Page 54 of Temporarily in Love

“What do you think?” I asked Lila as she stared at my computer screen in shock.

“You did all of this?” she asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, it’s what you wanted, right?”

My web design skills had significantly improved since high school when I made that website for her parents’ bar. This redesign had been tough, but it looked so much better. I had worked my ass off getting this done for her. Felix pushed all his projects to the side to finalize the logo and work on the wooden sign at my request.

Maybe I should have stalled him and asked him to tell her it would take a while. Since she told Felix they wanted the harp design, I felt her pulling away. She said she was going to stay through Halloween, but that was fast approaching.

“What do you think?” I repeated my question, shaking my morose thoughts away.

She closed the lid of my laptop, and when she looked up at me, she had a big smile on her face. “I love it!”

“Really?”

Her brow furrowed. “Did you think I wouldn’t?”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “I wanted you to like it. How are things going at the bar?”

“Good! We have a full staff now, so I don’t have to pick up shifts, but I’ve been trying to get my dad to take some time off so I can help with the other stuff.”

Hmm, if she was leaving, that didn’t make sense. That sounded like she was in it for the long haul. A part of me wanted to ask her to stay for good. I still loved Lila with every fiber of my being, but it was unfair of me to ask her to uproot her life and move back to our tiny town.

“What’s that?” she asked as she saw the sign on my kitchen table wrapped in tissue paper.

“The sign.”

Her eyes went wide. “Felix finished the sign, already? I told him he could take his time!”

“I wanted to show your dad tonight.”

She put her hands to her chest and looked up at me with so much love and adoration. “Aw, Dec, are you nervous about dinner with my parents tonight?”

“I feel like I’m sixteen again. I want your dad to like the website and what Felix did with the sign.”

She got up from her seat and wrapped her arms around my neck. She gave me a quick kiss. “It’s just my dad, plus he loves you.”

I wasn’t sure about that. I thought he felt sorry for me after his daughter left me broken-hearted. I didn’t know what he thought of me now, especially since she barely left my bed this past week. Not that I minded. I loved having her here. I had to get my fill of her before she was gone.

She cupped my face. “He’ll love it. Now let’s go before my sister asks if we’re done fucking.”

I slid my hands down her tight body and grabbed her luscious ass in my hands. “We could do that…”

She slapped my hands away. “Later, baby. Let’s go!”

I grabbed my computer and the wooden sign, and we walked out of my apartment. It was a crisp fall evening, a rare one where I actually was home for a normal dinner time. When Lila said her parents wanted to invite me for dinner, I couldn’t say no.

I slid my hand in hers, and we walked the block to her childhood home. When she opened the door, the smell of a good home-cooked meal wafted toward us. Lila’s mom was an excellent cook; it had been a long time since I’d been in this house for one of her meals. I spent a lot of time here as a kid after my parents died. The Sullivans had been great to me, especially when my brother worked nights at their bar trying to keep food on the table for us.

“Auntie Lila! Uncle Declan!” Cora squealed excitedly when she saw us. She immediately ran over to Lila.

“Sweetie,” Kelsey said as she walked into the front room to greet us. “We talked about this. Declan isn’t your uncle.”

“Not yet,” muttered Brian from behind her.

Lila fixed him with a glare, and I pretended I hadn’t heard that. It wouldn’t have been the first time someone in Lila’s family asked if we were back together. Cora kept asking us when we were going to give her a cousin.

“Lemme go find your dad,” I said to Lila.