“I don’t want you to be anyone other than yourself.”
I seal my promise with a kiss to her forehead. I have no idea what I’m doing, but for the first time in years, I feel like I’m finally where I was always meant to be.
CHAPTER 22
Farrah
My lips are still tingling from our kiss as we walk back toward Stan and Muriel’s house. Knox has hold of my hand, and it suddenly hits me that we’re about to walk into the house where all our friends are.
I tug him back, marveling at how his face is no longer set in the hard lines it usually is. “Are you sure you want to walk in there like this?” I lift our hands to point out the connection.
“Do you not want to?”
“Our friends have zero chill.”
He snorts. “True. I’ll do whatever you want.”
I blink at him. Who the hell is this guy, and what did he do with the uptight version of Knox I’ve grown accustomed to? It’s his open expression that gives me the courage to move forward.
“Okay, let’s go inside.” I squeeze his fingers between mine to show him I don’t want him to let go.
We walk hand in hand through the front door, only to be met with silence. No one is around, and I start giggling at the irony. Something epic is happening, and I’m trying to preparefor the onslaught of questions, but not a single person is here to give a damn.
Knox sighs and throws his arm across my shoulder. “They must’ve all gone outside for the bonfire.”
I lean into his side, trying to wrap my head around how different things are in a matter of minutes. “Are we really doing this, Knox? How did we even get here?”
“With the help of Mrs. Basil, I finally got out of my own way.”
I frown at him, and the corner of his mouth quirks up.
“She asked me if I was finally done pulling your pigtails like a bully with a crush. At first, I denied the accusation. I don’t do shit like that. Except…she was right. It finally hit me why I’d been such an asshole, and once I understood, there was no way I could see you any differently.”
I melt into him, dropping my forehead into his chest. He smells so good—woodsy and manly. He presses a kiss to the top of my head, and I’m officially cooked. Nothing makes sense anymore, but I’m not going to question it. I’ll take this one day at a time until I can trust the feelings stirring inside me.
“Come on. Let’s go out back. They’re probably wondering where we are by now.”
“Our entrance is going to be even more obvious now, huh?”
“Yep.”
We make our way to the back door. It takes approximately three seconds for our arrival to be noticed.
“Ho-ly shit. Reese, Cam, I think your pigs grew wings,” Holt’s brother, Gage, yells.
“We don’t have pigs,” Cameron replies before realizing what everyone is looking at.
Grayson whoops. “Well, slap my ass and call me mama, our boy finally gotthe girl.”
“What the hell does that even mean?” Knox grumbles as he leads us closer to the fire, where everyone is standing around.
“I think he combined a couple of sayings,” I say with a laugh.
I catch Gia’s eye, and she mouths, “What the fuck?”
I shrug because heck if I know how this turn of events came about. If someone told me Knox Waters would kiss the hell out of me at Lauren’s birthday party, I’d have laughed and called you crazy. But here I am, with his hand in mine and my lips still tingling.
Knox raises his voice to be heard over the din of our friends. “Okay, everyone. You’ve had time to gawk. Let’s move on now.”
