’ll know when we get there, won’t we?”

“You’ve waited all week for that chance, haven’t you?”

I shot him a smirk before answering. “Yep, I was prepared to wait longer if I had to though.” It was so much fun being the person who had the answers instead of the one who had to guess. “Would you like a hint?”

“Nah,” Milo replied casually. “I like surprises.”

Okay, his easy acceptance was a little bit of a letdown. I was kind of hoping he’d at least offer up sexual favors if I held out. Obviously, I’d gotten over my concerns that Milo thought I only wanted him around for sex.

Milo laughed when I pulled into the parking lot of Gemini’s Burgers and Fries. It looked like a run-down dive in the middle of nowhere between Blissville and Cincinnati, but they had the absolute best burgers I’d ever had. I brought Milo here on our first date in high school.

“Kicking it old school, huh, Slugger?”

“I thought it might be fun,” I said with a sly grin. The place was always hopping, no matter the day of the week. Saturdays were even nuttier. “It looks really busy, so we can go somewhere else if you want.”

“I don’t mind waiting,” Milo said. “Do we need to be at a certain place at a specific time?” I saw what he was doing. He wasn’t nearly as cavalier about our destination as he wanted me to believe.

“Yes, but we have plenty of time to get there.” I nodded to the restaurant. “If you’re game, I am too.”

When we walked through the door, I was amazed how little things had changed since my last visit fourteen years ago. I’d craved the food but couldn’t seem to talk myself in to going without Milo since it became “our place” when we were dating. The layout was the same, the pictures of sponsored softball teams from the eighties still hung on the wall. Man, those guys wore some serious shorty shorts back in the day. The waitresses were different, of course, because Carl liked them young and pretty, even though he was the furthest thing from it.

“I see Carl still likes to sing along with country music at the top of his lungs,” Milo said to me. The kitchen was open for people to watch Carl cook their food and the waitresses assemble their baskets. It was kind of an odd setup, but it made Carl’s cooking and singing part of the dining experience.

That was my least favorite part since I couldn’t get into the music. “You want to sing a duet with him?” I asked.

“You mean again?” Milo asked with a raised brow. “Don’t tell me you forgot about the Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood performance?”

“How could I ever forget the look on Carl’s face when you just joined in?” I started laughing then I realized what Milo had said. “So, you haven’t been here in a while?”

“Not since our last date,” Milo said. “It didn’t feel right coming here without you.”

“Same here. Mom and Dad wanted to come here as soon as I got home, but I told them I wanted to go somewhere else. I could tell by their sympathetic glances that they knew why.”

“Yep, my parents stopped mentioning it to me also.”