Getting the boxes and furniture moving into the house seemed to be a welcomed distraction for everyone involved. Nick had taken up a monitoring post near the door so he could direct his movers as they came in as to where to put his boxes. Peggy on the other hand was out by her truck helping her family haul in whatever they could carry. 

He watched in amusement as both his movers and Peggy’s brothers stepped off their respective trucks carrying mattresses. She shuffled ahead of her brothers with a box in her hands, dropping it just inside the door. He was slightly put off by the sight of her mattress. It definitely looked like it had seen better days.

It was a fairly simple double mattress in a colour he guessed was blue at one time but now appeared to be grey from fading. There was a strange stain in the bottom corner and a spring was bursting out the side. Nick wondered silently if it was older than the two of them because the only other option was that she had found it in a dumpster and brought it home.

Almost simultaneously the men with the beds asked where they were taking the mattresses and with equal synchronicity the new homeowners replied in unison, “Master bedroom.”

“Whoa!” Nick exclaimed, holding up his hands to stop the movers, ignoring the looks of annoyance on their faces as they continued to hold the awkward mattresses. He pointed to the strange garbage mattress and shook his head. “That thing is not going in our bedroom. I am not sleeping on that. It looks like something from a homeless shelter.”

Peggy gasped and punched Nick firmly on the arm, taking joy in the grimace of pain that crossed over his face, “That has been my mattress since I was in high school. It’s the most comfortable bed in the world. I’ve been breaking it in, getting it to the absolute perfect degree of comfort. Yours is... just... unreasonably big! Why do you have a King-sized bed when you lived alone?”

“Me and the dogs like to stretch out!” he defended, neither of them paying any mind to the looks of expressions of discomfort being directed their way by the men still patiently waiting for instructions.

“The dogs?” Peggy scoffed. “No way am I sharing a bed with your dogs. They can sleep on the floor.”

“It’s cold on the floor!” Nick defended before waving her off. “Besides, do you know how much that mattress cost? It was like eight grand! It’s special memory foam that like remembers your body and keeps it cool when you sleep and stuff. Space astronauts sleep on them when they’re in space!”

Peggy’s brother Troy suddenly burst into fits of laughter, fighting not to drop his sister’s mattress on the ground. She sent him a dirty look that clearly told him to keep his mouth shut and Nick looked between the two of them, confused.

“What?” he asked defensively.

“Space astronauts sleep on it when they’re in space?” Troy repeated, still chuckling. “Is that where space astronauts go? What other kinds of astronauts are there, Nick? Other than the space kind...”

“I don’t know,” Nick shrugged, oblivious to the fact that he was being made fun of. “I’m not a scientist.”

“That’s apparent,” Troy teased.

“Would you shut up!” Peggy snapped, still glaring.

“What?” Nick asked, annoyed. “I hate when people do this. Don’t talk about me like I’m not right here. What is it?”

Letting out a sigh she moved to wrap her arms around him, kissing him quickly on the chest through the battered t-shirt he was wearing. “Honey,” she cooed, reaching up to rub her thumb against his beard-covered cheek. “He’s just teasing you. It’s just... redundant. The prefix, astro, implies space. That’s why we call them astronauts.”

Nick rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to move her hand off his face, “Could you be any more condescending?”

“Wow you even used that correctly in a sentence!” Troy chimed in from outside.

“Fuck you, dude! You don’t even know me! Your Dad fucking looks me up on the internet and suddenly you think you know me? I’m not stupid! So I said something redundant, big fucking deal! Fact is, her mattress is a piece of shit and you couldn’t afford to put mine on layaway.” Turning from Peggy’s brother he addressed his movers, “That one goes in the master bedroom. Thank you.”

Relieved to finally be able to move the large mattress and get away from the family drama unfolding in front of them the movers hurried into the house. As soon as they were on their way up the stairs Nick broke away from his girlfriend and headed into the kitchen where he grabbed a beer from the fridge. It was one of the few things he had been certain to have on hand since he thought he was going to have an opportunity just to chill with Peggy’s brothers and father once they got their stuff in. Instead it seemed as though they had arrived with preconceived notions of what he was all about and it definitely wasn’t positive.

The green bottle was still pressed to his lips when Peggy entered the kitchen, leaning against the large kitchen island with her arms crossed casually across her chest. “I’m sorry.”

“Are we making a mistake here?” he cut right to the chase.

She watched him as he used his short nails to pick away at the label on the body of the bottle and sighed, “I don’t think so. I love you and I want to be with you.”

“I want to be with you too,” he said, not looking up from the work he was doing to the bottle. “I moved across the country to be with you. I would hope that would mean something to you.”

“Babe,” she said softly, moving to embrace him. “It does mean alot to me. Today is just stressful. There’s too much going on with both of us getting our stuff in at the same time.”

His arms looped around her shoulders and he pressed his forehead to hers, “Plus your family fucking hates me and thinks I’m a total idiot.”

“That’s not true!”

“Really? Your brother made fun of me and your father brought up my criminal record. Couple that with the fact that I didn’t even know your name was Margaret, I’m sure they think you’ll be moving back home in a week or so.”

Peggy sighed, hating that he was right. Absentmindedly she pulled the back of his t-shirt up so she could rest her hands against his warm skin. There was something about Nick that always reminded her of warm climates and it started with his skin. No matter where they met up whether it was 80 degrees or 20 degrees he was always warm to the touch while she had no temperature regulation. At the same time he somehow managed to maintain a tan throughout the winter even when he was touring and not able to get out in the sun. He was her sunshine boy and she wouldn’t want it any other way.

“Once they get to know you they’ll like you,” she assured him. “You just need to keep that temper under control in the meantime. Give them a chance to warm up to you. Think about it... you’re this guy that I’ve been dating for a year that they’ve never had a chance to meet until now, when we’re moving in together. They’re testing you to see what kind of guy you are. Don’t give in to them! I’m sure in no time you’ll be talking about football and Nascar and drinking together. Just hang in there.”

He nodded, wordlessly agreeing to mind his manners. “You really hurt me when you punched me, you know.”

“Wimp. What would make you feel better?”

He weighed his options, pursing his lips dramatically as he thought. “Can I touch your tits?”

Peggy chuckled, “Of course you can.”

He quickly put his bottle down on the counter then, smirking, pressed his lips to hers, the tip of his tongue running along her bottom lip until she granted him access to her mouth. He backed her up against the kitchen island, both hands coming up to her breasts with a satisfactory sigh. He teased and squeezed until he could feel her nipples hard against him palm and he smiled against her lips.

“Margaret are you coming to help?” her mother’s voice suddenly joined them in the kitchen followed by an exclamation as she stumbled upon the two, “Oh! Sorry!”

Nick couldn’t believe his luck. He mentally cursed himself as he watched Peggy’s mother dart back out of the kitchen. Reluctantly he dropped his hands from her chest and silently wished he was still in California because the odds of the ground opening up and swallowing him and his embarrassment whole were marginally better.