Amelia huffs out a laugh. “Probably because you’re smarter than he is, sexier than he is, and have way better hair than he does.”
I lean in and kiss her softly, smiling against her lips. “You think I’m sexy?”
This time her laugh is real. “Uh, yeah. You’re like the sexiest man alive. Last night at book club, Jo, Hannah, and I were doing a definitive ranking of the Wyles brothers. Jo obviously lobbied hard for Jordan in the number one slot, but you got Hannah’s vote. It’s the hot nerd thing. She’s absolute trash for a hot professor. If she didn’t have a boyfriend back home, I’d worry about her coming for you.”
I smack a kiss to her cheek. “You’re the only one for me, Mystery Girl.”
She leans up and kisses her favorite spot on my jaw. I love that she has a favorite spot to kiss me. “You are swoon city, El. I like it. I’m not even sorry for objectifying you last night in a room with your mother and grandmother.”
“Objectify me any time you damn well please, baby, as long as I’m your one and only vote for number one in the definitive ranking of Wyles brothers.”
“Fuck yeah, you’re mine. You also got Cece’s vote. Something about you embracing the universe, I have no clue. Your momvoted, too, but she swore us to secrecy because she says anyone who thinks moms don’t have a favorite kid is lying through their teeth, but that she would also go to her grave with that secret. So, I guess we now have to go to our graves with that information too. There may have been some kind of blood oath involved. Honestly, the third margarita put me over the edge, so I might have missed some of the salient details.”
I snort out a laugh, loving the thought of Amelia having a relationship with my mom and my grandma, with Jo and with Hannah for as long as she’s here, that belongs to her and her alone. She told me a while back that she has always struggled to make good friends, and I’m glad she has them now. “I bet it’s Cooper. My mom’s always been a softie for the youngest.”
Amelia mimes zipping her lips. “My lips are sealed, my friend. So, about the dean?”
I sigh again, tossing an arm around Amelia’s shoulder and leading us off the bridge. “He’s not going to magically be all cool with it.”
“Probably not,” she agrees, her tone thoughtful as we push through the front door of the diner.
I wait for her to say more, but she doesn’t, so once we’re seated with drinks in front of us, I reach over and take her hand. “I’ll be honest, Ames. Being with you, all the way out loud, is worth whatever consequences there are for my job.”
Amelia’s eyebrow quirks up in surprise. “He could fire you.”
I shrug, taking a sip of my coffee. “He could. He might.”
“You love that job.”
“I love teaching. And doing cool shit with computers. There are a lot of places I can do that.”
She takes a deep breath, wrapping her free hand around her mug, her eyes studying me intently. “You’d give up your job for me?”
Without speaking, I leave my side of the booth and slide in next to her, turning so my body is angled towards hers, taking both her hands in mine. “If you have to ask me that, I’m doing this wrong. Yes, I would give up my job for you. In a heartbeat and without a single hesitation. It’s just a job. There are other jobs. I love you, Mystery Girl. You’re my world and my whole entire future. There is literally nothing on earth I wouldn’t do for you. If it’s in my power to do it, it’s yours.”
Tears spring to her eyes, and I cup her cheek, wiping away one that escapes. “Why did that make you sad?”
She shakes her head and leans into my hand. “Not sad. Well, not really. It’s just what you said, it reminded me so much of something Gabe says all the time. He always tells us that if it’s in his power to do something for us, he will, and we’re lucky because almost anything is in his power. It’s the captain of industry, billionaire thing. He’s just a regular Captain America T-shirt wearing tech nerd until suddenly he does something crazy like buying a twelve-million-dollar Beacon Hill brownstone because I wanted to move to Boston and complained for, like, thirty seconds about how much I hate apartment hunting. That always made me insane because I never wanted him to do things for me. I wanted to make my own way and carve out my own space in tech outside of his shadow. Find my own damn apartment, you know? I was so tired of him interfering all the time, even though it came from a good place. The best place.”
I stroke my thumb down her cheek. “You said it made you insane. In the past. Does that mean it doesn’t make you insane anymore?”
She huffs out a breath, eyes intent on mine. “Maybe you are a little bit psychic after all.”
I laugh, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m not psychic. I just know you.”
She considers that for a second before a slow smile spreads across her face. “It feels good to be known. And yeah, in the past because the truth is, I miss him,” she says simply. “I’ve kept my distance from Gabe because I didn’t trust myself not to blurt out all my secrets, and I didn’t want him all in my business. We talk on the phone a lot, but I haven’t been to Pittsburgh since Christmas. I miss seeing his face and trying to make Sophie smile and laughing with Molly and binging true crime shows with Liv. I just…I miss my family. I don’t like that they know you as Jordan’s brother and not the man I love, and I don’t like that they don’t know anything about my life now. I don’t want it to be that way. Not anymore. My parents died when I was twelve years old. I know better than anyone that life is short and we only get this one. I was doing what I thought felt right at the time, but it doesn’t feel good anymore.”
I stroke along her jaw, choosing my words carefully. “Do you think you’re ready to talk to Gabe?”
Uncertainty flashes in her eyes. “I want to. I have for a while, but I’ve been avoiding it. He’ll be disappointed I kept all this from him. Our relationship is more complicated than a regular brother and sister relationship, and I don’t want him to feel like I let him down.”
I shake my head. “He won’t. He couldn’t. And you didn’t. Listen, I don’t know Gabe all that well, but I do know he loves you, so much. So does Molly, and your sister too. I hear it every time you’re on the phone with them. He might be surprised, but ultimately, I think he’ll just be proud of you. You developed an app that literally the entire world is talking about, and you’re kicking ass at a cutthroat PhD program. You helped me find my great-grandmother’s long-lost love, and you taught my dog how to stand up and take a bow. You are the most amazing woman in STEM who has ever walked the planet, and you’re happy. Gabe is your family, Ames. That’s all he wants for you.”
I see a flash of something in her eyes when I mention the program, but it’s gone too quickly for me to read, replaced by a love so intense it has my heart pounding against my ribs, like it’s trying to break free and get to her. “I love you,” she says quietly. “I love you so damn much. You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I want you to know that all I want is to do life with you. The right way. All the way out loud, El.”
The urgency and emotion in her voice have me cupping her face in both of my hands, bringing my mouth to hers. The diner is filled with people and the bright fluorescent lights shine overhead, but I notice none of it. My entire being is focused on kissing the woman of my dreams. On pouring every ounce of love I have into it—into her—so that she’ll carry it with her forever. So that she never, ever doubts that I’m hers and she’s mine. That our love is real and true and absolutely unbreakable.
“Well, isn’t this cozy?”
