The knowledge of that, the weight of it in my chest was so overwhelming, it caught in my throat and spilled from the corner of my eyes.
“I love you, Jupiter. I love you so much. I’ve never stopped loving you, ever. In all these years, you’re the only one who’s evertruly owned my heart. I’m sorry I didn’t say it to you the other day, I was just scared; terrified, really,” I sniffed, “but you asked me what I wanted my future to look like, so I’m showing you. My future is our future. I see you and me, in this house, a home that we build together.”
He rolled his lips, chewing lightly on the bottom one. “What else does the house have?”
I smiled softly, wiping the back of my hand under my nose, and went back to it. “Okay, well, I like the way the kitchen wall at Emerson’s opened up into the back yard, so I added that here,” my finger passed over the pages, “but I made the pool closer to the house, because I thought it would be good to see the water from the window, and it would remind us of California.”
“What else?” he asked again, just like that day in my office, the day we started working together, which was the first day I knew for certain I’d fall in love with him again.
“Here’s where the playroom would be.”
His eyes shot up. “Playroom?”
“For our kids. I was thinking three, maybe four.”
His arms snuck around my waist, and rested just above my ass. “What about the observatory?”
“No changes. It’s perfect exactly how you described it.” I glanced up at him, my heart filled to the brim, which carried on and overflowed. If I looked down I’d be standing in a puddle of it; a puddle of my love, for Jupiter. “For real, Jupe, will you be my boyfriend?”
He smiled that smile again; the once-in-a-lifetime one which threatened to split his face. The one witnessed by millions today.
He didn’t sink into the kiss like I wanted him to, but I had the impression he’d rather not stick around by this wall on the other side of the tunnel.
“Yes, you bet your ass I will. Now let’s get the fuck out of here so I can start being your boyfriend the second we get home.” He took my hand and led me off. “Maybe in the car if you’re lucky.”
And that’s how we left the field, my hand in his as I was dragged off as quickly as he could drag me without dislocating my shoulder.
But I didn’t care because my hand was in my boyfriend’s hand, where it belonged.
Jupiter Reeves, my boyfriend.
Jupiter Reeves who belonged to me.
Again.
Finally.
EPILOGUE
Four months later
“Marnie! Will you move your ass?!”
“Calm down, Grouch,” Marnie said as she walked calmly out of the house, putting on sunglasses like I hadn’t been waiting outside for fifteen minutes. In fact, ‘excels at waiting outside for women’ should be put down on my résumé for whenever the time came for me to retire. “What’s the rush?”
“I’ll show you Grouch.” She squealed as I slapped her ass. “Get in the car before I put you over my knee, and you make us even later.”
She slowly pulled the sunglasses down her nose, her eyes glinting mischievously, and I nearly,nearly,made good on my promise… but I had more important things to do.
Wehad more important things to do.
I slammed her car door shut then ran around to mine and hopped in. If there’d been dust on my driveway, it would be swirling through the air with the speed at which I’d hit the gas. Marnie was too busy fiddling with the music to notice I was having a mini panic attack while running through a mentalchecklist to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. But as long as Marnie was sitting next to me, and the small velvet covered box was burning a hole in my pocket, then I figured everything else could be bought.
“You wanna listen to pre-game commentary?”
I shook my head, picking up her hand and kissing it. “Nope, I’m good. You’re in charge of music, and I’ll be in charge of the volume.”
“If you change your mind...”
