AllFreeNovel
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Nico readsthe first few pages of my draft. The entire time, my mind spins and falls like an acrobat performing a show without a net.
I can practically hear my heart rushing against my eardrums.
The conversation downstairs couldn’t have gone better. I know there’s a long road ahead for me and Nico, but the possibility of him moving to New York and us getting a real shot together is everything I could’ve asked for.
“This is incredible.” He smiles at me after a long while, eyes glistening and warm. My favorite eyes. My favorite person. “It’s about me, isn’t it?”
“Shut up. Of course it is, Nico. I think they’ll all be about you.” I give him a playful nudge. “Read the dedication.”
“‘To the man who made me understand I deserve to take a risk on my own happily ever after.’” Nico looks up at me. “Lil—”
“Wait.” I pull the unfinished manuscript out of his hands, then wrap my fingers in his. “I have one more thing I want to say.” He tilts his head, urging me to go on. “I love you for always making me laugh, even in the most inappropriate times. I love you for talking my ear off with silly jokes and ideas. I love the way you ask all the hard-hitting questions, even when I don’t want to hear them. I love you like I’ve never loved anyone, and I want your liabilities.”
“I want yours too, love.” He kisses my forehead, and I lean into the magnetic feeling of his lips on my skin.
“So, Nico Navarro.” I lower my knees in front of him, holding his hand as tightly as I can with my sweaty palms.
“What are you doing?” He chuckles and tries to follow me onto the floor, but I force him upward until he’s standing over me again.
“Will you”—I dig for the ancient DVD case I tucked under my bed last and present it to him—“hold my hand while watching this with me?”
“A scary movie?” Nico drops beside me. “That’s some girlfriend-and-boyfriend level of commitment.”
I shrug. “I think if you got me, then I got you.”
“I got you, Lily.”The words Nico taught me to no longer fear. “Now, can you say that one more time? I think I had something in my ears.” He grins his signature Nico grin at me.
I land a soft punch against his arm, and he kisses me until my head is spinning on my shoulders. “I fucking love you, Nico Navarro.”
“I fucking love you too.”
Epilogue
Nico
Some months later
“Excuse me,Lily Rodin’sboyfriendcoming through,” I shout over the heads of all the people crowded together in the bookstore.
The room brims with excitement.
The walls are wrapped in dark wallpaper, and the signs are all in a bright neon.
Lily doesn’t know it yet, but the small box in my desk drawer will change my title tofiancésoon enough. I’m counting down the moments until it feels right.
I tussle through the sea of limbs, but when I see her, the noise ceases.
My Lily.
She sits on a small podium, her red lips pulled into a smile wider than mine. The dark strands of her hair flow off her shoulders in long waves.
No matter how many times I’ve seen her, woken up in the same bed with her, or made her fall apart in my hands, Lily still yanks the air right out of my lungs.
Today is no different.
I’m so fucking proud of my girl.
“Finally, you’re here.” My brother spots me and comes to my side, dusting specks of glitter off his suit jacket.
