I headed out of the stadium before the rest of the people were announced and waited at the exit. It took another half hour before people streamed out of the stadium in droves. I worried that I might miss her, but I never should have been afraid of that.

Harley was impossible to miss.

Her lips turned up at the first sight of me. A mischievous smile that I knew all too well. She was pleased. She hadn’t known whether to expect me.

“What’s he doing here?” I heard Whitt snarl nearby.

I didn’t even care.

I was done caring.

The Wrights might hate me. My family might even deserve it. But all I saw was her.

She skipped over to me, and I saw her brothers all peer over in confusion and outright disdain. Eve grabbed Whitt and pushed him forward. To my surprise, we were given a moment of privacy. I’d thought that I’d have to declare myself to even see her.

“Oh my God, you’re here,” she gasped. Then, her eyes widened, as if she’d remembered exactly where here was. “Oh my God, you’re here!”

“I’m here.”

“What are you doing here?” she asked with a slightly manic laugh. But her eyes never wavered from my face. She looked at me as if she’d been waiting her entire life for this moment. Euphoria replacing a fear she might have felt at having her whole family nearby.

“You know why I’m here.”

“It’s our date.”

“It is.”

“Chase!” she said with a headshake. “Do you have a death wish?”

“I had to do it.”

“You did?”

I nodded. I wanted nothing more than to touch her in that moment. To kiss her. To claim her. But she was right; this wasn’t the way to tell her family. This was a way for me to get run out of town. I’d only come to speak my piece.

“I want this. I want you,” I told her. “I don’t care about you going to Harvard. I don’t care about your family. I don’t care about my family.”

Her eyes glistened with delight at the words. “You want me?”

“I have for three years, baby girl.”

She nodded. “And my brothers?”

“Fuck ’em,” I said inelegantly. She snorted a laugh. “We’ll make it work.”

“Oh my God,” she said on a laugh. “Shut up! They’re going to hear you. They’re already freaking out.”

“We won’t tell them like this,” I said. “You can tell them however you want. But I couldn’t go another day without letting you know.”

“That you want me,” she repeated blissfully.

“I’m yours. I always have been.”

She nodded. “Yes, yes, yes.”

“You’re mine?”

“Yes! Obviously.”