Page 113 of Pucking Revenge

My admission echoes between us. Her breath hitches, but she doesn’t pull back, and she doesn’t tense.

She doesn’t need to say it back. I just couldn’t hold it in any longer.

“I’ve known it for a while.” I glide my fingers gently over her bare back. “We promised one another the truth, and that’s mine. I love you, crazy girl. I’m crazy in love with you.”

Hands pressed to my chest, she lifts up and fixes her blue eyes on me. They’re glistening and filled with a mixture of surprise and what I’m almost certain is love. “Will you come to my mom’s house this week to meet my family?” She worries her bottom lip between her teeth. “My brother is actually a huge fan.”

With a low laugh, I relax against the mattress. This is big for her. I’m not disappointed that she didn’t say it back. She’s opening up, and that’s so much bigger than words. She doesn’t need to say them, because I feel them enough for the both of us. And we’ve got time.

“Oh yeah? A fan of me?” I tease her, squeezing her sides.

A warm, relieved smile spreads across her face. She’s not ready to say more, and I won’t push her on it.

“I wouldn’t say he’s your number one fan, but you are his favorite player.”

“Who’s my number one fan?”

She licks her lips and dips lower. “Me.”

Still inside her, and happier than I’ve ever been, I smile. “Yeah, crazy girl, I’d love to meet your family.”

FORTY

SARA

Me: Tell me I need to leave the bathroom.

Lennox: You need to leave the bathroom.

Lennox: Unless there is like a murderer outside the bathroom.

Lennox: Or a python waiting to eat you.

The way the dots dance on the screen signals that she’s got another horror story coming.

Me: There’s no murderer or python or anything else. I’m just freaking out because I’m taking Brooks to meet my family this morning.

Lennox: Oh. Trying to decide if you can go long enough without stripping and begging to feel his piercings again?

Lennox: Maybe you can slip into the bathroom at your mom’s house and get in a quickie with his bedazzled penis.

Me: Lennox! I have no idea why I tell you anything.

Lennox: HAHAHA. Because I’m amazing and you love me and no one else would understand your crazy obsession with your boyfriend’s bedazzled jewels.

Me: He doesn’t have bedazzled jewels.

Lennox: Fine. But wouldn’t that be amazing? I mean, shiny balls. I feel like he really missed the ball on that one. Ha. Get it. Missed the ball?!

Me: I’m officially telling you nothing from now on.

I flush the toilet and turn on the faucet, even though I didn’t go to the bathroom. Not sure what’s more embarrassing: my boyfriend assuming I spent thirty minutes on the toilet, or my boyfriend discovering that I’m hiding from him and all the emotions bubbling up inside me.

Since Sunday night when Brooks gave me his virginity and then told me he loved me, I’ve been a messy bundle of nerves.

Brooks is kind and good and a freaking beast in the bedroom. Seriously, he’s the best I’ve ever had, and it only partially has to do with the bedazzled penis—and I had to go and be the first woman he ever slept with. Now he’s got high school–level feelings for me.

I don’t want high school–level feelings. I don’t trust them. It’s possible he only said those words because of the sex. Now that he’s slept with me and realized how amazing sex is, will he wonder what it would be like with someone else?

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