“Wait, you saw yourparents?”
Gage’s lips tightened up, a muscle ticking in the side of his jaw. “Just ran into them,” he bit out after a second. “It’s whatever.”
I blinked. “At your house?”
“Theirhouse,” he spat, which made me want to wrap myself around him again for a whole different reason. He scrubbed a hand over his face, then shook his head. “It was nothing, Noah. Don’t worry about it.”
Oh, I wouldabsolutelyworry about it. Worry about how I couldn’t stand them. About how horrible they were to him, even if it wasn’t a mean kind of horrible, and came with access to all their bank accounts. But Gage was my boyfriend. OfcourseI’d worry about it. I had arightto worry about it. He couldn’t tell me what to—
I bit my lip. Well, actually, no. Hecouldtell me what to do. Ilovedit when he told me what to do. But not… not for this. This was different.
“They’re dicks,” I said, grabbing his face and making him look at me. “They don’t deserve you.”
His lips quirked up as he shrugged, but he wasn’t quite pulling off not caring... even though I’d bet money that he’d managed to fool himself into believing that it was true. Maybe no one else would have seen it, but Icould. His eyes were tight at the corners and his body was still all tense, and I—Ihatedit.
I leaned in. “They. Do. Not.Deserve. You.”
The corners of Gage’s eyes softened a little. “Thanks, babe,” he said, grabbing my hips and scooting me closer to him, his big hands moved restlessly up and down my sides. “But like I said, no big.”
I opened my mouth to argue with him about that—because his parents always acted like he didn’t matter, but hetotallymattered, and he needed to know that, or at least know thatIknew that—but instead, what popped out of my mouth was—
“I love you.”
Gage froze, his whole body going still. Then—
“What?” he croaked.
“I… love you?” I repeated, my heart suddenly doing a weird stuttering thing. I mean… I mean, I hadn’t actually meant to say that, but it wasn’t exactly a surprise, right? He kind of looked shocked, but of course I loved him. I’dalwaysloved him. He was like… like the other half of me. He was myboyfriend. He was—
Oh.
Ohhhhhhh.
Lightbulb moment, and it made my heart hurt a little, like it was being squeezed too tight from the inside out.
What hewas, was not used to hearing it. Like… probably from anyone.
Ever.
(Spoiler: Ireallyhated his parents.)
Suddenly, I wasn’t pissed at my own parents anymore at all. And not even because they were better than Gage’s (they were) or because I knew that they actually did love me, despite being jerks today (I did), but just because I had no room for it at the moment, not when I was feeling all… allthis.
He was still staring at me like a deer caught in the headlights, and I pushed my fingers through his short hair and tugged him close. “Iloveyou, G,” I said again, just because I could. I leaned in to kiss him, and his hands slid around to tighten in a possessive hold on my ass, making me smile against his lips before I let him go. “Just wanted you to know,” I added, trying not to smile at how dumbfounded he looked.
“Uh, yeah,” he finally said after a minute, a red flush creeping up his neck. He cleared his throat, looking away... but not before I saw his lips start to curve up in a smile of his own. “Ditto?” he said, his eyes darting toward me before his gaze bounced away again.
Oh my God.
Oh myGod, what wasthat?
He was… cute?
I grinned. What hewas, was bossy and hot and protective and demanding. He was sexy and a little badass and a huge dick to pretty much everyone but me. He was my best friend and my boyfriend and my master and my everything.
But cute? That one was new.
New andadorable.
