Page 86 of Cruel Devotion

“Oh, I’m so, so sorry,” the beefy wrestler next to me said, pretending to take credit for tripping him.

Preston narrowed his eyes at both of us and resumed walking toward the stage.

The guy next to me chuckled and lifted his hand in a fist bump, which I knocked mine against.

“Fucking jerk,” the guy muttered under his breath. “Can’t wait to not have to see him again.”

I smiled wider. “I know what you mean.”

Truthfully, I was looking forward to not having to face lots of people in town. Preston. His friends like Drake. The girls who seemed misguided enough to assume I was still single and hit on me. My parents.

Starting over in the city was an adventure that I couldn’t wait to begin.

At last, the moment came.

“Eli Young.”

I smiled, moving down the row to get to the stage and receive my diploma. Whoops and hollers called out among the applause, but it didn’t faze me. This high wasn’t like the former one I felt when I played football. And it would never compare to the elation that came from seeing Haley’s approval.

On the stage, I shook the dean’s hand. “I knew you’d make it,” he said with a genuine smile.

“Thank you,” I replied, meaning it. I would never forget how he had been on my side.

We paused for the official photographer to take the picture, but I knew that further back in the stands, Aunt Cindy was taking a ton of them on her phone.

I found Haley’s smiling face in the crowd and winked at her. She replied by mouthing,I love you.

Yeah, me too.I loved her more than anything else in the world, and I couldn’t wait to show her how much later tonight.

It felt like hours later when we could leave the packed stadium. It was chaos everywhere, with lots of groups taking pictures, families gathering around graduates, and faculty and staff mingling.

We didn’t linger, though. As soon as I found Haley, I picked her up and kissed her soundly, loving how her stomach was starting to swell. She wasn’t showing yet, but I knew that when she was, I would love the look of her belly big with our baby.

“I’m so proud of you,” she said, staring at me with that bright-green gaze of adoration.

“I’m proud of me, too.”

She mocked a gasp. “You’re not proud of me?”

“Of course, I am.” I kissed her again. “But there was never any doubt thatyou’dgraduate.”

“True,” she replied smugly.

I laughed with her as the rest of the party joined us.

Natasha and Greg extended their congratulations, but Aunt Cindy was too worried about gettingallthe pictures and videos.

“Let me get one of the family,” Greg offered, gesturing for us all to get close, including Cindy.

We posed, and as Greg and I had planned from our discussion this morning when he, Natasha, and Grayson came to ride with us to the graduation ceremony, he nodded at me to let me know he was videoing it, not taking a picture.

“All right. Everyone saysmile.” He held his phone up. Davina and Finn were with us, and both of them had their phones up too.

“Smile!” Everyone chorused.

“All right,” Greg said. “One more on the count of three. One, two, three?—”

“Haley, will you marry me?” I said it in the silence after the countdown, excited to capture everyone’s reactions in live time.

---