Keeping 13 (Boys of Tommen, #2)

by Chloe Walsh

I just wanted time with her. Away from her family and rugby. Away from everything. Just me and her. I wanted to hit pause on my life and just keep her. Strong words for a person my age, but I trusted my instincts and my gut. All of those were encouraging me, assuring me that I was dead on the money because this girl was the girl for me. The one I was supposed to keep. I could make my way through a mountain of pussy and it wouldn’t mean a thing because I had caught feelings for her.

Kissing her was different because there were feelings involved. Big, huge, terrifying fucking feelings that I knew she felt, too. It was different because it mattered—because we mattered to each other.

“I love you,” he went right ahead and rocked my world by saying again. “Present tense—as in I mean it now. And maybe I shouldn’t be saying that, maybe I’m fucking everything up by telling you that when you’re in the middle of your family stuff, but it’s the truth.” He shrugged helplessly. “I’m in love with you. I think I’ve been that way for a while now—a long fucking while, if we’re being totally honest.” Exhaling shakily, he added, “And that scares the shit out of me worse than the thought of not making the U20s. You scare me more than anyone I’ve ever come up against on a pitch.”

“And I was scared, Shannon. I was so fucking afraid of how I felt for you. I still am. You scare the absolute shite out of me—for reasons I’m still not entirely sure of, because in all honesty I don’t know what the fuck is happening here. My head is in pieces and I’m so far out of my comfort zone that I feel like I’m balancing on thin ice, but I know that there’s no other person I would willingly put myself out there for like I have with you.” He shrugged helplessly. “Like I’m doing right now.”

“I need you, too, because you calm something inside of me. You make me feel good. Like I don’t have to…” His voice trailed off for a moment as he clearly pondered what he was trying to say. “You make me feel like I’m enough as I am,” he finally admitted. “Like if this is the furthest I go, if I don’t make the squad, then it’s okay.”