I slept in Mal’s bed again that night, but I didn’t allow things to go any further than kissing. I felt like I should at least wait until we’d been together as long as Dawn and I had been before doing anything else. Dawn had never even hinted that she wanted more from me. I could tell Mal did, but she was also willing to wait for me to be ready.
If I wasn’t allowed to marry the person I loved, I wasn’t sure if there was any point of abstinence. For personal and emotional reasons, though, I didn’t see any reason to rush things. I was still getting used to Malaki being attracted to me in the first place, and to having a new girlfriend.
The house was quiet in the morning; Mal’s mom had taken her brothers to baseball practice. When her mom and brothers came back, we finally got out of bed an
