Somehow I made it to the front door without falling straight on my face. I shook my head as I stretched on the front porch. That girl was something else. Despite the growing realization Grandma Dorothy was never going to get better and everything else going on in my life, Charlie was the bright post. She always had been. I couldn’t imagine my life without her.
God, I loved her.
The thought stopped me short as I reached the trail around Lake Ella opposite my house.
I loved her.
What the hell was I going to do about that?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Charlie
I wokeup to a snoring Liam and I immediately smiled.
I was doing a lot of smiling around him lately. It was like I couldn’t contain it. I was stressed about my mom, stressed about finals, and the final approval for volunteering, but as soon as I walked in the door it was like his mere presence could wash it away.
As I shifted, he cracked open an eye and smiled. His arms wrapped around me and he pulled me closer to kiss my hair. “Good morning, beautiful,” he said, like he had every morning after I slept in his bed.
“What?” he asked when I didn’t respond right away.
I pressed my forehead against his chest which, was warm from our combined heat under the sheets. Our skin stuck together where arms and legs were intertwined. I was completely wrapped up in him, under his spell. I nuzzled into the thin dusting of hair on his chest and suck in heady breaths heavy with the scent of him. The last wispy remains of yesterday’s cologne and the cotton fresh laundry detergent he prefers.
“I like waking up to you,” I told him with uncharacteristic honesty. It was akin to me offering him my heart on a silver platter. I wanted him to see me bare and defenseless, with walls down. For the first time, I wanted to let a man in, rather than barricade him out.
His hand brushed over my hair and I stretched like a cat against him. “Oh, do you?”
“I like the way you hold me.”
His arms tightened around me. “Good luck trying to get me to let you go.”
If I’d thought he couldn’t get any more amazing, I was wrong. And that was after an amazing night with him once he got back from his run.
It hadn’t been anything special, but to me, it was everything. We ate dinner and watched a movie cuddled together on the couch. I studied to the point where I couldn’t see straight and he forced me to take a break, which of course meant we ended up making out on the couch until three o’clock in the morning.
I swear, I wish we’d made the plunge into dating sooner. I’ve never felt about anyone the way I feel about him.
It was as simple as feeling his heart beat sync with my own. He twined his fingers with mine and pressed them against his chest.
The words spilled out before I even made the conscious thought to say them. “I love you, Liam.”
His body stilled under my hands and with anyone else, I would have rushed to apologize. To backtrack and apologize. At the first sign of commitment or weakness, my first instinct was normally to run, but the only running I wanted to do when it came to Liam was right back into his arms. I guess my mom and I weren’t alike in that aspect after all.
When he didn’t say anything, the first tingling of anxiety had me tilting my head back to gauge his reaction. I found him smiling down at me and taking my lips for a kiss I’d never forget.
“I love you, too, Charlie,” he said when we stopped to catch our breath.
I dragged him back to me as warmth spread through my chest. My whole body felt as though it were weightless. I couldn’t stop smiling even though we were kissing. By the time we were done, happy tears had blurred my vision.
“I hate to tell you this,” Liam said as he looked over my head. “But I think you might be late for that final.”
Still floating from the kiss, it took me a minute for the meaning of his words to sink in. “What?” I shrieked and flew from the bed. “Oh my god, I’m so screwed.”
I stumbled across the hall to my room and grabbed at clothes blindly. I’m not sure any of it matched, but I didn’t care. Failing this final would ruin me for the whole semester. Liam was waiting for me in the kitchen with a steam carafe of coffee. If I hadn’t already fallen in love with him, seeing him standing in his boxers with just a mug of coffee would have done it.
“You’re a god,” I told him as I accepted the carafe and gave him a quick kiss. “See you later?” I threw over my shoulder as I hurried to the door.
“I’ll be here,” he replied. And I knew he would.
