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“Oh, I will,” he says in his charming asshole voice. “Bye, Rae Rae.”
“Yeah, bye.”
I hang up, take a deep breath, and shove myself off the bench. It’s time to go talk to Aaron.
I take a slow walk back toward the dorm, trying to gather my thoughts.
I’m looking at the ground, playing through things in my head, when I smack into a broad chest. I inhale deeply, taking in his scent, and wrap my arms around Aaron, melting into him.
He holds me tightly. “I was looking for you,” he whispers in my ear. He starts to loosen his grip, but I squeeze tighter.
“Not yet.” I sniffle back tears, and he leans his head against mine.
“I’m sorry I yelled at you last night. I was angry about so many things and I—I hate when you blame yourself for something that wasn’t your fault.” He exhales and steps back, holding my arms tightly as he looks into my eyes. “We both could have made different decisions that night, but I have no regrets. He deserved every punch. My only regret is that I didn’t take my injury seriously enough and get help sooner. That’s not on you.” His hand slides into my hair as intensity fills his brown eyes. “Please don’t blame yourself. But… please don’t get mad at me for feeling the pain of my decisions. I’m sure I’ll work through that in time, but it’s still raw right now.”
I breathe out a shaky breath. “I understand. It scared me when you yelled at me, though. I don’t want us to be like that.”
He kisses the top of my head, then takes my hand. He leads me to a nearby stone bench and sits down. His eyes are sincere and full of love. “I don’t either. I love you so much. There’s that whole idea that you behave the worst with the person you’re closest to because you feel safe with them… that doesn’t mean I want us to be that way, though. It felt wrong, even as I was doing it. I’m still figuring out how to let that anger out. Baseball used to be how I did that. I’ve gotta figure out a better way.”
I nod and slowly run my hand up his chest until it’s resting on his heart. “Aaron, you obviously have a lot of intense emotions inside you. I’m here for you. Please, talk to me. I’m still your safe place.”
“I know you are,” he says softly. “But… a lot of it is stuff I need to process myself. Or that isn’t even worth talking about.” He takes in the concern on my face and brings his hand to my cheek. “But I promise I’ll talk to you before any big emotions come out in yelling, okay?”
“Okay. I love you, Ace.” I lean in and pull his lips to mine. Both of us relax when the electricity flows between us.
He slides his hand up into my hair and when his fingers twist between the strands, heat pools between my legs. He deepens the kiss and our tongues playfully glide into each other’s mouths, teasing and wrestling.
When I slowly pull away, he looks at me tentatively. “I’m sorry I didn’t come to breakfast. I was overwhelmed emotionally and wanted to hide. I shouldn’t have, though.”
He smiles at me. “We both make mistakes sometimes.”
“Good thing we love each other,” I say with a smirk.
“Love conquers all?” His eyes shimmer and my heart flutters. I love when he looks so happy that it’s childlike. It reminds me of the boy I first fell in love with.
“Absolutely.”
“Then we’ll be fine,” he whispers, before bringing his lips back to mine. This time our kissing turns sloppy and our hands slide everywhere.
“Aaron, we should go back to the dorm.”
He looks at me, eyes dark with desire. “Yes, we should.”
He pulls me up from the bench and squeezes my hand. As we run down the path toward our dorm, I look at him and start laughing. His eyes, still filled with want for me, dance with happiness and excitement.
It makes me laugh more. And it helps to let go of the worries I had. Well, most of them. Because he really does seem better. And I want to let this go. It would be easy to chalk it up to a little blip. Nothing major. A rough moment, and now we’ll move forward. But as much as I love him and as happy as he seems in this moment… I can’t shake the feeling that things are going to get worse before they get better.
And that scares me.
It scares me a whole damn lot.
Chapter three
Love and Tacos
Rae
“Heyguys,sorryI’mlate,” I say as I walk through the door into the suite.
