Her smile is wide and bright. “Yeah, much better. I’m gonna tell Mom and Dad I don’t wanna do it anymore and let my next hobby come to me.”

“I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks, Livvy.” She leans across the console to give me a hug and then jumps out of the car and slams my door shut.

“Hey, what I tell you about slamming my doors? Freeda is sensitive.”

“God, I love you,” Kai grumbles as he kisses a path from the sensitive spot behind my ear down to the curve of my neck.

It’s not exactly comfortable straddling his lap in the front seat of his car, but we have to steal our moments when we can. Since our first time last year, we cannot get enough of each other. He’s perfect in every way, and after the day I had I want to soak up all his perfection. My dad found Kylie’s Whataburger cup in my car because I stupidly forgot to check behind her yesterday, and he went off on me about taking my training seriously. It turned into an all-out drag-out fight about boundaries and ended with me in tears. He always knows how to reduce me down to nothing.

When Kai asked me to sneak out and take a drive with him, I couldn’t say yes fast enough.

“Mmm, I love you,” I whisper back. I hum in contentment when he pulls my shirt over my head, leaving me in my bra.

“How was your day?” he asks as he bites my neck.

“It was, ahh, it was fine.” My words falter when he sucks on my earlobe.

“Just fine?” He kisses my collarbone.

“Mm-hmm, just fine.” I trace the planes of his chest under his shirt before I push it up and over his head.

“What’d you do?”

I giggle as he licks the shell of my ear. “Fought with my dad. Same shit, different day.”

He stops kissing me and sits up to make eye contact with me. “Are you okay?”

“Yessss, I’m fine and I don’t wanna talk about him. I wanna do more of this.” I grab him and kiss him, licking his bottom lip until he grants me entrance so our tongues can meet.

“One day, you won’t have to deal with him anymore.”

“Oh yeah? Where’s he gonna go?” Because I can’t imagine a day where he won’t be up my ass.

“Well, you’ll be in the pros and I’ll be a world-renowned physical therapist and we’ll be too busy jet-setting to listen to him. He’ll be lucky if he hears from you on birthdays and holidays.”

“Jet-setting, huh? I like that. What else will we be doing?”

“Whatever you wanna do, baby.”

“Hmmm. I want a beach house somewhere.”

He sucks his teeth. “Easy.”

“I wanna get married in your parents’ backyard.”

“Oh yeah? They’d love that.”

“And at least three kids.”

“I’ll give you all the kids.”