Page 167 of Offside

I leaned into his shoulder.

“Eli looks good,” Ryan said quietly, watching him at the pool steps. Iris had climbed back up on Griffin and was dripping on his head with tremendous satisfaction. Eli was smiling. Properly. “Better than last year.”

“He found a nanny. Apparently Iris approved her on day one.”

“Iris approves of very few people.”

“She approved of you.”

“She approved of my water bottle,” Ryan said. “I think she wanted the water bottle.”

I laughed and felt him press his lips to my hair.

“Hey,” he said. “Can I ask you something?”

I looked up at him. “Of course.”

“Move in with me.” Not a question. He had worked out the logistics and was only telling me now. “Or I move in with you. Your house first, until we find something that’s ours. Something we can grow into.” He paused. “I know I take up a lot of room⁠—”

“So much room.”

“I know. But I want to come home to you every night. Not some nights. Every night.”

The afternoon light had gone flat and warm, the shadows stretching long across the flagstone, the whole yard tipping toward a Phoenix sunset. In the pool, Iris was laughing. Cole was losing tactically to a four-year-old and couldn’t have been happier about it. Griffin caught my eye across the yard and looked away, which was as close to a blessing as Griffin was currently giving.

I thought about something we can grow into.

“Okay,” I said.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” I turned my face up. “But you’re getting rid of at least three of those kitchen gadgets.”

He huffed. “Four. I have four sous vide machines.”

“Ryan.”

“They were on sale at different times⁠—”

“Three go.”

“One,” he said. “I’ll keep one.”

I kissed him and felt him smile against my mouth, and Paige made a sound beside us that confirmed the large-format wall print was now a certainty.

Paige refilled her glass and leaned back, pleased with herself, and she had earned every bit of it.

“September,” she said.

“October.”

“I have the voice note, Maren.” She sipped. “Timestamped.”

The warm pressure in my chest had been there all afternoon. I was getting better at sitting with it instead of filing it somewhere manageable.

Something we can grow into.

I was thinking about what that looked like.