Page 58 of Puck & Make Up

There’s guilt in my uncle’s eyes, and even though I feel like a jerk for bringing it up like this, I also know this conversation is long overdue. It’s been a month since I shouted at Fox across the driveway, blurting out my feelings for him.

A month where things have been quiet and easy. And not filled with insecurity or the past.

It’s crazy because in these last weeks, I’ve had morereal, more quiet moments and stolen kisses and feeling his fingertips trace nonsensical patterns on my skin than I’ve ever had in my life.

Because, somehow, that’s become Fox and me.

Just us. Together. Learning to trust. Learning each other.

Fucking like rabbits every chance we get.

My lips curve. The orgasms are glorious, but Fox is…

Well, all I can say is that he’s been more than I’ve ever hoped for.

It’s small things—hanging at his house, alternating between romcoms and bad movies and cooking our favorite meals together. Then there are the sweet texts he sends checking on me when he’s on the road and getting his opinion on which classes I should take at the local community college when the next semester starts.

It’s all natural.

Perfect.

Us.

It’s like now that I’ve stopped fighting it…

Everything has come together.

“Sweetheart,” Uncle Roger begins, apology in his eyes.

“Hey,” I say, “you did the right thing, you know you did.”

His eyes cut away from mine, then come back. “Knowing doesn’t make it any easier, kiddo.”

“I’m going back to school,” I tell him. “I wouldn’t have even considered that if you let me keep hiding here.”

“That’s good, sweetheart,” he says then sighs. “When you came back…”

“I was different,” I say into the silence. “I…” I shake my head. “That happened for a lot of reasons, the least of which was that I was growing increasingly unhappy at work. Coming home was an excuse to avoid dealing with that and with all the other shit that was eating at me.”

“Like what?” he asks, eyes narrowing.

“A relationship not working out,” I tell him because I owe him that much. “And friends who weren’t really my friends. I needed to come back to River’s Bend for a reset, needed to be close to Rosie and Bailey again…the problem is that I got set back so far I don’t think I would have ever moved forward without your help. And…without Fox’s.”

His mouth curves. “Knew it.”

I roll my eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“I knew you and Fox would make it.”

“But we fought constantly,” I protest.

“Oil and water sometimes make the best combination.”

“Isn’t that literally the opposite of that idiom?”

“Idioms are stupid.” He drops an arm around my shoulders and starts leading me from the office. “But my niece sure isn’t.”

My heart squeezes. My parents may not have been the most engaged—they’re good people, just…wrapped up in their own lives. But Uncle Roger has always been there.

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