Easton sat up then and pulled away from me, and quickly turned around so we were face-to-face. The smile that was beginning to feel like one of my biggest accomplishments made an appearance again. “Maybe we can call it a start.”

Easton’s optimism, his faith in things working out sort of bowled me over. “All right.”

He came in for a kiss, his tongue stealing into my mouth, igniting feelings in my body that I could not even really name.

When we broke apart, his face looked all business, but there was a spark in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. “Okay,” he said, suddenly serious. “Tell me what you wanted to discuss about Ari.”

For a moment, I felt that pang, the one that chastised me for forgetting what was important. I tamped it down and remembered Ari’s words. I would not write myself out of the future I was working for. “I wanted to ask you about your friend who does immigration law.”

He nodded, immediately grabbing his phone from the table. “Of course, I’ll reach out to him tonight.”

I bit back a smile, because for all he could be so laid back, there was intensity to Easton when it came to his work that I really admired. “Thanks, but come here first,” I said, my voice suddenly husky and low.

He lifted his eyes from what he was doing on his phone. I grabbed his hand to bring him in against my chest again, and as always, he came.

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

Easton

“Are you going to take that?” I asked, barely able to contain the grin that had been pasted on my face for the past hour. Patrice and I had finished our enormous bowls of soup and instead of running home like I would have expected, he’d cleaned up and then gotten back on the couch with me.

I’d been too scared to ask if he was staying, but eventually he just grabbed the control and turned on the TV. We’d been dozing while an episode of a superhero show droned on when his phone rang.

I handed him the phone, which had Nesto’s face flashing on the screen.

I tried to get up to give him space, but he just pulled me back to him. I had no idea what was happening, but when he put that big arm across my chest as he answered the call, I let myself melt into him. I was not going to stress and I was not going to question anything happening between us tonight.

“What’s up, brother?” Patrice’s soft voice brimmed with affection when he spoke to his friend.

“Where are you, man? I’m at your place.” Nesto was pretty loud, so it wasn’t very hard to listen in on the conversation.