Don't Say You're Sorry (Hawthorne University #2)

by Bethany Winters

I’ve thought about him every day since the day I left. Every day, I’ve missed him, needed him, wished for him, pined for him. Every fucking day, I thought about dropping everything and risking it all for him. But he doesn’t know any

“If you felt for me what I felt for you, you never would have left me.”

I would have chosen you. I would have gone with you, but you didn’t even give me the chance. You didn’t choose me.”

Removing the lollipop from my mouth, he uses it to scoop up my precum and pops it back in, making me taste myself. I suck greedily.

“No, I…I know it’ll take some time, but maybe we could just…go back…to the way it was before. I want to be brothers again. Best friends. Or just two people who live in the same house and talk and hang out sometimes,” I add in a rush. “I’ll take whatever I can get. I just want to be in your life again, E. I want my person back.”

He plays the happy-go-lucky guy well, but underneath all those smirks and laughs and taunts, he’s broken. He’s broken because I broke him.

“Your apartment’s gone, and your brother’s back in Hawthorne,” he says, his lips moving over my jawline. “If you try to run from me again, you won’t get very far. I’ll catch you this time,”

“You made me wait three and half years for you. You can wait a few more hours for me.”

“Not a day went by when my heart didn’t ache for you as much as yours did me,” I tell him. “It still aches for you now, even when you’re right here in front of me.”

“I love him, and I want to be with him,” Adam says. “I mean, I am with him. We’re together. But I wanted you to know about it so that we can be together in public. I don’t want to hide anymore. I want us to be happy. I want Easton to be happy.” Oh my God.

“I know. That’s why I did it. You would have buried it and put all of us above yourself, forever if you had to. I wanted to put you first for once. I…I chose you.”

“That’s not enough. You’re the sun to me, Easton. I hated seeing you so burned out.”

“I still love you,” I whisper, wrapping my arms around his neck. “I loved you even when I hated you. Even when I thought you’d given up on me, I never stopped loving you.”

“I spent a lot of time thinking you didn’t care anymore. That you’d moved on. But all it took was one look at you, and I knew. You were still mine. You never stopped being mine. It confused me.”

He chose me. And I’m going to spend the rest of my life choosing him.

“Because I want you to love yourself as much as I love you. I want you to see what I see when I look at you.”