“Come here,” he said. “I’m sorry things are tough right now.”
“They are and they aren’t.” She moved over and climbed on his lap in the chair. Lucky jumped down. “I think things work for us so much because we both have other obligations. I’m not bothered by the fact you’re not always around. But I think you’re bothered that I’m not. Right?”
He could lie and say no, but she’d see right through it.
“Maybe I’d like you around more,” he said. “But I also know that’s not fair of me to ask you that.”
“It’s not,” she said. He frowned, but she leaned in to kiss him. “You’re not asking it of me. But I know you want to.”
“It’s not much different,” he said.
“It is,” she said. “I appreciate that you’re not putting the pressure on me or us. I tell myself we’ll have all the time together that we want when the season is done and then I’ll want to kick you out. Maybe I’m trying to get a lot done so that I can take a little time away with you.”
He was trying not to focus on her saying she’d kick him out.
“Like a vacation?”
“Yes,” she said. “We can figure those things out. What’s wrong now? Your eyes just changed.”
“For someone who says they don’t do well with people, you sure can see through me.”
“Maybe this is what love is all along. And you know, I’ll be writing about that too.”
He tapped her on the nose. “You’re cute when you’re joking.”
“But I’m not joking,” she said. “I mean it. You have made me feel deeper with my characters by being with you.”
“Thanks,” he said. “I mean that.”
“Good,” she said. “But you’re distracting me. Why did your eyes change?”
“You said after the season when we’ll be around each other that you’ll want to kick me out. I won’t be underfoot. I know you’re writing. Hell, it didn’t even bother me you missed some of our video dates.”
She wrinkled her nose at that. “I apologized. I lose track of time.”
“And you can never find your phone to text,” he said. “I know.”
“See, you understand me.”
“I understand you enough that if you want to get back at whatever crap you read online about us having trouble, we can shut it up quickly.”
“How is that?” she asked.
“Do you want to do a live chat with your readers while I’m here?”
Her jaw dropped. “Like you’ll talk to them? I get questions and comments a lot but not as much. I try to address those things quickly in the beginning and then move on to my books.”
“Yes, we can do a live chat. Then I’ll let you do what you want after.”
“I have one better,” she said. “I normally give a bit more time to my readers to be around and I have nothing prepared to drop a chat at the last minute. But, we can take a short video of us together and post it on our feeds. Good enough, don’t you think?”
He smiled. “We can do that,” he said. “I’m not good with those things.”
“Leave it to me,” she said, jumping up and then stopping in the middle of the room.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I don’t know where my phone is,” she said.
