Page 155 of Hometown Halftime

And I do know. That’s the problem.

I knew this was temporary. I knew I would have to go back to school eventually, and I knew she has her own life here. But standing in this duplex looking at her now, all I can think about is how impossible it feels to go back to being alone after this.

Kinsey reaches for my hand carefully and I lace our fingers together.

Her shoulders soften before she says quietly, almost cautiously, “Come here.”

I pull her against me and kiss her before I can think too hard about anything else. The kiss starts soft and slow, nothing like the desperate way we usually crash into each other after practice or after spending all day teasing one another.

Kinsey’s fingers slide into my hair as I pull her firmly against me, and the kiss turns deeper. It’s not careless, it’s just filled with everything sitting heavy between us tonight. The reality that our borrowed time is slipping through our fingers faster than either of us wants to admit.

She kisses me like she feels it too.

Every soft breath she exhales against my mouth adds to the tension deep in my bones while I hold her tighter, trying to memorize the feeling of her here with me. Loving the way she presses closer instinctively, like neither of us can stand even an inch of distance between us right now.

Kinsey makes me feel like no one else ever has.

I don’t have to spend every second trying to be who everyone expects me to be. I don’t have to be the quarterback or the dependable older brother or the guy with a five-year plan already mapped out. With her, I can just exist. She sees the messy parts too—the pressure, the fear, the moments where I have no idea what I’m doing—and she isn’t fazed by it. She just supports me through it.

She challenges me. Makes me laugh and calls me on my bullshit. She believes in me even when I’m spiraling inside. And every single day, she makes my life feel fuller and warmer than it was before she came along.

My heart skips painfully. Because she started feeling like home to me. The truth is so undeniable it steals the air from my lungs.

I love her.

Kinsey pulls away to tug my hoodie over my head before kissing me again. I guide her toward the stairs slowly without breaking the kiss, my hands sliding down to her ass while hers trace across my shoulders and down my chest. We stumble upstairs laughing at one point when she nearly misses a step, and fuck, even that feels soft tonight.

When we make it into the bedroom, my heart’s beating hard enough to hurt.

Kinsey smiles against my mouth when the backs of her knees hit the mattress, and the look she gives me right then nearly undoes me completely.

“Hi,” she whispers.

A quiet laugh leaves me. “Hi.”

Then she pushes me gently onto the bed before climbing into my lap, and Christ, the sight of her is more than I can handle. Her hair is messy from my hands, her cheeks flushed pink, and she’s looking at me with this softness in her eyes that almost feels painful.

My hands settle against her thighs while I look up at her. We just stare at each other as if we both feel the shift happening between us. Like this moment matters in a way neither of us fully knows how to explain yet.

Kinsey brushes her fingers lightly along my jaw. “What are you thinking?”

I shake my head slowly because nothing I’m thinking feels safe to say out loud yet. Not when every thought in my head somehow circles back to forever—with her.

So instead, I pull her closer and kiss her again.

My hands slide up her back, and her mouth softens against mine. There’s something unbearably different about tonight because it’s less frantic, like neither of us is trying to escape into the moment anymore, because we want to savor it.

We take our time undressing each other, pausing constantly for soft kisses and smiles. There’s laughter woven through it too. Kinsey snorts against my neck when I nearly fall trying to kick off my jeans, and the sound makes both of us giggle before she pulls me right back in again.

I guide Kinsey toward the center of the bed without taking my mouth off hers, both of us breathing hard by the time her head finds the pillow. I reach toward the nightstand to grab a condom before sitting back, and Kinsey’s eyes lift to mine. There are no nerves between us anymore, but the weight of this moment still settles heavily because nothing about her feels casual to me now.

“Are you still with me, Kitten?” I ask quietly.

Her mouth curves. “Very much so.”

I roll the condom on quickly before settling back over her, my hand sliding along her thigh while I kiss her again because I’m trying to hold on to every second before it disappears.

Because that thought keeps creeping in. The possibility that eventually this won’t be mine anymore.