Page 112 of Break Your Fall

All I can do is stare, my brows furrowing and my swallow tight, as Reyna’s own stare searches mine, waiting for words I still don’t have.

So I move instead, approaching her and standing in front of her in a few swift steps, my brain unable to completely process the way she has come to me, now tumbling out apologies that end with, “Tell me what I can do.”

“You can stop,” she says with her hands out, but I’m already opening my mouth again. “Don’t think about the gallery. I’m okay.”

My head’s shaking with and against this sudden onslaught of emotions that it refuses to place, everything inside of me having a freak-out, my nerves on fire. There’s a swirling in my stomach trying to compete with the airy feeling in my chest as I can only breathe out her name. “Reyna—”

“Tommy,” she cuts in through a breath of her own, and as if knowing I need her closer, as if she needs me closer, she steps through the little remaining space between us. My hands ache to reach for her, but I can’t, not yet. “I don’t want what happened there to ruin what tonight should’ve been for us.”

I go very still, stiller than I was only a second before, my ears trained, ready and not ready for more of her words, for what my body has been trying to prepare me for since the moment Reyna walked in here wearing this dress. Every hope I’ve ever had, each feeling of desperation, and tug of possibility tangle as one.

This is my true precipice. I’m right at the edge, knowing we’re about to change completely.

When Reyna takes a deep breath, opening her mouth to spill out the words, a tumble reminiscent of my own, I find out I’m right.

“I was gonna work through my frustration about my mom’s news in a safe and quiet space away from her”—her laugh is quick and humorless, a joke that isn’t funny—“then I was gonna come to you, in this dress, and tell you I’m in love with you.”

And that’s it—the pull. My body reacts the same as it did the first time I kissed her—my head clearing, my world opening up. If I felt like I was dying just moments before, I’m now flying, coming back to life with the sudden racing of my heart, my breathing hiked as everything I’ve ever wanted truly comes to life with me.

I still can’t talk, even more scared to make a sound now, still afraid I’ve heard her wrong and needing her to say it again.

She knows, repeating with a trembling smile, “I’m in love with you, Tommy. And it feels like I always have been.” Her voice cracks as tears fill her eyes. “I’m so overwhelmed. This feeling is just. . .” she trails off, shaking her head, breathing a laugh as she wrings her hands at her stomach. “I don’t know how you held on to this for so long, because I can’t—” Her voice cuts off with another headshake, and I’m finally touching her, my hands holding her face and catching her tears with my thumbs. “I mean, I was already giving you drunk confessions,” she says with another laugh.

“It helped that I didn’t really drink,” I point out with a small laugh of my own, finally finding my voice, remembering the question I had asked her that night we did. If I hadn’t blacked out when I was younger and quit drinking, my confession would’ve definitely come before this summer.

And it didn’t. Because our timing is just right.

“You’re my favorite,” she reminds me next, her hands wrapping around my wrists as my hands glide down to her neck, my thumbs now tracing her jawline. “I never wanted to lose any of you, but you’re the one I never wanted to lose the most.”

“You’ll never lose me,” I promise her again, and I’ll keep promising her, keeping myself by her side long after she finally believes it.

“I know,” she says with a certainty and a smile that draws out my own. “I’ve never felt this way before.” Her eyes brim with more tears, her voice filled with both the terror and the thrill of being in love.

My heart soars as I pull her into me by the waist, resting my forehead against hers. “I’ll walk you through it,” I tease.

She chuckles as my hands find her face again, my thumbs sliding down the front of her throat, feeling her swallow, then back up, tilting my head back enough to lift her chin and connect her eyes with mine.

Reyna Stokes is in love with me.

I’ll never get used to this.

“I’m so sorry it took me so long,” she whispers, blinking a tear from each eye, and now I’m laughing, a quick burst of disbelief and elation as I catch both with the backs of my fingers before pulling her into a kiss that saysare you kidding me, I never even thought we’d get here.

She smiles against my mouth, rising on her toes and leaning more into me, teasing my lips with her tongue before I give her mine, the vibration from her moan moving through my entire body as we deepen our kiss.

“You wore this for me,” I say through an exhale as I pull back, looking down at and tugging on her dress. “For me.” The slow emphasis in my tone draws more heat to her shining green gaze.

“So, are you gonna take it off me or not?”

A chill runs through me at those words. “Not right away.” I start walking backward, taking her with me. “I have a fantasy to fulfill first.”

We kiss all the way to the bedroom, my mouth not once leaving her skin as we move together through the hall until we’re stumbling inside and locked behind the closed door. I lean back against it, the corners of my mouth lifting as I watch her slow stroll to the bed.

“I’m nervous,” she says with a laugh, turning to face me with a playful stare as I close the distance again. “You’re just making me feel everything I’ve never felt before, aren’t you?”

My hands start shaking and I steady them on her hips, keeping my own nerves to myself, because if I admit them, I’ll second guess everything I’m about to do.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” Reyna urges, her hands moving up my arms to rest on my shoulders.

---