Another hesitation. “Yes. And I’m as shocked as you.”
“Huh.”
“Yeah.” She laughed. “It’s a horrifying thought, but it’s true. And, sweetie, you love him. I know you want to live with him. I’m pretty sure you’ll be having a similar conversation with me in a few more months when he asks you to marry him.”
The world stopped turning. So abruptly the dogs should have fallen off the couch.
“Don’t get freaked out. That’s a ways away. Right now he’s asking you to move in with him. That’s the only question on the table. And I know you want to. Don’t you?”
“Yeah. I do.”
“See. Told you.” There was triumph in her voice. “And the brother-in-law I know, the one who’s my best friend? Yeah, he does whatever the fuck….” Kayla paused, and I was willing to bet she was looking to see if Bailey was within earshot. She must not have been. “He does whatever the fuck he wants to do.”
WITHIN HALFan hour, I was off the couch and had abandoned the dogs to the apartment. My mind was in such a tizzy I didn’t even stop to think about people seeing me. I threw on a jacket and left.
I was going to move in with Noah Carroll. Like, live with him, live with him. As in what you do before you got married, live with him. Kayla said that was next. And she was right. I had no doubt.
Noah Carroll.
All of a sudden, it hit home once more. Like it hadn’t in a long time. Things had gotten too crazy, too fast. What started as a hot rekindling of a childhood romance had turned into stress and fear. And in some strange ways had turned our relationship into the mundane by comparison. Like we were just boyfriends or just dating or just fucking.
But we weren’t. Not that any of those things weren’t great enough, but they weren’t what we were.
This was Noah Carroll I was talking about. Noah Carroll!
Like it was no more than a second ago, I could see him turning away from me, running past the school. See him on the stage of the church as he and his parents left that last time.
I’d longed for him all those years. Looked everywhere for him, even though I hadn’t realized. In every date. In every hookup. In every hope and dream I had, part of me, at least, was searching for him.
And then he was there. Handing me the ugliest dog with the most amount of love in the world. Kissing me under the stars and over the water and sweeping me away. Fucking me better than the countless men before him. Holding me as my world fell apart. Demanding I stand up and be the man he loved, or else.
Yeah. That Noah Carroll. The one who had nothing mundane about him. The one who guaranteed there would be nothing mundane about me.
Hell. Yes.
I paused on the corner of 10th and Pike, pulled out my cell, and went to his latest text message and typed,Yes.
I crossed to the other corner, and my phone rang, like I knew it would. I swiped across the screen and lifted it to my ear. “Hey.”
He sounded hesitant. Excited but hesitant. “Does that mean what I hope it means?”
Part of me wanted to tease him. To say it meant I wanted cupcakes again after dinner. I didn’t. “Yes. It means I want to live with you. In your apartment.”
“We can do yours, Randall. It’s okay.”
It made me a bit sad that was his first response, and it showed clearly how I’d made him feel. “No. I want to live in your place. With you. I don’t give a shit where, as long as I’m with you.”
There was silence. Though I was pretty sure I heard sniffing. When he spoke, the catch in his voice confirmed it. “I love you, Randall.”
“I know you do.” Look at that. There was a catch in mine as well. “I love you too. I have for my whole life.”
“Me too.”
More silence. A wonderful kind. Full of awe.
I cleared my throat. “You’re done in a couple of hours, right?”
“Yeah.”
