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Sawyer put his palms up. “I make no promises. Except that we’ll have fun. You ready for some fun, my man?”
Joey jumped up and down. “Yeah!”
“Good luck,” Sawyer said as he grabbed Joey’s bag.
Once they were gone, I was alone with my dread. All I could do now was wait. Jolie was holding my future in her hands.
* * *
A few minutes later,I opened my door and found Jolie standing there, tears shining in her eyes.
Fuck. My stomach churned as I studied her expression.
“Hey,” I said, reaching for her hand.
“Hey.” She barely got the word out, her face crumpling as she took my hand.
I stepped aside and she came in. As soon as I closed the door behind her, I put my arms around her. She sank against me and I closed my eyes, inhaling the scent of her coconut shampoo. This was what I needed—to have her in my arms.
“I miss you,” I said softly.
“I miss you, too.”
She pulled away and looked up at me, wiping the corners of her eyes. “Can we sit down?”
I nodded, releasing her. My heart hammered as I watched her walk over to the couch. This couldn’t be it. I wouldn’t let it.
“Come with me,” I said, my voice breaking.
I cleared my throat, hoping to get the words out without getting emotional.
“It’s shitty of me to ask you,” I continued. “You’ve been in school forever—your whole life, pretty much, and here I am asking you to follow me to my hometown, where I get to keep my job and you have no prospects.”
She hadn’t reached the couch yet when she turned to look at me, eyes widened slightly. I’d already started, so I figured I might as well go all in.
“I know all the reasons I shouldn’t ask,” I said. “You’re about to finish your degree, you were engaged not that long ago, I’m going to be starting with a new team, we haven’t been seeing each other that long.”
She nodded but stayed silent.
“There’s this one thing, though…” My voice faltered again and I looked away, trying to swallow the lump in my throat. “There’s this one thing that makes all that other stuff not matter. I love you, Jolie. Maybe I’m a selfish bastard for saying it, but I love you and I want you to drop everything here and come to Nashville with me. Move in with me. Be with me.”
She swiped at the corners of her eyes again and said, “You do?”
“Yeah. I want it a lot. And I know it’s selfish. That’s why I couldn’t even say it before. Your family is here, you have all kinds of career opportunities here and everywhere else, but I’m asking you to leave it all behind. For me.”
I held my breath as she wiped tears from her cheeks. Never in my life had I put myself out there like that for a woman. But if Jolie didn’t come to Nashville with me, I wanted to know I’d done everything in my power to get her to.
“So you’d want us to live together?” she asked.
“I know it’s soon, but…yeah. I think we should. I’m not asking you to move so we can see each other once or twice a week. I want to see you every day I’m home, even if it’s just for a few minutes on a busy day.”
She blew out an exhale. “Wow. I had myself so convinced that you just wanted to move on.”
I went to her, covering the distance between us and cupping her face in my hands. “I’m not great at talking about my feelings, but I’ll work on it. I’ve always thought actions were the most important, but words matter, too.”
“I could find a job in Nashville,” she said. “If you want me to go with you, I can start looking.”
“There’s noif, Jolie. I want you with me. I love you.”
