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“I’ll give it back to you tomorrow morning before school,” he says. Instantly, my stomach drops like a tonne of bricks. He must notice because then he bends his knees a little so that we’re at more of a similar height and he locks my gaze in with his. “And then tomorrow evening you can come back over here again,” he adds. Then he pauses, eyes wide like he just said something incriminating. “I mean, you can bring it back over here again.” He gives me a nervous smile, eyebrows raised as he awaits my answer.
“I was wondering if you wanted to listen to it with me tonight?”
He breathes out a small laugh but mainly he looks like he’s hurting. He’s hurting because I am hurting.
“I only want to listen if I’m with you,”
“Such a gentleman,” I grumble dryly and I sink back against the comforter. I look at my college brochures and I want to hurl them out of the window. He shakes his head and walks out of the room. “Only with you.”
“I had to come and check on my favourite girl,”
“They’re not allowed to make fun of you. No one’s going to say anything to you about this because, if they do, they’ll have to deal with me.” He flashes me a cocky boyish smile. “You’re mine.”
“Well, you are the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“It’s just… it’s where you’ll make babies is all,”
“Don’t be sorry, please. I literally just turned sixteen, and I want to wait for you. I don’t care how long that is. I want it to be with you, and only with you, okay?”
“Hey wife,”
Tate drops to his knees again, mouth open. “You’re fucking beautiful,” he rumbles gruffly. Then he rasps, “Jesus Christ.”
“I like that you lit a candle for me,” I say, watching him wipe down a surface with a dampened cloth. He glances up at me, his eyes bright, and he smiles a little. “I do that a lot,” he says.
I’ve read stories about people dying from broken hearts, old couples leaving the world only days apart, because it’s like their body knows – it knows that the best part is over now and there is no longer any reason to stay. And that’s how it feels. Leaving Tate feels like the best part is over... and there is no longer any reason to stay.
“I’ve wanted you for my entire life. I’ve been in love with you for my entire life. Can’t you see this? Can’t you see what we have? We won’t ever find this with another person – I know that I won’t. It’s only going to ever be like this with you, River.” I bite down hard on my lip as he presses his forehead to mine, and a lone tear runs down his cheek. “Only with you.”
“Because you turned eighteen yesterday, baby,” he says softly, “so I had to come and get my girl.”
