Page 98 of Unbelievable You

“You’re not? This is new.”

I rolled my eyes. “Shut up. I’ll still beat you with a pillow.”

“New isn’t bad. New is good,” she said, reaching for my fingers and kissing each one, making my heart flutter in my chest.

“I have to tell you something,” I said. I could try and hold it in. Live with the itch under my skin and the way my brain kept screaming the words over and over.

“Okay. That sounds serious. What is it?” I hated the way her eyes looked right now. Like she was bracing herself for me to tell her that I was done. That I was running.

“I love you,” I blurted out. “Sorry. There was probably a better way to say that. I didn’t figure it out until today. And I just—” I couldn’t say anything more because she was kissing me, and my mouth was busy.

And then she was laughing and kissing me and I was laughing and we were rolling on the bed and I was guessing she was happy about this.

“You love me?” she asked, grinning down at me, bright as the sun.

“I love you, Stace,” I said, stroking her face.

“I thought I was going to say it first, but you beat me. Holy shit, you never stop surprising me, Hunter.”

“You don’t have to say it back.”

“Are you kidding? I’ve been wanting to say it all week and I almost said it about fifty times.”

“Wait, really?”

She kissed me again. “Yes, really. I love you, Hunter. Fuck, I love you so much.”

I kissed her this time and then there was nothing more we needed to say.

Contrary to what I’d believed up until now, the world didn’t end when I told Stace that I loved her. No. It got better. After the first time saying it, I found that I couldn’t stop. The words felt good, so I kept saying them so much that Stace teased me about it, but I didn’t mind.

We went to Sapph with Cade and Eloise, and even Jo joined us. She was in grad school and rarely had time even on the weekends, but she’d made time to come and meet Stace.

Of course everyone adored her, especially Eloise. She and Stace got talking about books and I had to tear Stace away so we could go hit the dance floor and I could put my hands all over her and make everyone jealous that she was mine.

I’d never understood the appeal but seeing all the people who gave Stace covetous looks made me want to drag her into the bathroom and have my way with her. So I did.

“Come with me,” I said in her ear before leading her into a stall.

“Remember when you said that the kind of sex you have isn’t like the kind of sex I was used to? Well, how about you find out what kind of sex I used to have?” I slid my hand into her jeans and found her already wet for me.

“Fuck yes, baby,” she said, claiming my mouth in a searing kiss. “Show me.”

Safe to say she liked any kind of sex, as long as it was with me.

Stace and I settled into a routine, even with her unusual hours. I got used to her crawling into bed early in the morning with me and getting up to take care of her and then having naps during the day to catch up on my sleep. I started working a little less so I could watch Buck while she was out and make dinner and do her laundry. I’d never really taken care of someone other than myself and I found that I liked it. I liked when she came home from work and I had dinner ready for both of us. I liked it when she always kissed me goodbye, no matter when she was leaving. I liked it when she came home, still smelling slightly of smoke from fires and told me about her calls. Yes, I was scared for her running into danger, but I knew she was a professional and she had a whole team with her. I got to meet her friends from the station, Cooper and Rivera, and they seemed like great people. I was glad they had Stace’s back.

The best part about being with Stace was how easy it was. We had disagreements, but Stace never yelled. She just sat me down and we talked about whatever it was until we came to a compromise or we got out what was really bothering us.

It was so much better than giving each other the silent treatment and being petty and passive-aggressive for decades like my parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins.

Every time I tried to retreat into those patterns, Stace grabbed me and made me confront it. To see that doing things like that wasn’t productive.

In some ways she was teaching me how to be in a relationship, but I was teaching her too. Teaching her how to let someone else carry the load. To let someone else pick up the slack. She didn’t have to do everything for everyone all the time. We balance each other out in ways I never expected.

“You’d want to have a library, right?” she asked me one night when she’d come back from a particularly upsetting call and couldn’t get back to sleep. I liked staying up with her and talking about anything as a distraction.

“What do you mean?” I asked, lifting my head from her stomach.

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