Page 241 of Safe With You

“I can take the invitation back.”

His hand closed around mine before I could pull it from the table.

“No, you can’t.”

I looked down at our hands.

Then at him.

“So?”

“So we’ll be there.”

“Mila’s going to be excited,” he added.

“You think?”

“You invited her somewhere with food and you.”

I laughed. “In that order?”

“Depends on what’s for dinner.”

“Wow.”

“I’m raising an honest child.”

“You’re raising a menace.”

“That too.”

His thumb moved slowly over the back of my hand, and I looked down at where our fingers were still tangled together.

Sunday dinner.

My parents. Ellis and Mila.

The thought should probably have felt heavier than it did. Instead, I was wondering whether Daddy would pull Ellis outside to show him the grill like he did anytime somebody gave him half an opportunity to talk about it. Whether Mama would ask Mila what she liked to eat and somehow make sure at least three of those things were on the table by Sunday.

I was already making room for them.

Nobody asked me to invite them. Ellis certainly hadn’t been pushing me to introduce him to my parents.

I wanted them there.

For a long time after Lucas, I protected every piece of the life I’d built back for myself. My home. My bookstore. My routines.

Ellis hadn’t asked me to rearrange any of them. Somehow, he’d just been fitting into the spaces I chose to give him.

Tonight, I gave him another one.

“You okay?”

I looked up.

Ellis was watching me.

“Yeah.”