Page 46 of Crushes to WHAT

I mirror him, pressing my hand against his prickly beard.

He leans his head into my touch, eyelids drooping.

I take a deep breath before taking an even deeper dive. “What should I wear to meet your parents?”

His chestnut eyes alight, and I know with every fiber of my being that I’ve made the right choice. If I’m going to drown, there’s no better place to do it than in Emerson’s arms.

Chapter Twenty-Four

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We love a man who wastes no time.

Almond

It takes less than twenty minutes for Emerson to arrange for us to have dinner with his parents tomorrow night. It only took that long because fifteen of those minutes were spent on skin-tingling kisses after Emerson declared a timeout on our fake-dating scheme so we could have a real-dating celebration.

“My mom says hello,” he tells me after he ends the call and tosses his cell onto the cluttered coffee table. “Dad’s excited to meet you.” His brows furrow. “Unfortunately, they’re inviting Eris, and I’m not sure how she’ll behave. She’s been in a mood lately, and there’s a chance she might not be too pleasant to be around. I’ll do what I can, but I’ll go ahead and apologize in advance for the probability that she doesn’t employ the manners she was raised with.”

“I don’t mind,” I reply, sliding from his embrace to get my own cell from my purse.

Emerson frowns. “You left me.”

Cell phone in hand, I carefully arrange my fingers to cover the photo card of my favorite K-pop idol peeking through the clear case as I return to the couch and fall back into Emerson’s open arms.

“Better,” he mutters. “And you’re not fooling me. I’ve seen your phone before. And I am not blind to the man laid out in diamonds on your table.”

I blush, clear my throat, and avoid eye contact. Then I deftly change the subject. “Meet The Parents with your family is tomorrow. Would the day after work for my family?”

Emerson’s head tilts. “I’ve met your parents,” he says. “A bunch of times. I’ve known them pretty much my entire life. They’re community staples.”

“Yeah, but you haven’t met them as my…” Um. “Emerson.”

His nose wrinkles. “I both love and hate that. Your Emerson. I’d much prefer the title husband.”

My skin tingles. “I don’t think you should meet my parents as my husband without meeting them as my Emerson first,” I say, reasonably. Nevermind that my heart, brain, soul, body, and being feel the opposite of reasonable right now.

He grunts. “If I must. But I’ll warn you, this will be the only time I meet them as only your Emerson.”

“Only my Emerson is only my everything,” I reply. My lower lip juts.

“Soon, I’ll be your everything and your always,” he retorts. “Soon, you’ll have me in every way you can. Legally, bodily, joyfully.”

I abandon my pout immediately, and my breaths quicken. A spike of anxiety flashes cold at the nape of my neck. “What if your parents don’t like me? What if Eris doesn’t get over her irritation with me?”

He shrugs. “Then they spend our wedding thinking I’m an idiot, and I spend it knowing they’re wrong.”

“Oh my gosh,” I whisper as a cold sweat beads at my hairline. “You think there’s a chance they’ll all hate me.”

He snorts. “Zero percent, but my soon-to-be wife likes to know what the worst-case scenario looks like, and no matter what happens, the worst-case scenario will always end with us together.” He shrugs his big, broad shoulders. “My parents aren’t stupid, though. They’ll take one look at you and realize you’re perfect, just like I did.”

“Oh my gosh,” I breathe. “We’re love at first sight.”

He smiles softly and kisses the tip of my nose. “Of all our tropes, that’s my favorite one.”

“The book club is going to be so disappointed in me,” I grimace. “I’m a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers girlie.”

“They’ll get over it. I can’t do any more slow burn with you, and I’d rather take a sawzall to my own foot than enemies you in any way.”