She chuckles, and I pull her in close. “I win.”
“Huh?”
“Remember when you bet me that I wouldn’t worm my way into your heart?”
“I don’t think I put it exactly like that. I’m not into using gross creepy crawlies in my bets.”
“Either way, you can concede now. I won.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying you’re so into me, Rapunzel. Don’t deny it.”
“You’re so?—”
I stop her, sealing our lips, kissing her retort right out of her. I don’t want to joke about this. Well, I guess I started it, but I want her to know, for real, that I’m obsessed with her.
I cup her face, pulling away gently. “And I’m so into you, Tab. I won’t deny it. I don’t want to. And I don’t want to keep it from anyone else anymore either.”
Her blue eyes stare right into mine. “You surprised me, Levi. I was expecting a distraction from my real life, but what I found was so much more.” She grips my shirt at my hips. “You really do like me, don’t you?”
I press my forehead to hers. “More than anything.”
She takes a deep breath. “I’m ready to tell people.”
I scoop her up and throw her on the bed. She laughs, bouncing before coming to a rest.
“I told Raeann already,” she confesses.
“You did?”
She nods, smiling. “For the record, she was fine with it. Happy, even.”
“How could she not be? I’m awesome.”
I slide in next to her, leaning on my elbow while she rolls to her side. “When we make love tonight, I want to see all of you.”
“Levi…”
I swallow. “I saw you that night, Tab. I saw where your clothes had melted to you. How your hair looked blackish gray, not this beautiful brown. There was barely an inch of visible skin except for your eyes. They were so lost. I just want to see you for myself. To tell myself that you’re okay.
“Seeing you like that changed me. I’d been living my life like… I don’t know. Like I had no care in the world. Like I could die happy playing football and hanging out with women who only wanted a couple things from me, and the longer I kept goinglike that, the more I didn’t realize that I had so much more to offer others. I didn’t realize I had lost myself until I saw how things could change on a dime.”
Tab bites her lip. “I guess I didn’t think about how it would impact others.”
“Nor should you have.”
She tugs at my shirt. “Not like that. I’m trying to say I get it. It makes complete sense that witnessing that would change your outlook. I don’t want you to be grossed out though.”
“Tab, babe, it’s you. How could I be grossed out?”
Tab starts to undress with shaking fingers. Her outer layer first, leaving the long-sleeved shirt she always has on now. Then her shoes and jeans. She pauses, peering at me.
“It’s okay,” I tell her.
She lifts her shirt, her torso displaying first, then her bra, then it’s up and over her head, revealing a line of bandages on her left arm.
I lift the shirt from her and throw it over my shoulder before she can put it back on. I run my fingertips along the bandages. “Does it hurt?”
