Page 162 of Make Me Laugh

I’m sorry I didn’t message sooner, but I actually wanted to thank you. You saw something I would have told myself wasn’t real if there wasn’t proof for not only me to see, but everyone else too. I think you might have a knack for matchmaking. Hope you’re doing well XO Hex

West and I spent the first few days here, unwinding from the months of constant travel, and then we spent three weeks in Michigan with his parents where I fell in love with West all over again.

We were able to disconnect for the first time since we met and focus on what we wanted, not what the world wanted from us.

My phone pings with a text right after I finish recording my last video.

West

Fuck this blizzard. I’m not going to spend a third night in a row stuck inside this apartment with Enzo when you’re RIGHT DOWN THE STREET because Boston’s afraid of a little snow.

I smile at my phone. He always talks like he’s some old man who was alive for the Blizzard of 1978, and we do not, in fact, live right down the street from each other.

He and Enzo signed a lease for an apartment in Boston the first of the year, shortly after West accepted an offer of representation for an agency local to the area.

He could have lived anywhere, honestly… But I’m so glad he decided not to.

We spend almost every night together, sometimes at his place, especially after a long day at the office when I don’t feel like taking the thirty-minute ride back to Salem, but most of the time we stay here.

I love this house, and it always feels more like a home when West’s here—which is exactly why I don’t tell him to heed the winter storm advisory and stay put.

Me

Having withdrawals?

West

YES!!!!

Taking the train. See you soon

It’ll take him about an hour to get to me with winter delays, which is exactly all the time I need to wrap up what I’m doing and change into something I’ve kept hidden in the back of my closet since unpacking my bags from tour.

I hear West coming up the stairs, and my stomach rolls with nerves, but I notice the flutter of excitement when the front door opens. “Hellllloooo?” He drags the word out, echoing to me in the bedroom.

I’m sitting on my knees at the end of the bed, butt on my bare feet, wiggling from the jitters running through my bloodstream. “In the bedroom!” I call out.

He kicks his boots off at the door, the heavy thuds counting down the seconds before the floors creak and he’s standing in front of the open door, holding a bouquet of dark red roses, his smile falling from his face. “Joey, what the fuck?” he growls, his voice deep but breathy with a vibration I can feel between my legs.

“Hi…” I say, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear.

West drops the flowers, prowling towards me with a look I know means only one thing with him… He’s about to make me come so hard I see stars.

I squeeze my thighs together with anticipation.

When he gets one knee on the bed, I lean forward and put my hand on his chest to stop him. “Down, boy.” My smile splits my face in two, watching West decide what he’s going to do. His eyes jump from me, to the hand on his chest, to the jersey I found in the closet of his family’s lake house in November. I did tell Mel I had it when we were in Michigan, but she smiled and told me to keep it—apparently she’d been keeping it safe until West wanted it again.

I thought maybe I’d show up to a show in it one day, but then decided against it, because I had a feeling this was going to be his reaction, and as much as I love fucking with him, that would have been plain torture.

West takes a step back, and my hand falls to the bed. He grinds his teeth, staring at the number 13 on my chest, eyes trailing down my body like he’s got X-ray vision and can see through the material against my skin. The white Michigan jersey swallows me, hiding the fact I’m wearing nothing underneath.

“What kind of cruel punishment is this?” he asks, looking pained.

“I wanna talk first,” I say innocently, batting my eyelashes.

“Fuck, Joey. Please, at least tell me where you got it.” He bites his knuckle. “Is that mine? Is my name across your back right now?”

I roll my eyes and laugh. “I’m positive you already know the answers to those questions.”