Page 70 of Forever Wild

“Ah, the nomadic lifestyle,” my dad chimes in. “Sure is popular these days.”

I reply cheekily, “All the cool kids are doing it, Dad. I actually peer-pressured Jameo into it by threatening him with a swirly.”

“I think that’s just called assault at that point, B, not peer pressure,” Jameson jokes.

“Well,” Kelsey says. “Bullying aside, I’m glad you’ve got a place at the club. I can’t house any more wandering travelers. One nomad just dropping by my house whenever it pleases her is enough for me.”

“Rude, Kelsey. I thought I was your favorite roommate.”

“Nope. I just keep you around for Jack,” she shoots back.

“It’s tough when you lose out to a guy who drinks water from the toilet, but I respect your decision. He is cooler than me.”

After dinner wraps up and we have to leave to head to WBCC, we give out hugs to my family, wishing them a happy New Year. Jameson hugs them all except my dad. As they shake hands, Izzy pulls me into a tight hug, whispering in my ear, “Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.”

“Did you just quote A Cinderella Story to me?”

“Yup. Felt it applied. And, it turns out, it’s actually a Babe Ruth quote.” She glances over my shoulder at Jameo. “I’m just saying. I’ve never seen you as…grounded…as you’ve been the past month. Don’t give up on that just because it’s not going to be easy.”

“Izzy, I’m not—”

She holds up her hands in defense. “I’m just saying, Bryn. Do with it what you will.”

As we head for my car, I grab Jameson’s hand, a slight skip in my step. Izzy is right. This might be hard, but we can definitely do it. And being with Jameson is worth it—he’s worth the travel, the time apart, everything. I just hope he feels the same way about me.

Chapter thirty-five

Jameson

I normally am not a huge fan of New Year’s Eve, but this year, it feels like I really am starting a new chapter of my life. Last year started out as a total shit show, but if next year is anything like these last few months have been, it’s going to be great.

Bryn drives to the front of the club and starts to pull into the normal parking lot. “Oh, not here,” I say. “I’ve got the new cottage at the end of the road here. They said they’d leave it unlocked for me with the keys in it.”

“Oh, yeah,” she says. “I guess I didn’t realize that you’d already started renting it. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you were planning to move out here.”

I shrug. “I just called about it earlier today.” Which is true. But Bryn had been right a month ago when she said that we couldn’t live together in a hotel room. And, in reality, our lives both have enough hotel rooms in them that we don’t need to come home and spend time in another one, so I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about how to have a home that works for the both of us. Because I want to make a home with Bryn someday.

“How do you feel about your house selling?” she asks. “I know it held a lot of not-great memories for you…”

Yeah, it did hold a lot of memories of Alexis, which, even the ones that were good when we made them, have been tarnished after finding out about how she used me for my money, my status, my connections, and then still had the fucking balls to cheat on me. Thank God Bryn has never shown one sign of being interested in money or status.

The truth is, though, that I’ve barely once thought about Alexis since Bryn entered my life. It’s not like I’ve forgiven her or anything as asinine as that, but I just don’t care. She may have actually done me a favor by wrecking my life, because if I hadn’t been at rock bottom, I sure as shit wouldn’t have been in the middle of nowhere, Colorado. And I would’ve never met Bryn, which is turning out to be one of the very best things to ever happen to me.

“Honestly, B, it feels good. Like a weight lifted.” I lift her hand in mine and kiss the back as she pulls into the driveway of my home for the foreseeable future. “And it will free up some of my time so I can be here with you. Win-win.”

She squeezes my hand. “I’m glad you’ll be around more too. I’m…nervous, I guess is the right word, about you going back on the Tour. I just got so spoiled having you around and being able to base your schedule off mine that I’m worried what’s going to happen now that we’re both going to be super busy.”

“I know.” I unbuckle and lean forward to kiss her head. “I don’t love it, either, but it’s part of the sport. It’s part of who I am. And I truly think we can do it.” I pause, taking in the concern in her eyes that she rarely lets show about anything. “Plus, we already know we’re both good at phone sex. So at least we have that going for us,” I joke.

She chuckles, a sound that has my dick standing at attention just as much as the memory of her panting, back arching off the bed as she makes herself come as I watch from my phone.

“Is there an actual term for having sex over FaceTime?” she asks as we walk to the cottage. “Video sex? FaceTime sex? I feel like ‘phone sex’ seems like we’re in American Pie 2, having sex over the landline.”

“SextyTime?” I offer as I push open the front door.

“Wow, Jameo. This place is great.” Bryn takes in the large, open living room, dining room, and kitchen space before wandering into the kitchen to open the fridge. “Look at that, they even stocked some basic food in here.”

“Yeah, I asked Mary when I called if she could have someone grab the essentials for me. I’m not planning on doing too much cooking, but they’ll keep me stocked with the basics and throw out anything that goes bad while I’m out of town.”

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