“I love how carefree this one is. And the fussiness of the crowns mixed with the flowers just says everything I needed it to.”

He wasn't wrong. The steam from the pool was making a natural hazy filter. “I have a few video clips of this moment, too, which I think we can work with. Great set of assets.” He tilted his torso enough so that he could put the phone back on its charger and then he wrapped his arms around me.

I looked up at his face. I wanted more kissing. All the kissing. And unlike my previous relationship, Austin had no goal he was trying to reach. We kissed for maybe an hour, before he started to stroke my hair. “Sleep, Taylor. Let’s just do sleep tonight.”

So I got to be in his arms when I dreamed of him. It was something I would love to be used to.

* * *

In the morning I woke to Austin tapping on his laptop at his desk. I was awake for a few minutes regarding him when he finally turned around to smile at me.

“Morning, pumpkin. These pictures from last night are straight fire. Come look.” He held out a hand to me. I shuffled out of bed and wrapped the blanket around my shoulders.

Austin pulled me to sit on his lap. “We have so many first choices. The camera loves you so much, it’s fantastic.”

He started clicking through the offerings. It was another level looking at them on his huge computer monitor. One after another, I had pictures that had me smiling at Axel, looking him eye to eye. Our crowns were adorable. The focus of the pictures was just slightly different than I'd expect. And the changes allowed for the negative space and greenery to be highlighted.

“You do great work. Wow.”

“Yeah, well, I had a great subject.” He leaned forward and pulled down my blanket, kissing me on the shoulder.

I leaned back against him. I was glad he was still feeling romantic. Whether or not I still got to kiss him was the only question I wanted answered this morning.

His phone vibrated. “Oh, great. This is the CEO. She’s thrilled and I have to take this.”

I stood as he did. “Yes, Beth, I know. Thank you so much for all the kind words.”

After gathering my clothes for the day, I went to the bathroom to get ready. Sunday was a hard focus on school day for me, and I needed to spend significant time on some of my assignments.

I still freshened up and brushed my teeth and hair. My cheeks seemed to already have a rosy glow, and I blamed that on thinking about Austin. When I came out of the bathroom, Austin was just finishing up his phone call. The bedroom door was open and Endgame was leaning on the frame. Axel was busy getting pets from him.

I stilled halfway across the room.