“After this, I won’t mind clingy. At all,” he said sincerely. Rae could cling as much as she wanted to and he wouldn’t complain. “And it’s not a bad joke as long as it’s true.”
Elliot’s brows rose to his hairline when Rae posed a teasing question about how much he loved her. “If you have to ask that question, clearly I’m not doing a good enough job of saving you.” That… was probably more of a bad joke than hers, but it wasn’t exactly a great time for laughter. Whereas Rae missed the days of being Elliot’s hero, Elliot had his moments of missing those days when he was more lighthearted and carefree. Jokes came a lot easier before this year cropped up. Sometimes he felt like a completely different person than the man Rae fell in love with.
“I like that you suck at negativity,” he said with a small smirk. “Means you can keep me from being too serious.”
Elliot tilted himself sideways so that he could kiss her cheek. “What you want is what I want, babe. As long as you don’t try to make me do anything too feminine, I’m yours to command.”
His gaze, too, went to the little girl in his friend’s lap. “It doesn’t have to be you...” It probably would’ve been more appropriate for her brother to do the proper introductions. Or Evan. Coming from Rae, Elliot worried how Leah would react. “But yeah, I’ll be there. If she says anything, though…” Anything at all that poked at Rae’s fragile nerves, Elliot wouldn’t stand idly by and let her take it alone.
Elliot snorted a laugh. “More like eighteen days, I think.”