Harper stared at him for a moment, thinking. Then, she said, "Alright. Let's do this. If you're ready."
Dash nodded. "Mom's gonna wonder where I've been. The same thing happened when Holden and Katie got together. She's like a mom to him, too."
Harper bit her thumb. "Are you sure she's ready to lose two boys in two months?"
Dash reached up and drew her back in close. He didn't like being in the same bed and not touching her. He didn't like not touching her in general. The feelings were growing by the minute.
"She'll be ready when she understands that I'm…that I'm serious about us," he said, holding back what he wanted to say. It was too soon for I love you. He needed to be sure, and he didn't want to spook her.
As Harper covered his midsection with one leg while kissing him goodnight, he felt himself growing aroused once again. He couldn't get enough of her lips, her body, her mind, and her sweet, caring soul. That kiss bled into more kissing, touching, a tangle of lips, and a slow, sleepy sensuous expression of their togetherness.
When the moon shone high in the sky and bathed them in its yellow light, and they'd both climaxed together for the second time that night, Harper's chatter lulled him to sleep, happily.
"We're going to blow everyone's minds tomorrow," she said.
"Mmhmm," he agreed and fell into another deep, satisfying sleep.
Chapter Seventeen
Harper
"We all knew," Holden said.
Harper gaped and looked around at those people. Holden and Katie, Mrs. Fitzgerald, Levi and Fiona, Ricky, Alex, Billy, Declan, Honey, and Griff. All of them stared back at her as if she'd just announced she was going to the store for milk. Like it was the most mundane fact known to humankind.
Dash and Harper had spent all day Saturday and Sunday together. Dash had only left Saturday night to work his shift at Crow Bar after agreeing to keep it a secret for the weekend.
The crew had gathered for its weekly Monday morning cinnamon buns at Crow Bar. It was a bright and sunny late winter morning, and everyone seemed more relieved than surprised.
"You knew?"
Katie nodded. "The two of you cannot keep your hands off each other."
Harper protested. "What are you talking about?"
Katie continued. "Remember when you came to Holden's boxing match just to piss Dash off? You were baiting him."
"I wasn't baiting him. I was there because I like a boxing match."
Katie ignored that, shifting her gaze to Dash. He had that familiar severe look on his face like the world was against him. "And he took the bait."
Dash spoke up then. "I didn't take the bait."
Harper exclaimed, "There was no bait."
Blithely, Katie replied, "Sure. Well, that's not what I saw when he threw you over his shoulder and stomped out of the Union Hall like he was going to take you back to his cave for a good railing."
Holden sprayed coffee out of his mouth. "Katie! Mrs. Fitzgerald is right there."
Mrs. Fitzgerald played it off. "I do know how babies are made. You kids act like I'm purer than the blessed Virgin."
Fiona cackled.
Harper bit her lip, still not knowing if she should be terrified of Mrs. Fitzgerald. The woman was holding something back. "Are you upset that we told you like this, Mrs. Fitzgerald?"
The older woman handed Harper a plate of gooey cinnamon buns. "It wasn't the best way for a mother to find out about her son's new girlfriend, and I'll be honest, it's going to take me a minute to wrap my head around my son pairing up with a Ross. But I'll manage."
Harper hardly expected a warm welcome from Dash's mom. She wondered how much she knew about the facts of the two feuding families.
Harper looked around sheepishly as she held the cinnamon bun, not sure if her stomach was calm enough to eat anything at the moment.
Fortunately, Dash's arm that was around her shoulder held her tight, squeezing out a bit of her anxiety. "Maybe you all saw something we didn't see ourselves," Dash said.
She looked up at him. He'd never given up an argument so fast. "Really?"
He shrugged. "I'm trying on this new attitude. Feels good."
Billy scoffed. "You're still the same empty-headed string bean with a bad temper. Don't get too proud of yourself."
Harper felt Dash stiffen next to her. "Oh, Billy," Dash said. "I would never let you down."
Chapter Eighteen
Dash
He braced himself for the third degree from his mother, because he had questions himself.
Harper had said her goodbyes and cut out of breakfast early, having errands to run before work. Dash drove with his mom, with the intent of picking up a few things from his apartment. He knew his mom wasn't going to approve of that last part.
"I was wondering why I hadn't seen you around at all over the weekend," she remarked as they sat in the driveway. The ride to his childhood home had been spent in silence.
"I'm sorry for springing this on you. It all happened fast," he said.
She sighed. "The same thing happened to my little Holden."
Holden might not have been the tallest but was the brawniest of all of the bouncers at Crow Bar, but Dash wasn't about to quibble with his mom.
"You know, that girl isn't going to be satisfied with a husband working for a defense contractor. You know what she's like."
Dash turned to his mom. "What do you mean?"
Mrs. Fitzgerald worked hard to speak with kindness, but Dash could tell the old feud was tainting her tenuous grasp on keeping an open mind. "She and her mothers handcuffed themselves to a tree when the company broke ground on that factory where you now work, you know."
Dash conjured the memory of that. "Oh yeah. I forgot about that." He couldn't help but chuckle. "You know, they have a point. We make things that get shipped around the world to kill people."
"You have health care; that's all I'm
