Page 53 of Catching Sparkles

I took a lightning-quick shower, skipping nearly my entire skincare routine in favor of haphazardly slapping some moisturizer on my face, and collapsed into my bed. Stretching out, I gave a light groan of pleasure as my silk sheets caressed my clean skin. I was going to sleep like a rock.

When I checked my phone, I saw Rhys had already messaged me.

Sorry I couldn’t stay. I didn’t mean to come and go. If you know what I mean.

Laughing, I turned my face into my pillow as my heart flip-flopped in my chest.

Not your fault, I assured him. I wish you could have, though. That was probably the best nap of my life.

I was saying it in a joking way, but it might have been true. Waking up pressed into his firm chest, snuggled under his muscular arm, was something I didn’t think I could live my life without experiencing again.

Maybe it was the exhaustion making me delusional, but I suddenly felt like everything would be okay. A complete 180 from the despair and hopelessness I’d felt before Rhys had brought me home and I’d discovered he’d been just as miserable without me as I’d been without him.

Our circumstances were shit, but… He wanted me. He’d regretted hurting my feelings, and he’d gone out of his way to make sure I knew that he was different than the other guys who’d used me as an experiment or for a novelty style of hookup.

And I was good for him. Very good. Better than anyone he’d ever been with. I was sure of it. He was revealing things to me he’d never shown anyone else, because some part of him, even if it was buried in the deepest recesses of his brain, knew that he was safe with me.

Glad I could be a shoulder for you to sleep on, Rhys replied in his next message.

He could be such a goofball, something that most people probably wouldn’t even believe he was capable of, based off his default grumpy expression and tendency to sink into bad moods. But I understood him. I could make him happy. All I had to do was wait for him to figure out what he wanted.

Which would be me. I’d make sure of it.

You were very generous, I told him, stopping myself from adding more when I saw the three dots pop up to indicate he was already typing something.

What about the other part? I didn’t get a chance to ask before.

Staring at the words on the screen, I couldn’t keep from letting out a swoony sigh. It was funny, how straight forward the question was, when I knew if he’d been asking me in real life, having to use his actual voice, he’d be blushing and stuttering. I loved that part of him.

You were amazing. The best I’ve ever had.

I could feel my lack of sleep finally catching up to me, now that my stress levels weren’t through the roof, but I forced my eyelids to stay up.

Come on. I was being serious, Rhys said in his next text.

I was being serious, too, I said.

You don’t have to lie to make me feel good, he informed me. You can tell me the truth.

It was the best I’ve ever had because it was with you, Rhys. I hesitated, my thumb freezing over the send button as I considered. But he already knew how I felt. There was no reason for me to hide it or play coy. I sent it, biting down into my lower lip as I waited for his response. My chest was pounding like a drum.

I’m glad we made up. I missed you so fucking much.

The words exploded in my brain like a flashbulb, the shape of the letters carving into my memory so I’d never forget them.

I missed you too. So much, I said.

My heart had slowed, warm and gooey like it was suspended in thick honey. I was in love with Rhys Kensington. It was nothing new, but the other feeling intertwined with it was. Hope. Was it really possible to be that lucky in life? No one actually ended up with the first guy they’d ever loved. The only guy I’d ever loved, in my case. Did they?

Get some sleep, Sparkles. You need it.

I need you. That’s what I wanted to say. But I could be patient. I’d waited almost 15 years already. All I had to do was make him understand how good we were together. It couldn’t be that hard.

Goodnight, Rhys.

RHYS

OVER THE NEXT few days, Kendall and I went back to talking basically nonstop. I grabbed my phone to message him as soon as I woke up, and I made sure to message him before I went to bed. It was reminiscent of the relationships I’d had in high school, only instead of parading him around the hallways at school to make sure everyone knew that he was spoken for, we had to sneak around and hide it so no one knew.