Rosie looked back at me, chewing on her lip. “Really?”

I nodded and shrugged, silently hoping she would say yes, because that meant that she trusted me with the most important thing in her life. “Sure, we could go Friday, after I finish work,” I suggested.

DJ pumped the air hissing a ‘yes’ as he grinned. I looked at Rosie, waiting for her to say something. Instead, she walked up to me quickly, gripped the front of my T-shirt and kissed me passionately.

“Eww!” DJ cried.

I smiled and pulled back looking at Rosie with mock horror. “Yeah, eww! Girl cooties!” I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand and she burst out laughing, her eyes soft and tender as she looked at me. I smiled proudly that she was looking at me like that, I’d never really had a girl look at me like that before, the only way they looked at me was lustfully. I’d never had anyone just gaze at me like I was the only man on the planet. I actually loved that look.

I gripped my hand on the back of her head, tangling my fingers into her hair and pulling her mouth closer to mine again, my eyes locked on hers. “So, that’s a yes then?” I whispered, my mouth brushing against hers.

Her breath was blowing across my lips, making my mouth water and my whole body ache to pull her closer to me and never let her go. “If you really don’t mind taking him,” she answered, her voice a little weaker than normal.

I pecked her lips again, wanting nothing more than to press her against the nearest wall and kiss her until we both couldn’t breathe. Well, that wasn’t all I wanted to do to her up against a wall, but I tried not to let my mind wander to those things, it would only make things harder for me.

I pulled back and looked at DJ; he was practically bouncing on the spot with excitement. “It’s a date then, Kid. Friday night when I finish work, that alright with you?”

“Yes!” he shouted, making Cameron cry from the other room. “Sorry.” He winced and looked at Anna.

She smiled and shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. He was due to get up and say goodbye to his little playmate anyway.”

“Can I get him?” I asked, already heading towards his room without waiting for an answer. I hadn’t seen him much for the last couple of weeks, I’d been too busy trying to worm my way into Rosie’s heart and pants. I headed to his room and leant over the side of the crib. He was all snuggled up in his blankets, his eyes wide and looking up at me as I smiled down at him. He was such a cute baby; I really did love the kid.

“Hey, Cam,” I greeted, reaching out and picking him up.

I studied him closely. A couple of weeks ago his eyes had started to darken from the blue that all babies were born with. His eyes were now a light brown colour, with flecks of Ashton’s green around the pupil.

Someone cleared their throat behind me, so I turned to see Ashton leaning in the doorway. “Want one?” he asked, nodding at Cameron, who was gripping the collar of my T-shirt, chewing on his other fist.

I laughed; I didn’t really know the answer to that question any more. If he’d asked me that question seven weeks ago, before I’d met Rosie, then I would have laughed in his face and made some stupid comment about being tied down and how I liked to play the field. But now that I had her, I couldn’t help but wonder if a child of ours would have my blue eyes, or her brown. I’d never really understood when Ashton said that he wanted his baby to look exactly like Anna, but now that I was with Rosie I could understand it. She had the most beautiful chocolate brown eyes that would look great on a little baby.

“Only when they’re clean,” I answered, shrugging. That should answer the question and stop him asking things that I didn’t know the answers to. I sat down on the little sofa they had in the room, settling Cameron on my lap. “Can I ask you something?”

Ashton nodded and sat down next to me. “Sure, bud.”

I frowned, not really knowing how to ask or how to phrase it. “Okay, well, are there like rules? I mean, is there like a book or something that I’m supposed to be studying that’s gonna make this all easier for me?” I asked hopefully.

“What the hell are you going on about, Peters?”

I blew out a big breath. “This dating thing is hard! How do I know what I’m supposed to be doing or saying to her? She made this really nice comment to me last night, and I just started talking about jacking off. I mean, what the hell is up with that?” I rolled my eyes at myself when I remembered the conversation we had in bed last night.

Ashton laughed harder and sat back, looking at me like I was the funniest thing he’d seen in ages. “Jacking off?” he repeated between laughs.

I punched him in the arm. “Taylor, get your head out of your ass and give me some advice before I screw it up!”

He composed himself, a grin still stretched across his face though as he ran a hand through his hair. “Okay, rule number one, don’t talk about jacking off,” he said, laughing quietly. “Other than that, just be yourself and don’t lead her on. If you’re not feeling it, then break it off sooner rather than later. She doesn’t deserve to be hurt, and neither does DJ. They’ve had enough of that shit in their lives.”

“I met her ex last night.” I frowned at the thought of that douchebag.

Ashton hissed a cuss word through his teeth, his jaw tight. “And what did you think of him?”

I smiled sarcastically. “He was lucky I didn’t lose my fist down his throat,” I muttered, closing my eyes and trying to stay calm and not think about him. “The fucker actually had the nerve to tell me that he was going to win her back. His exact words were ‘game on’,” I told him.

Ashton snorted through his nose at my comment. “He always was a cocky, arrogant little shit. Man, I hate that guy! I have no idea what she saw in him in the first place.”

“You and me both.” I shifted Cameron on my lap, smiling as he took my hand pulling it to his mouth and chewing on my knuckle. “So, about this book.” I raised one eyebrow, hoping there was a magical guy manual for how to win the heart of a fair maiden.

Ashton smiled and patted me on the shoulder. “You don’t need a book.” He looked at me knowingly, so I raised one eyebrow, waiting for him to continue. He laughed. “I’m not going into it because I don’t want to violate the husband and wife code, but I’ve heard some stuff.”

I gasped. Stuff? I needed in on this stuff he’d heard. “Like what?”

He grinned. “Girls talk. From the things I’ve been told, you don’t need a book at all. Just keep doing your thing. The Nate Peters charm seems to be working,” he assured me, winking proudly.

“Oh yeah? Does she speak to Anna about me a lot?” I asked, thinking about her gossiping about me to her best friend – just like I was now doing with Ashton.

He laughed, holding his hands up in a halting gesture. “I’m not saying anything else. I was told that if I told you anything then I wouldn’t be getting any for a week.”

“Ashton, you’re like a brother to me, you have to give me more than that! What sort of things does she like that I’m doing? Please?” I begged. If I knew what I was doing right then I’d be able to make sure I did that more!

He looked back at the door before scooting closer to me on the sofa. “If this gets back to them that I said anything, you and I are gonna have a problem,” he warned.

I sighed dramatically. “As if Anna would be able to go without for a week.”

“Not the point. I don’t want to be caught gossiping like a freaking woman!” he protested. I gave him a sarcastic look, waiting for his pearls of wisdom advice. “Okay, fine. I’ve heard that she thinks you’re funny, and hot, and very thoughtful. I can tell by looking at her just now that she loves the way you interact with DJ, so that’s a major plus. Just keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll be fine.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. That would be pretty easy to keep doing because none of that was an act. I was just being myself, and DJ was a great kid, so I didn’t mind spending time with him at all. “Thanks, Taylor,” I muttered, relaxing now.

He stood up and started walking towards the door. “Oh, and the restraining her on the sofa, accompanied by your filthy pillow talk, she liked that too.” He chuckled and practically ran out of the room before I could answer.

Rosie had told Anna about that? I was more than a little proud of myself about that for some reason.

I chuckled and walked out into the lounge with Cameron, unable to resist smirking at Rosie and trailing my hand across her ass when no one was looking. We stayed for another half an hour or so. I watched Rosie cuddling up to Cameron, watching as her hair fell in his face and he scrunched up his nose, making her laugh. I watched how soft her eyes were as she looked at him. I must admit, she looked hot holding a baby! We spoke about the christening for a while too; it was arranged for three weeks’ time because they had to do it around Anna’s father’s schedule.

On the way back to Rosie’s place, we stopped and got ice cream. I sat in the booth, completely happy just to watch my girl and her son, laughing and joking around.

By the time we got back it was DJ’s bed time so I settled on the sofa and waited. She came back and snuggled next to me, putting her legs over mine as she found ‘Fright Night’ on TV.

I couldn’t concentrate on the movie, all I could think about was that I needed to broach the subject of her meeting my family. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, wondering where to start.

“Um, Rose?”

She snuggled into me more. “Mmm?”

“I, er… so, you know I spoke to my mom today. She, er…” Wow, stop stuttering and spit it out! “She told me about this barbeque that she’s having at the weekend, in aid of my sister’s birthday next week. I was wondering if, well, I was wondering if maybe you’d like to go?” I winced, waiting for her reaction.

She stiffened and pulled out of my arms, her eyebrows knitting together. She chewed on her bottom lip, her whole posture stiff and nervous. “Like meet your family, you mean?” she clarified, her voice a little weaker than normal. I nodded in answer. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “You want me to come with you? That’s a big step.”

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her onto my lap. “A big step? Like meeting a son, perhaps? Think maybe I took a bigger step already?” I countered, cocking my head to the side, studying her reactions.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right there. Okay, sure, I’d love to meet your parents and the girls who got one up on Nate Peters.”

I grinned happily, ignoring the comment about my sisters. My mom was going to pitch a fit when I told her. “And if Josh cancels this weekend, then my mom insisted that we bring DJ too,” I said, playing down my mom’s enthusiasm a bit.

Rosie recoiled. “Well let’s just hope that Josh doesn’t cancel this time then. I mean, surely your parents are a little apprehensive about you dating a girl with a child. I think it’d be best if they just got used to the idea a little before I throw my four-year-old into their faces.”

I smiled, unsure how I could phrase my reply without telling her that my mom was already bragging about her grandson down at the bowls club. “Stripes, my parents don’t mind in the slightest. They want to meet him actually.” Wow, understatement of the century!

A nervous smile twitched at the corner of her mouth. “Really?”

“Really,” I confirmed. “If Josh cancels then we’ll take him with us. He’d love it there. We could play on the beach, and they have a pool. I’m pretty sure my mom will buy every flavour of ice cream available.” I tried to come across as joking, but I could already imagine my mom running around the house now, shouting at everyone to get the house ready for a child. She’d be barking orders of ‘Evan, go to the store and buy your own weight in candy’ and ‘Paige, go buy the contents of Toys R Us so that he has something to play with’ she’d be going way overboard. It was going to be a train wreck.

“Okay. What time?” she asked, wrapping her arms around my neck, pressing her chest against mine.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. You said Josh was coming for DJ at about ten, so why don’t I just come over before that, and then when he comes and picks up DJ then we can leave for the beach,” I suggested casually, subtly worming my way in and making sure I was here when that jackass was here so he couldn’t hit on my girl.

She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “I’ll be seeing you anyway Friday night, right?” she asked, combing her fingers through the back of my hair.

I nodded in confirmation. “Yep, I have a date with a four-year-old and a roller-skate rink.”

She looked at me, giving me that ‘you’re so freaking sweet’ smile again. “So, it seems silly for you to be here Friday night, then go home, only to come back a few hours later. If you want to, you can stay over,” she suggested quietly, chewing on her lip.

Stay over? That meant DJ would be here too. That would be the first time I’d stayed over with him in the apartment. Wow, one small step for man…

“That wouldn’t be a problem?”

She shrugged. “I’m pretty sure DJ would be okay with you staying here. I’ll talk to him before and check though, if that’s alright?”

I brushed my hand down the side of her face. “If he doesn’t want me to stay yet then that’s fine, Rose,” I promised, kissing the tip of her nose.