“Areyou mine, baby?” I ask her.
Her eyes fill with tears, and she nods. “I am.”
“We’ve always said we love each other, but when I say I love you, I mean that I am bone-achingly in love with you. I have loved you from the first time I saw you, and every minute in between. There willneverbe anyone for me but you. I wish I’d made it clear from the very beginning.”
“You’ve loved me from the beginning? I’ve lovedyoufrom the beginning. I’m in love with you too, Rhodes,” she says, a tear dripping down her cheek.
I lean in and kiss it, processing her words and reeling with them. “How did we know everything about each other but not this?”
“I know. I can’t believe it. I wish I hadn’t been so terrified of losing you,” she adds. “You were instantly everything to me, and that’s still the same today, but we were so young. It didn’t feel possible that you could really love me back in that way. You were so confident, so sure of who you were already. I feel like I’m still finding my way, but with you—I’ve always known how I feel about you. We wouldn’t be the same though, if we’d known the feelings were reciprocated. You wouldn’t have Levi, and he is the best thing to ever happen to both of us.”
I kiss her fingers and cheek and mouth. “I love you for loving him that way.”
“He’s part of you. Of course I love him.”
That makes me reel, her goodness, her love. We sit for a moment, just soaking in these revelations.
“Every time I was about to tell you how I felt, someone new would pop up,” I tell her.
“I nearly told you at least a dozen times,” she says. “It always backfired.”
“Maybe the timing is perfect. We’ve never been without each other, besides distance, and now we can fully be who we’re supposed to be together.”
“You’re sure?” she asks.
“I have never had any doubts about my feelings for you. I’ve only ever wondered if I would be able to make you feel the same about me.”
She leans her forehead on mine. “I love you so much, Rhodes. And being with you in thisfake relationship that I never wanted to only be fakehas been beyond what I could’ve imagined.”
I can hear the smile in her voice, and I laugh. “I jumped on your fake dating idea so fast…anything to get more time with you.”
Her laugh is warm against my skin. “I’m so glad you did. We desperately needed something to force this issue.” She frowns. “Levi has been quiet for a minute.”
We look at the trains where he’s been playing and singing his little heart out, and he’s sprawled out, sound asleep.
“That four AM wakeup call has caught up with him.” I chuckle as I walk over and pick him up. “I’ll be right back.”
“Or should we go back to bed?” she asks.
“I love that idea.”
I put Levi to bed and when I look in my room, Elle is already there. I crawl into bed and she turns to face me.
“Carrie is going to hate this, you know,” she says.
“I know.” Carrie’s made it no secret how she feels about Elle. “But you don’t need to worry about her..”
I lean in and kiss her and she melts into me. My dick swells against her and she grins against my mouth.
“Hello?” The sound comes from downstairs and we freeze.
“Fuck. Is that my mom? They said they were stopping. They must have driven all night.”
“They drove?”
We both hustle out of bed, my erection a sad thing of the past, and hurry downstairs.
My parents stand in the living room, and my mom is holding my surprise. Elle gasps and my parents stare at the two of us in shock.
