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His expression falls completely, and I immediately want to pick it up again.
“Please don’t. Let’s just finish breakfast and have the day we planned. I want to spend it with you.”
“I want that too, but—” My voice cracks, and the second he hears it, he grabs my hand.
“I see you trying to shut down on me. Do you think you’re the only one that’s scared, Autumn? We’re in thistogether. He just surprised us, it’s okay that we weren’t ready.” His dark gaze latches onto mine. “We have time.”
“What if I can’t ever face them?” I whisper.
His head shakes. “I’m willing to bet that you will. I want to prove to you that you're capable of more than you, or anyone else gives you credit for. Even if it takes months, I want to be right here while we work on it. I'm not going anywhere.”
I start to disagree but he stops me with a gentle hand to my cheek.
“You are worth it. You can’t change my mind. Whatever this ends up looking like for us, it's worth it. As long as the day comes where I'll get to hold your hand and show you off, regardless of who's around or what they think, I'm okay with however long it takes."
When it hits me how hard I’m crying, and my body shakes with the force of it, his arms wrap around me. I feel grounded by the kisses he places on my head and the calming lines he strokes down my back.
I want that more than words can convey.
“I love you.”
For once in my life, I don't doubt those words being said to me. They don't even surprise me. I can feel it.
I lift my head to stare into my favorite brown eyes.
“I think I’ve loved you since I was nineteen, I just wouldn’t let myself admit it.”
His mouth curves into a bright, beautifully amused smile.
“I read your book, you admitted it plenty.”
I feel my face go red as the embarrassment creeps in, but then he’s there kissing it away.
36
Autumn
“Iwant a burger,” Reya whines.
“We literally just ate.”
“But we didn’t eat burgers.”
Everyone at Miles’ table is looking at her like she’s crazy, and not just because she’s laying on the floor while she pets Freddy.
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much in one sitting, I can’t think of anything else. Not even my favorite dark chocolate brownies, which she brought us as aCongrats for finally banging!gift.
She wrote that on them with pink icing.
Wyatt and his girlfriend joined us for dinner as well, and I think Miles might have felt a little embarrassed by said pink icing. Maybe by Reya in general, it's no secret that she really doesn’t know when to stop talking sometimes.
Everyone else at the table, including the two of them, were laughing so hard we felt like kids. Our new friends fit right in.
“I assumed you two were already going strong,” Wyatt had said after things calmed down. “You just seem so natural together.”
That pleased me to hear. Even Vic and Reya smiled their cutest smiles at his words, because they’ve seen it, too.
“How are you not full?” Vic asks her.
