“I won’t tell anyone,” I promise, feeling my heart race once more.I don’t understand why, but clearly, something inside of me does.
“Oh, you can tell anyone and everyone.I don’t care.”
“How’s that a secret?”She pushes me back until I’m flat on my back and she’s kneeling over me.The pastel colours in the tips of her hair brush along my neck as she leans down.“Careful, your chest.”
A tear falls, dropping onto my cheek, contradicting the nervous smile on her face.“I love you, Reid Hayes.”
I gently move her until she’s the one lying on her back.I sit up, twisting my body until I’m facing her, looking down.
Because holy fucking shit.
She just told me she loves me.
It’s not an ‘I love you’ mid orgasm.It’s not my mum kissing my forehead and telling me.It’s not my brothers back slapping me and telling me, ‘I love you, bro’.It’s Summer.
Holy fucking shit.
For the first time in my life, I didn’t want to hit the brakes.I wanted to hit the accelerator.
I’m not running from her.I’m not freaked out by those three words.I don’t feel a shudder run down my spine in a horrifying way like I always presumed I would.I just...
Fucking hell.It feels right.
Her pale blue eyes turn misty with unshed tears as she stares up at me.
“I think I love you too,” I reply, my voice husky, with a slight hitch to it.
I groan at my choice of words instantly.Instead of being angry and smacking the shit out of me, her eyes light up in a way I’ve only ever seen them do around her family and Freya.Although at a closer glance, it may be slightly different.There’s just something wholesome about how she looks at me.Like I’ve made all her dreams come true.
She arches her brow at the same time her lips twitch.“Youthink?”
I lower my gaze to her mouth, unable to hold her eyes a moment longer without being lost in them.I shrug.“I don’t know.I love my mum.I love my siblings and family.I’ve never loved anyone else.I...”I clear my throat, and reach for the hem of my T-shirt she’s wearing.“But that feeling I get when one of them gets hurt?For you, it’s twenty times worse.That churning in my stomach at the thought of losing them?Instead of it threatening to bring me to my knees and choke me, the thought of it being you, I feel like I might actually die too.”My throat tightens with nerves because I’ve never had to do this before.After listening to her screams, hearing the metal grinding and the not knowing if she was okay, I have to do this.This might be new for me.I feel like I am fucking it up, and I dare not look at her eyes to find out.Instead, I lower my voice and continue.“You are the only person I want to be around.You are the person I reach for or think of when I go to sleep, and it’s the same when I wake up.You make me a better person.I’ve never felt like this...Like I’ve found something I didn’t know I lost.That might not make sense,” I state, then shake my head slightly, trying to clear it.“Maybe this will.My heart races at the sound of your voice.I see you, and I’m frozen for a fraction of a second, bewildered that you’re with me.And fuck, when you touch me, I feel it everywhere.I’m always thinking of you.It never goes away, even when you’re with me.I don’t just see tomorrow with you, I see everything with you.So yeah, I think I love you.If that is what it means to love, then I love you.I love you, Summer.”
“Reid,” she chokes out and I snap my head up, meeting her gaze.Tears fall down her cheeks.“Reid, that’s love.That is love.”
I lean down, capturing her lips because fuck, I cannot get enough of this woman.I run my hand over her cheek gently, moving further back, mindful that her head has a small wound when I run my fingers through her hair.
When her arms wrap around my neck and she tries to tug me closer, I pull back, unwrapping her arms from my neck, but not before I press a kiss to the tip of her nose.“You need to stop before you hurt yourself.”
Her eyes glisten as she lowers her hands to my biceps.“I love you, Reid.I’m really glad we found each other.”
Fucking hell, this woman.I bite my lip to stop the embarrassing whimper threatening to slip though.
“I love you too,” I whisper, and my limbs begin to shake.“Tonight, I just want to hold you, okay?”
This is it.This is what I’ve been so scared of all my life.I teased my brothers for what they had.I made fun of them under this misconceived notion that they were missing out on something.Yet when I look into Summer’s pale blue eyes, I don’t know what I was scared of because she is the best thing that ever happened to me.
My brothers really had everything all along.
