I’d had one narrative in my head when I marched over here, and it didn’t involve Bryce fucking Wexler. Rafe was getting married, Murray wouldn’t be far behind, and here, kneeling in front of me, was the girl of my dreams. I loved her with all my heart, and I needed her to know.
“It’s nothing, we were playing basketball.” I stilled her hand, before it reached my wound again. “I need to tell you something.”
She knelt back on her haunches, a little crease forming in her brow, and I ran my finger over it to smooth it back out. Her face was clean and bare, tiny pleats fanned out from the corners of her eyes, permanent reminders of how much she laughed. I fucking loved her laugh.
She was so fucking beautiful.
“I love you.”
I waited a second for it to sink in. She didn’t move, she didn’t blink. I could only see the tiny flicker of a pulse beating its tempo under the delicate skin on her neck.
“I know you keep saying it’s only been a week, but for me it hasn’t. For me it’s been almost a lifetime. Lowe, I’ve been in love with you since I was five years old.”
Her eyes flared; the sky blue transforming into cobalt. Her hand flexed, then rested on her knee, before the crease I’d smoothed out reappeared.
“Wait… wh… what?”
“I love you. I have loved you forever… Since the first time you walked into our kitchen with Lauren.”
She blinked several times. “But… but… how did I not know?”
I got up and turned off the faucets before we had to deal with a flood, and sat on the floor next to her when I was done. Brushing a strand of hair away from her face, I tucked it back behind her ear.
“No one knows.”
“No one?”
“Well, the boys know. And my dad knew.”
“And that’s it?”
I nodded with a sad smile.
She frowned again. “But last week when I said about how things have felt different recently, you didn’t say anything. You just agreed.”
“Well, they are different.”
“I don’t understand… you’ve always been so… so cold to me…. Penn, you barely spoke to me….” Her voice got louder with each point she made, her tone becoming more and more incensed. She got to her feet to make her final argument. “You never hugged me, you ignored me. I thought you didn’t like me! I questioned it! I thought it was me!”
I took hold of her hand and tugged her back to sit on my lap. “Lowe, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. It was for my own protection. I couldn’t cope with being so close to you and never being able to have you.”
“Then what changed?”
I offered her up a shrug. “I don’t know. A summer of brooding, perhaps. Being forced together made me realize it wasn’t so hard to be in your company, and the more time we spent together, the less anxious I felt.”
She smiled up at me, her perfect, beautiful smile that I loved so much. “I wish you’d told me.”
“I’m telling you now. I love you. I love you with all my heart and soul. You’re it for me, you’re my one.” I took her hand and placed it on my heart so she could feel it beating just for her. “This is real, we are real.”
“I don’t know what to say. I…”
I placed a finger over her lips. “You don’t have to say anything right now; I’ve got twenty-five years on you, but youdeserved to know. Now do you understand why I say you’re mine? You’ve been mine since I was a kid.”
She nodded, her eyes glistening. “Yes.”
“I’m sorry I yelled at you this morning. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“It’s okay,”
