Page 140 of Fair Catch

“Me too.”

An uncomfortable silence blankets the room, not at all unlike the way things were in the beginning of our sordid tale, and I hate it almost as much as I do the abysmal distance between us right now.

The only thing I can do is stare at him, longing for the moments I never expected to crave.

“What is it you wanted to talk about?” he finally asks, the first to break the unbearable silence.

I open my lips to speak, but now that I’m sitting here in front of him, I really have no clue what to say. Where to start, or how to do this. All I know is that my life has lost all its direction the moment I woke up alone in that bed, then again when I came home to his room being entirely empty a couple days later.

I haven’t known sleep, peace, fucking happiness since he left.

There’s no plausible way for me to survive the rest of my life this way: missing the piece I didn’t realize made me feel whole.

“I wanna talk about us.”

Wincing, he slowly shakes his head. “Don’t, Hayes…”

I do anyway, because if I’m gonna fight for us, I have to be willing to show him my hand. Every goddamn card in it, and let the chips fall where they may.

“No, baby. I was a fucking idiot when I let you walk away.”

A frown tugs at his lips. “You didn’t let me do anything. We looked down every avenue for another option, and we agreed this was the best one.”

“Us not being together isn’t an option for me.”

“You think I like this? Sitting here across from you, wanting nothing more than to kiss you and hold you and love you, but knowing I can’t? Because I don’t.” Tears well in his eyes, and his voice breaks, cracking over the words as he speaks. “This option wasn’t the one either of us liked, but we both agreed this was the one we had to take.”

“Maybe we agreed to it, and maybe it was the best option at the time. But it’s not what I want, Kase.”

“What other choice do we have? Hayes, your family’s company and your entire future is here…and I’m heading back to Nashville. The Nighthawks drafted me.”

My lips lift in a small smile when I whisper, “I know, I was watching.”

“So you know that this wouldn’t work,” he reasons, his tone equally harsh and broken.

“It would. Because I want to come with you.”

He blinks, frowning. “What?”

Rising from his bed, I walk to where he’s seated in his desk chair and crouch in front of him. It’s the closest we’ve been since the day he left—within arms reach—and I don’t have the fight in me to keep from touching him.

So I don’t even try.

I set my hands on his thighs, feeling his warmth through the denim as it seeps into the cold, lonely marrow of my bones.

And then I finally lay down all my cards.

“I said I wanna come with you. Consequences be damned.”

He blinks at me, his eyes screamingyeswhile his mouth asks, “Are you insane?”

“It feels like it, but no, I’m not. For the first time in my entire life, I don’t really have a plan. I have no idea what comes next. But one thing has never been more clear. The only future I want has you in it.”

“Hayes, no. I can’t let you give up everything—”

“I’m not sacrificing a damn thing. Not one fucking bit. The only way that’d be true is if I had to go on living the rest of my life with thewhat ifsof choosing you, and I’m not willing to do that.” Squeezing his thighs in my palms, I whisper, “I love you, Kason. There’s nothing I want more than you. To see you accomplish your dreams, and be at your side while you do it. So I’ll go wherever you go, if you’ll let me.”

“But what about your parents?”

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