His eyes widened.
Theo looked around at where they were, and he finally seemed to realize the particulars of their predicament. It was almost as though he’d been so out of his mind, so outside of reality, he’d forgotten.
“Oh shit,” he breathed, panic immediately crashing across his face. “Oh.” His gaze dropped down to her breasts, and then to the chair they sat in together. “Audrey, you—you’re…you’re so beautiful, and I—oh god. Uh, Audrey, I, uh…” His breathing quickened again. The panic was hitting in full force now. “Oh fuck. OhFUCK ME. I just confessed that I love youin mygoddamn shower chair, ohno, you have got to be kidding me.”
“Theo…”
“You’re naked. You’re naked, andI’mnaked, andyou’re so fucking beautiful—and I’m in my shower chair—andI hatethis fucking thingbut I was shaking too bad and my legs felt weak and I didn’t want to slip and die in here today but I didn’t know what else I could do and I had to wash off the words I said so I tried to burn them awaywith the hot water and how long have I been in here? But now you’re here too and I just told you I love you, and—” Somehow, he managed to pale under the warm water of the shower. “And you saw my fight with my mother, OH GOD.”
“Theo—”
“YOU SAW AND HEARD THE WHOLE THING AND THEN I TOLD YOU I LOVE YOU.” He ripped his hands away from her and covered his face with them again, throwing his head back under the water. “It’s too soon, isn’t it?!” he groaned through his fingers. “This is my worst nightmare.I’ve ruined everything. I—”
“THEO.”
Audrey grabbed his wrists and yanked them away from his face, dropping them so she could dig her nails under his jaw. “Breathe.”
As soon as he felt the tiny pinpricks of pain, he snapped his gaze down to meet hers—and slowly drew in a deep breath.
“Whoever said this would be too soon?” Her voice was even when she asked the question.
“What?” He blinked and frowned at her in confusion.
“Who made that rule?”
“What rule?”
“The one dictating when you can tell me that you love me.”
“I…don’t know?”
“Was it a committee decision?” She bit her lip to stop herself from grinning. “Is there a governing body I don’t know about? Some sort of love council? An academy, maybe?”
He blinked at her again, flinching as the water ran into his eyes, apparently mystified by her sudden line of questioning. “It just seems that everyone thinks you shouldn’t say it…early.”
“And who is everyone?”
“I-I don’t know.”
“And who said this is ‘early’?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, that’s stupid.” Audrey pulled his face closer to hers as she echoed his own words from weeks ago back to him. “Especially because I love you too, Theo.”
It ached when the words left her lips. Not from the heaviness of them.
From relief.
She’d been carrying them around in her heart for so long now, the hole they left behind from her unburdening was a vacuum that sucked all the air out from her lungs. Until it was replaced with a new, blossoming warmth from the molten look in Theo’s widening eyes.
Now it washisturn to stop breathing.
“You love me too?” he whispered into her hair.
“Yes. Yes, I do.”
He held his breath as she grabbed his face with her hands and dragged his mouth to hers, hungry and desperate now that their truths had been revealed. He clutched frantically at her slick skin, slipping and scrabbling while he tried to cling to her, pulling her as close as he could, almost as though he wanted to press her directly into his heart itself.
