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But what’s the alternative? Living a life without Scarlett? That’s not something I want to even consider. Over the last several weeks, she’s grown to mean so much to me. Our childhood friendship compounded into a love that I never thought I could feel for another human being. Aside from Chloe, of course.
If you love her that much, then why are you in this big-ass bed alone?
As much as I don’t want to crawl back to her with my tail between my legs, I’m also not willing to leave things the way they are. We’ve come too far to let one little argument ruin what we’ve built.
I fling the covers off and stand up. I pull on a pair of sweats and open the door only to crash into a soft, warm body.
My hands reach out, and I grab her arms, slowing my momentum in an attempt to keep us from falling over. “Scarlett? Sorry, baby, I didn’t mean to plow you over.”
“That’s okay,” she says softly. “Where were you going in such a hurry?”
I drag my fingers through my hair. “I was coming to you.”
“You were?” She sounds hopeful, and I hate that I can’t see her expression.
I pull Scarlett into my room and flick on the bedside lamp, illuminating her beautiful face. Her eyes are glossy, and her cheeks are red, and I’ll be damned if that doesn’t make me feel like even more of an ass.
“Have you been crying?”
She shrugs and pulls her bottom lip between her teeth. “I don’t like fighting with you. When you walked away, everything felt so final and…” Her words trail off, and she shakes her head as though she doesn’t know what else to say.
“Damn, sweetheart, you could bring a man to his knees.” I pull her into my arms and press my lips to the side of her head. “Scarlett, we are going to fight. There are going to be times when we need to take a step back and catch our breath, but we will never be over. I love you, and there’s no way in hell I will let an argument like that come between us.”
“I was coming for you.”
“Huh?” I say, pushing a chunk of hair behind her ear.
“That’s why I was standing outside your door. I couldn’t take it anymore. After having you in my bed for the last few nights, I couldn’t stand being in there alone. It just felt wrong, and I didn’t know where we stood, and I hated that. I love you, Tuck, and I’m sorry I bombarded you with all of that.”
“Don’t be sorry. You said what was on your mind, and that’s something I’ve always loved about you. You’re honest to a fault, and there’s nothing wrong with that. And I’m sorry, too.”
“So, where do we go from here?”
I lay back on the bed and pull her down beside me. She curls into my side and rests her head on my chest. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to give this up. When I tell you I love you, I mean it. You’re in my heart, and I have no plans of that changing. Ever.”
“I feel the same way. But how are we going to make this work? If neither of us is willing to compromise, how do we move forward?”
“We make a choice to stay together,” I say, skimming my fingers up and down her arm. “We make a choice to work it out. That doesn’t mean we have to have all the answers right now. As our relationship grows, those things will become clearer. But for now, I think we simply make the choice to stick it out.”
Scarlett props her chin on my chest so she can look at me. “You’re right. We’ve known each other forever, but our romantic relationship is still new. Why push it?”
“Exactly. Right now, I can’t commit to uprooting my life, and I know that your career will take you away from me, so we’ll work on things one day and one situation at a time.”
“Okay,” she says, sounding pleased. “But one of these days, we’ll have to revisit the topic, because we can’t live like that forever.”
“When that time comes, we’ll sit down and have an adult conversation about how to move our relationship forward. Until then, we keep enjoying each other and let things progress naturally.”
Her eyes twinkle. “And we keep having sex. Because the sex is great.”
In less than a second, I have Scarlett pinned beneath me. “Of course, there will be sex. We might suck at compromising, but we’re really good at sex.”
“You mean more to me than that,” she whispers, pulling her hands down my back.
“I know.” I kiss her softly—once, twice, and a third time. “I hated being in this room without you tonight.”
“Me, too. My bed was cold, and it felt empty. It was awful.”
