Sweet on You

Chapter 24

Later that night, Audrey pulled Lydia to the side, a sly smile on her face. "He has it bad for you."

Lydia glanced to Xander, who was immersed in a deep conversation with her uncle and Nathan. Darian, on the other hand, was stuck with his mother and poor Justin as she was no doubt asking about their intentions on having a family. Xander looked reserved but much less tense than he had been at the start of the night. She turned back to Audrey. "It's still very. . . new."

Audrey waved Lydia off with her free hand, the other holding her son. "Trust me, new or not, Xander is nuts about you. Besides, Nathan told me how he nearly bit his head off when he stopped by to grab my cake. He said Xander's jealousy rivalled that of his own when we first started dating."

Lydia, although knowing Audrey was Nathan's match in every way, had a hard time picturing her goofy cousin, who hardly was serious about anything, be jealous. She arched a brow. "Nathan was jealous?"

Audrey broke out into a fit of laughter. "He wanted to fight any guy who went near me. Trust me, your cousin has a jealous streak. A streak your boyfriend seems to have as well."

Lydia didn't say anything about the label of boyfriend. She and Xander, although they discussed their relationship was not only about the sex, they still hadn't classified it as a genuine relationship with titles. She didn't quite know how to go about asking him. She leaned against the doorframe of the dining room. "How did you know Nathan was the one? Not that I'm implying anything with Xander, but just-"

Audrey held her free hand up, a gesture she understood. "I think for a long time I tried to ignore my feelings for him after what happened with my ex, so it took a while to even identify that I liked him." She glanced over at her husband and smiled. "But I think I realized he was the one when, ironically, it was Christmas. He had lied to Julie about us being in a relationship at the time so I pretended to be his girlfriend for the night because I felt bad. It was strange at first but then I realized it wasn't strange because I was in a fake relationship with Nathan, but because I liked that it was Nathan. After that, I fell for the idiot and I fell hard."

Lydia smiled at the affectionate tone in her voice. Nathan had a difficult childhood, knowing that he had Audrey, who loved him as much as he loved her, made Lydia happy. She tried to not feel the pang of jealousy that crawled through her. She suspected Nathan and Audrey's relationship wasn't always easy, especially in the early stages, but she hoped that she had what they did, whether it is with Xander or not.

Xander broke Lydia from her thoughts, his hand resting on her lower back. Audrey shot her a knowing smile before she walked back to the living room. His lips twitched upward into a small smile. "Your cousin has a lot of interesting stories. He seems fairly proud of beating the crap out of Audrey's ex. I can't entirely tell if he told the story out of pride or as a cautionary tale."

Lydia let out a weary sigh. "Probably a mix of both. I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize, angel, he's just protective of his family. I respect that," Xander said, kissing her on the forehead afterwards.

Lydia fought the urge to roll her eyes. Of course, the two alpha males have called a truce. She could only imagine the mischief the pair of them could get into now that they didn't completely hate one another. She took his hand in hers, her thumb grazing the scars that was etched into his skin, Xander stilling as she did so. She looked up at him. "I think we-"

"-Lydia!" Darian yelled from across the house. He hopped off the chair he was seated on in the living room and waved her over. "Justin and I are about to call it a night but I have a baking question for you before we go."

Lydia dropped her hand, letting go of Xander's. His expression looked concerned but said nothing as she walked away. Despite Darian's ill timing, she supposed it was for the best. Asking Xander what they were to each other at a family dinner probably wasn't to most appropriate setting.

#

Xander wasted no time when they had gotten home from the Christmas dinner. While they were undressing for bed, him unbuttoning his dress shirt, he said. "What were you going to say earlier?"

Lydia didn't know what to say, nervous approaching the conversation. She looked away from him, scavenging through her closet to find a t-shirt to wear to bed. "It's nothing."

Xander put his hand on her shoulder, bare as she was only wearing a bra while she changed. She turned to meet his concerned gaze. "Lydia, please."

"I-" she felt her nerves get to the better of her again, twisting her stomach uncomfortably. She inhaled and exhaled deeply. "I don't know what we are. Are you my bodyguard? My boyfriend? Friends with benefits? Bodyguard with benefits?"

Xander barked out a laugh at the last one, causing Lydia's cheeks to turn red. She smacked him on his bare chest, forgetting how firm it was. She didn't want to let on it hurt her a tiny bit. "Don't laugh, you jerk!"

After a moment, Xander silenced his laughter, although the amusement did not fade. "I can tell you for certain that we are not friends with benefits nor am I your bodyguard with benefits." Lydia could tell he was biting back his laughter as he uttered the sentence. He stepped forward and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, his hand resting on her cheek. "What do you want us to be?"

"I-" Lydia didn't want to sound foolish. Of course, she wanted a relationship with Xander, but she didn't quite know how to put such sentiments into words that didn't sound like it was coming from a sixth-grader asking out their first crush. "I want us to be together, like..." she paused and then continued. "Audrey and Nathan."

"You want to get married?" Xander questioned, not seeming intimidated, but rather, surprised.

Lydia's eyes widened when she realized what she had said. Somehow, she managed to sound so much worse than a sixth-grader asking out their first crush. She shook her head vigorously. "No!" But then she caught the small look of hurt that flashed over Xander's face. "I mean not no, I mean I want to be together, in a relationship. With you. I mean, marriage eventually, if it gets to that point or if you even want to be with me in the-"

"Shut up," he muttered before he kissed her deeply on the lips, his arms wrapping around her tightly. He pulled back a little bit so they could look one another in the eyes. "I want to be with you, Lydia. In a relationship, in a marriage, I don't care. As long as it's with you."

Lydia blushed at his words, she tilted her head to the right, feigning being deep in thought. "I think we should start with the relationship part before we pass go and head to the marriage part."

"If you insist," Xander teased, kissing her gently on the tip of her nose.