Page 113 of Fearlessly Us

“Okay, Cait, give someone else a turn.” Rachel Parker speaks for the first time, wrapping a hand around my arm and turning me to face her. And when my eyes meet hers, the softness there has my throat burning as tears threaten to surface for the second time tonight.

“Sweet boy,” she says, putting her other hand where Cait’s just was.

I clear my throat, trying to make a path for words. “I’m sorry about all this,” I manage.

She tilts her head, studying me. “Sorry about what?”

I laugh a little, waving my hand around. “All of this. Everything. The fact that you had to see my messy past firsthand. That your family did.”

She shakes her head definitively. “First of all, it’s your family too, honey. And second of all, that’s what family does. It bears witness to your hurts. Holds you up when you feel like you can’t stand alone. None of what happened here is anything to be ashamed of. What’s here is life, Drew. Hard. Messy. Uncomfortable sometimes.” She looks between Caitlin and me and then to the rest of our assembled crew with a grin. “And so incredibly beautiful.” She wraps her arms around me in a tight hug, and I feel the warmth spread through my chest, strong and true. “We’ll give you two a few minutes alone. Meet us in the parking lot when you’re ready.”

After another hug from her and one from Ben, Hallie, and all the girls, they head down in the direction of the exit.

Avery is next, wrapping her arms around my waist and laying her head on my chest. “I’m sorry he was such an asshole. But if he hadn’t been who he was, I might never have known you. And I’m really, really happy I know you.”

I laugh at that little bit of seventeen-year-old wisdom and squeeze her tight. Family, I think again. How wildly, amazingly, beautiful.

“Don’t worry about the team plane,” Cam says as he claps me on the back. “That’s not how we’re getting home.”

“Shit,” I say, realizing I completely forgot I’d been in Tampa to play a football game that now feels like a thousand years ago. “How are we getting home?”

Tyler turns and winks at Cait. “Caitlin put on her scary boss babe face and lawyered Coach into letting us all take Soph’s dad’s plane home.”

Caitlin snorts. “Boss babe face? I think I prefer queen of everything face.”

“Damn straight.” Jack swings an arm around her shoulders and presses a kiss to her hair. “You could rule the world, Cait. You know, if that’s something you wanted to do.”

“Nah,” Caitlin says, aiming a grin at me. “I prefer just lording my brilliance over my little fiefdom right here.”

“Lord your brilliance over me anytime, baby,” I say with a salacious wink at my girl.

“And that’s our cue to go.” Oliver squeezes my shoulder then tosses an arm around me and one around Caitlin. “I love you guys. I wish I could stay for the thing, but I have to catch a flight back right now. Practice early tomorrow,” he says apologetically.

“Thanks for coming, Ollie,” Cait says, hugging him tightly. “I know the timing was tight, and I really appreciate it.”

Oliver kisses the side of her head. “When you call, we come. That’s the way it works around here. Love you.”

“Love you back.” Cait gives him one more squeeze then hugs Avery, and they all head out and then it’s just Caitlin and me and a big, empty hallway with the happy echoes of our family tattooed on the walls.

“Catie,” I murmur, turning to her and cupping her face in my hands, love for her filling up every part of me as she leans into my touch.

“I know,” she says, winding her arms around my waist in a fierce hug. “Me too.”

“I’m not sure you do know,” I say, leaning my cheek on her hair, my arms around her shoulders. “The way I love you…” I trail off without knowing how to finish that sentence. Understanding for the first time that sometimes feelings are too intense, too deep for words to touch.

“It’s huge,” she finishes for me, face buried in my chest. “Wild and uncontrollable and would probably be a little bit scary if it didn’t feel so perfectly right.”

I kiss her hair, chuckling because she summed it up better than I ever could. Easing back, I rest a hand on either side of her neck, sweeping my thumbs over her jaw. “Exactly that. And it’s going to be this way for the rest of my days.”

“I’m counting on it,” she says with a smile, pressing herself closer and standing on her tiptoes to lay her lips on mine. The kiss is slow and steady and then it’s fast and frenzied. It’s joyful and heated and lips moving together and tongues clashing and a moan and a sigh and, I’m pretty sure, a whimper. My head spins and her taste invades my senses, and I kiss her like I’ll never get another chance. It’s the best kiss of my life because it’s the one that says you’re mine and forever and always and only you.

Always only you.

“Fuck,” Caitlin mutters, her lips never leaving mine. “You sure can kiss.”

“Likewise, Princess,” I murmur, slowing the kiss down as the heat simmers between us, sure that nothing on earth has ever felt this good.

“So, there’s this thing,” she mumbles, pulling back slightly, and all I want to do is lean back in because her lips are wet and her eyes are hazy with arousal and the prettiest pink stains her cheeks and she’s never looked more beautiful.