She wondered if this was what it was like for couples who shared their lives together. Talking over dinner, laughing together, sharing their days and their likes and dislikes. This was what she’d been missing all these years, what she craved.

What she wanted so much she ached with yearning for it.

And now, as she sat with Bash in the wee hours of the morning, she realized she’d never felt quite so … content.

But he didn’t fit the parameters of her list. So this had to be wrong.

Right?

She’d never been more confused.

After they ate they watched TV for a while. Bash actually found an old romantic comedy and they argued over its relative merits. She thought it was funny and over-the-top romantic. Bash thought it was unrealistic, so Chelsea made the point that it was fictional, not realistic. In the end, they agreed to disagree, though Bash liked the happily ever after at the end. Apparently that was a big thing to him.

She smiled about that and laid her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her.

They fell asleep that way. Bash woke her up later and they wandered off to bed. He made love to her softly, quietly, in a way that made her breath catch and her body ache for him. Afterward, he pulled her against him and she fell asleep with her head on his chest.

It was a pretty perfect night.

Chapter 29

For the past few weeks, he and Chelsea had gone to the movies, out to dinner a few more times, and even to see a musical, which hadn’t been too damn bad, actually. He’d even gone to brunch with Chelsea and the whole gang one Sunday morning, which had been fun. He rarely hung out with everyone on Sundays because he was typically dead asleep when they were all out for brunch.

They were all surprised and called him a vampire, but they were as glad to see him as he was to see them.

He needed to start taking more weekends off. He owned the damn business, and he’d been grooming Hall for a while now. It was time Bash started living his life instead of giving it all to the bar.

Which brought him back around to thoughts of taking a vacation. And he wanted to take Chelsea with him. Now that it was summer, and she was off school, it was the perfect time. She’d ended up not having to teach summer school, which was great. And he’d talked to Hall about taking over more responsibility at the bar so Bash could take some time off. Hall said he was wondering if Bash was married to the bar, or if he was ever going to trust him to run it in his absence. Bash felt kind of bad about that, but he’d invested everything he had in No Hope at All. If anything went wrong, he’d lose it all.

Hall assured him he and the staff would handle his baby just fine while he was gone.

Now he just had to talk to Chelsea.

He’d texted her this morning. She said she was doing laundry, but other than that, she was available. When he asked if he could come over to talk, she didn’t respond right away. In fact, it took her like a half hour. Finally, she replied yes.

So he headed over there and knocked on her door.

She had her hair pulled up in a high ponytail, and she was wearing a sleeveless top and capris.

He gave her a quick kiss. “You look cute.”

“I’m not sure what that means,” she said, standing aside to let him in.

“It means you look pretty.”

“I’m doing laundry and cleaning my kitchen. No one looks pretty when they do that.”

“You do.” She always looked pretty, even today, with her casual clothes and no makeup on.

She laughed. “Thanks. What brings you by?”

“I wanted to talk to you.”

“It sounds serious. And kind of ominous.”

“It’s neither. It’s fun stuff.”

“That sounds a lot better. Come on in and sit down. Would you like some iced tea?”

“Sure.”

“Have a seat and I’ll be right back.”

Her place smelled like lemons. It was a small apartment, with a tiny kitchen that overlooked an equally tight living room, but everything was orderly. She had the blinds open, and sun poured in. For an apartment, it wasn’t bad.

“Checking out my place?” she asked, handing him his glass of tea.

“Yeah. It’s nice. I like the light in here.”

“Thanks.”

“But I can still see you in a house of your own. So you can get that dog you want.”

She sat next to him on the sofa. “You’re right that I need to do something about that. I’ve lived in apartments since I graduated college. I’m so tired of it, especially with the laundry being downstairs. I’ve saved plenty of money and I can definitely afford the down payment.” She shrugged.

“But …”

“I guess in my head I was waiting to buy that house with Mr. Perfect.”

“Ah.” He took a sip of tea and laid the glass down on the table. For some reason, his head immediately filled with images of him and Chelsea buying a place together. Or of her moving into his house.

Until just this moment, he hadn’t realized how far into this relationship he’d come. And she obviously wasn’t there at all. At least not that she’d said to him.

He shook off the thoughts and got down to business.

“So I wanted to talk to you about a vacation.”

She frowned. “You’re going on vacation? I thought you never took that much time off.”

“Typically I don’t, but I’ve been training Hall for a while now, and I think he’s ready to take over for me and run the bar while I’m gone.”