cover by baby_blake
Chapter Thirty Nine
"Bruce stand still!" I yell through gritted teeth as I attempt to unhook his leash. "Why are you so damn difficult?" I wheeze as he tries to pull away again, nearly losing his balance because of his missing leg.
He whines when I finally force him to sit so that I can take the leash off of him, and once it's unhooked he stumbles away towards Angel who's sitting on the couch. He prepares himself to launch up next to her and makes it, snuggling next to her.
He licks her ear and she lets out a doggy sigh, resting her head down as he kisses her ear over and over again.
Aw, goals.
I hear a car engine purr into the driveway and a burst of excitement rushes through me.
Hayden's here.
Just the thought of him makes my body tingle with this strange sense of excitement. My breath gets taken from the exhilaration I suddenly feel, and my stomach always does a small flip and a sort of giddy feeling fills it, but that doesn't describe the half of it.
Seconds later the doorbell rings and I have to stop myself from sprinting to the door to let him in.
My mom invited him over for dinner tonight since he's now my boyfriend, and she wants to be able to spend some time getting to know him other than all the things I tell her.
I open the door to see him standing there with a bouquet of tulips in hand- not roses thankfully. He's dressed in dark khakis and a dark blue long-sleeved polo shirt. I grin and step outside into the crisp spring air, but instead of the aroma of the flowers I'm blessed with the scent of his fresh cologne.
"Hey Cupcake," he smiles, setting the flowers down on a rocking chair so that he can hold me when he dips his head down to kiss me. "You look beautiful," he breathes as he glances me over.
I'm wearing a light red sundress with a thin cardigan over top, and I smile at him. "You don't look too bad yourself."
He chuckles and looks down at his outfit, "You think?"
I glance down at the flowers and pick them up, surveying the bouquet. "This was sweet of you, who knew you had it in you?"
He scowls and takes them from me, "I can be a gentleman when I want to be."
"I had to literally force you to get flowers for your mom."
"This is different," he retorts.
I raise a brow and chuckle, "How so? You've already met my mom and you already know she likes you."
He places the flowers down again and places his hands on my waist, pulling me closer to him as he sighs. "It's different this time. I'm nervous, you and I aren't just friends anymore. You're trusting me with your heart, and so is your mom. So I have to show to her that I'm gonna keep it safe."
I smile softly, "She already loves you, Hayden."
He chuckles lightly, "You can reassure me all you want Cupcake, but I'm going to continue to be nervous. Just wait until I have dinner with you and your dad, I'll be sweating bullets."
I smirk and raise a brow, "The Hayden Summers, nervous? That's just unheard of."
He winks at me, "What can I say? You're my weakness." He leans back down to pick up the flowers and pauses. "And spiders."
"And Bruce and Angel when you first met them," I tease.
He sends me a look, "You mean to tell me you wouldn't be scared if you had two giant-ass dogs growling at you?"
"I did." I say with a shrug. "First I met them they were both defending their pups and were snarling at me, but I wasn't scared and I'm still here."
"You sound like you were a wild child," he smirks, stepping closer to me so that his warm breath cascades across my cheeks. "I hope you're wild somewhere else too," he says huskily.
I gulp and fumble to find a response and he chuckles, moving his head forward ever so slightly to brush his lips on mine.
"You know I'm messing with you. There's no rush for that part of this relationship," he says quietly, resting his forehead on mine. "Even though you can barely keep your hands off of me..."
I chuckle and give a small eye roll, "I hate you."
He snorts and lifts his lips to kiss my forehead, "I love you too, Cupcake."
We walk inside hand in hand and waltz into the kitchen, eyes widening as we watch smoke seep out of the oven. It covers my mom's tiny figure as she opens it up and tries to swat it away with the oven-mit. She quickly ditches her future attempts and instead drags the ruined dish out of the oven and throws it onto the stove top.
"Uh, mom?" I ask, still standing in the doorway to the kitchen.
She glances over at us in complete shock, a blush lighting up her cheeks.
"How long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough to see that we're going to be ordering dinner tonight," I say, holding back a laugh.
She deflates when she realizes how right I am and walks over to her phone. "I'll call Domino's."
She dials the number, now known by memory.
"Hi, Frankie? I'd like to order two large cheese and sausage pizzas. Yes this is Lauren. Yes I burned dinner again. No the alarm didn't go off this time, surprisingly."
As she talks on the phone, Hayden leans down to me.
"This happen often?" He asks with his eyes still on my mom having a full on conversation with the poor employee.
I laugh and pull him into the room since the smoke is almost all cleared out, "All the time."
"Oh Hayden did you bring those for me?" My mom asks, finally getting off of the phone with the Domino's worker.
He smiles and hands them to her, "Yes ma'am, pretty flowers for a pretty lady."
She blushes and laughs, "Oh stop."
I roll my eyes and look at him, sticking my finger in my mouth to show I want to gag and he laughs, kissing my temple. "Hey, I told you I gotta woo her."
Soon enough, the pizza arrives and we're sitting at the breakfast nook that doubles as our dinner table.
"So, Hayden, I have to ask," my mom starts, "why letters?"
I glance over at him and see his lips curve up into a smile, he reaches under the table and places his hand on my knee as he replies.
"It's old school. And someone as special to me as Reagan deserved more than your average DM," he says, squeezing my knee.
"Why stay anonymous?" My mom questions out of pure curiosity. "Why not tell her it was you?"
"I was afraid of rejection," he admits. "And I was worried she'd find it creepy since I hadn't actually held a conversation with her."
"Are you kidding me? Reagan was all Hayden this and Hayden that, there wasn't a moment she didn't talk about-"
I kick her under the table before she can embarrass me further and she bites her tongue.
He smirks at me, "No, please go on Ms. Holt."
Once we finish dinner, Hayden and I go into the den and my mom takes the living room. I offered up the idea of watching a movie and he was all for it, saying how having me alone in a room, in the dark, with a blanket over us sounded perfect to him, and so I lightly smacked him.
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