Page 117 of Before I Loved You

“Unless, of course, you don’t want to—”

“Oh, there’s no way I’m passing this up.” He rubs his hands together gleefully.

I roll my eyes. “Yeah, I figured.”

He stands up, buttoning his coat. “Please tell me you’ve at least seen the first one.”

I shrug, standing beside him. “I think I’ve seen it. It’s the one with the hobbits and the special ring, right?”

His mouth parts in horrified shock.

I nudge him with my shoulder. “Kidding. I’ve seen the first two.”

“Well, I guess that’s better than nothing.” He pulls my hat down over my ears. “You know, if we have a boy, we could—”

“Nope. No. Definitely not. We are not naming our baby Harry,” I state matter-of-factly. “It’s not happening.”

“Fine.” His glove-covered fingers intertwine with mine, leading me to the door. “What about—”

“If you say a character’s name from Star Wars, then we’re skipping the sex part of today’s activities.”

Paul quickly pretends to zip his mouth shut and throw away the key, making me laugh.

He looks down at me, his eyes gleaming. “You know me too well, baby girl.”

I shrug nonchalantly, pretending I don’t feel butterflies in my stomach from how he looks at me. “I think we just get each other.”

He opens the door for me, and I walk out into a winter wonderland. Big fluffy snowflakes fall all around us, sticking to the ends of my hair. I look up to the sky, spinning in a circle as I stick my tongue out, catching a few flakes. And when I become still, breathless from all the spinning and laughing, with the biggest smile I’ve ever worn, I glimpse at Paul, and the indescribable feeling hits me like a ton of bricks.

This is happiness.

And I know it’s all because of him—that ten-foot-tall, amazingly kind, and gentle man who would do anything to keep me safe. To make me feel cared for. To make me happy.

My arms move on their own accord, wrapping around his waist as I burrow my head into his chest.

Paul rests his chin on my head, his hands securing me to his body. “I think we do, too.”

twenty-six

PAUL

“You sure you don’t want to head down to the hotel bar with us?” Glen asks while buttoning his shirt and then spritzing too much cologne over himself. He smooths his hair on the top of his head, admiring himself in the mirror.

“Yeah. Haven’t been sleeping great, so I’ll be heading to bed early. Need to be ready for tomorrow’s game.” Truthfully, I haven’t been sleeping great, but that’s because I can’t stop thinking about what Greyson did to Sarah. And every time I start thinking about it, I feel ready to hit the closest object near me.

The anger that I’ve been feeling radiating inside my body these past few days takes over me like an unyielding hurricane ready to destroy anything in its path.

And the only thing I envision at the end of that path is Greyson fucking Black.

“Suit yourself. I won’t be back too late. And…” He pauses as he opens the door. “Tell Sarah I say hi while you two have sexy time over FaceTime.” He does a poor job of winking.

“Get the fuck out of here.” I laugh as I throw a pillow at him that hits the now-closed door.

I couldn’t risk telling Glen about the plan I’m currently partaking in because that would mean risking his involvement with this whole thing, which I’m unwilling to do. So he’s under the impression that I took care of the video myself, and that’s all I said of it.

I reach for my phone, ready to call my brother, but he beats me to it.

“Are you ready?” he asks as I press the phone to my ear.

---