I'd do it again.
I grabbed my bag. Stood up. Walked out of the locker room and out of the boathouse.
The cold hit my face and the world came back—the river, the bridge, the campuses on either side. Kingswell's stone towers to the east. Riverside's brick and concrete to the west. The divide that was supposed to keep us on our own sides.
I headed toward my dorm.
And I didn't look back. Because looking back meant second-guessing, and I was done second-guessing. Whatever Monday brought, whatever the next two weeks demanded—I was in this. All the way in.
Point of no return.
We were in this, together.
And there was no going back.
Chapter 7: Alex
The idea came to me Saturday night.
I was lying in bed, lights off, staring at the ceiling of my dorm room. My body was still humming from the shower—not just the sex, though that was part of it. The feeling of Liam pressed against me. The weight of his arms around my waist. The way he'd rested his chin on top of my head and just held me while the water ran, like we had all the time in the world.
We didn't have any time. That was the problem.
Everything we had existed in stolen seconds. A look across the boathouse. A whispered conversation in a locker room. Texts after midnight. The shower had been the most time we'd spent alone together since the night he slept over, and even that had been borrowed—ten minutes of reckless, desperate contact in a place where anyone could have walked in.
Next time I want more of you.
We both knew what he meant and we both wanted it. I'd never done it before, the thought of it was nerve wracking but exciting because it was Liam.
The shower had unlocked something in my chest… my heart. A want that went beyond touching him. I wanted tobewith him. Actually be with him. Sitting across a table. Walking down a street. Existing in the same space without hiding. To see who we were together.
The way it had been at Brackett Lake. Before I ruined it.
I wasn't going to make that mistake again.
The plan came together at 11 PM. Not really a plan—more like an impulse I decided to trust. I had a car I never drove. Sunday was a rest day. An hour north of Ashford was a world where nobody knew our names.
I texted Liam at 9 AM.
Alex
Be outside the athletic building in 20 minutes. Back entrance. Bring a jacket.
Liam
Why?
Alex
Just be there.
Liam
Is this a kidnapping?
Alex
Bring a jacket, Liam.
