Deciding to come here was a huge decision, but I had no idea until that moment how badly I needed to do this—to retrace my steps in a way, and I had no idea how much it would affect me.

My shoulders were lighter.

My thoughts a little less heavy.

My heart a whole lot fuller.

Two fingers pressed under my chin and tilted my head up. Warm brown eyes stared into mine.

“You here with me?” he asked.

“I’m always with you.”

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

I woke in the middle of the night, surprised to find a hard, unmovable body pressed against mine. The cobwebs of sleep lifted as I turned slightly. “What are you doing?”

“I missed you.” Brock’s arm tightened around my waist. “Plus, I behaved last night and stayed out of this room.”

He had . . . much to my disappointment. I’d hope he’d sneak into my room, but when we came back from Mona’s we parted ways with what was a pretty chaste kiss.

Thanksgiving had been a chaotic crazy mess of awesomeness. My family behaved as expected. They were nosy and demanding and all around lovable as they asked one question after another.

Afterwards, Brock and I had talked with my father and my uncles about our proposal to convert the two rooms into a dance studio. My father and uncles didn’t immediately scoff at the idea, but Andre looked doubtful. We laid out all the pros and cons for them, comparing cost to potential profit, and by the time the conversation was done and we lost half of them to the football game, I was feeling pretty confident about it. Dad had been eyeing those papers with that gleam in his eye, the same one he got when he saw a new recruit he knew he could shape into a winner.

“If my parents caught you in here . . .” I stopped, rethinking where I was going with that. “Actually, my parents wouldn’t care. They’d probably applaud it.”

Laughing softly, Brock nuzzled my neck. “You’re right.”

“Isn’t that kind of weird?”

He kissed the space below my pulse. “A little.”

Wiggling around so I was facing him, I threw an arm over his waist. “You are not going to be comfortable in this bed. You barely fit.”

“I’ll be fine.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “Besides, we’re just going to sleep.”

“For real?” I said dryly.

“Yep.” His nose brushed over my cheek. “As much as I want to get my mouth between those pretty legs of yours, we’re in your parents’ house. Not happening.”

A surprised laugh left me. “You are being serious.”

“Yeah, I am. Not going to disrespect your parents like that.”

“Oh my,” I whispered, giggling. “Look at you, being all gentleman-like and stuff.”

“Shut it.” He nipped at my lip.

Another quiet laugh left me. “So, I was thinking.”

“Oh no.”