I wait as patiently as I can for her to continue, even though I feel like I’m about to explode from the adrenaline pumping through my veins, preparing me for the worst.
“I’ve been awful, Tatum.”
My lips part to speak, but nothing comes out. She’s been the opposite of awful to me. There’s not an ounce of my being that could ever think of her that way.
“I have no fucking idea where to go from here or what to think or what to do. I don’t know what this means for me in terms of healing the broken parts of myself or if I’m doing this all wrong,” she says in a small voice, and I’m taken aback for a second until she adds, “but…all I know is I can’t deny anymore that I l-loveyou.”
My face goes numb, or maybe it’s paralyzed, I don’t know. All I know is it falls, void of any emotion but pure shock. There’s a ringing sound that starts off muffled in my ears until it’s all I can hear besides the harsh thudding of my heartbeat.
She loves me?
I stare at her, probably resembling a deer in headlights, and she stares back at me, eyes just as wide as mine, like she can’t believe she just said that.
In fact, her hands are visibly shaking now, and soon after, so is her head.
“Oh, God,” she moans out, “I’m so sorry?—”
“I love you,” I rush out.
My heart is thudding so hard that I swear she can see it reverberating through my body as I watch her gape at me.
“You love me?” she squeaks.
The loudest scoff I’ve ever made in my life leaves my mouth as I lean toward her, ignoring the pain in my abdomen, and grasp her face in my hands as I smash my lips into hers. Her hands feebly grip onto my hospital gown as I kiss her like my life depends on it. I’m stealing every breath that leaves her mouth as my own, claiming her tongue with mine.
“Of course I love you,” I breathe against her lips, pressing another soft kiss against them before adding, “Can you really not tell, Maeve? Can you not see how helplessly in love I am with you?”
“Inlove?” she rasps, and I kiss her again. “You’re in love with me?”
“Mae, I think I’ve been in love with you since you kissed me that first time.”
She pulls back from me completely, hands still gripping my gown for a few moments before she loosens her fingers, resting them against my blanket-covered thighs instead. Her dark eyes study me like she’s contemplating what all this means. I can practically see the wheels turning in her head.
“We’re both working toward our careers,” she finally says. “That could lead us to two different places. Different paths.”
“Okay.”
“I mean, I’ll have medical school and class and studying and probably be up to my neck in stuff, Tate.”
“Okay,” I repeat.
“What if we go off to two separate places?” she adds. “What does that mean for us? For this? Long distance? I don’t know how many relationships really thrive like that?—”
“You’re freaking out over something that hasn’t happened yet,” I remind her gently. “We can take everything as it comes. It’ll work out the way it was meant to.”
“Tate—”
“I know you want to have it all figured out right now. I know that’s how you are. I know that’s what makes you feel better, knowing what’s going to happen and planning everything out, but I don’t care about any of that stuff, Mae. I just w-wantyou.”
Maeve’s shoulders sag as she soaks in my words, her head tilting slightly as she peers at me through her thick lashes. Her lip pushes out in a pout almost before going back to normal. “But it’s not going to be as simple as that, Clark.”
“I don’t care.”
“It might be really hard.”
“Don’tcare.”
She lets out a really long sigh, so I reach over and brush her cheek with my thumb before she can come up with another reason to talk herself out of this.
