Page 24 of Forever Mine

I staredat the mostly empty space that was now my room. My own fucking room. Sure, all it had was a mattress on the floor and a couple boxes. But it was only mine. There was even a working lock on the door.

Dakota’s arms wrapped around me. “How does it feel?” He had been here all day helping us move in. It felt kind of weird, moving out of his space, but we both understood I needed to do this. I still planned on spending a fuck-ton of time at his place. Especially since I could barely sleep without him next to me.

“Weird,” I told him honestly. “But mostly good.”

He seemed to accept that. “Can’t wait to break in your bed,” Dakota said with a cheesy grin, causing me to snort.

“It’s a mattress on the floor.” Kota wanted to buy me a bed—as my housewarming present, he said—but I refused. I’d never had my own before. It felt like something I had to do for myself. Which meant I’d be buying it in chunks since I couldn’t afford that shit in one go. It would be worth it.

“It’s a good mattress though.” I smiled. It really was. I spent hours finding the perfect one.

Dakota’s phone went off. It was time. “I don’t have to go, you know. I can tell them things took longer than we expected. They’d get it.”

I knocked my shoulder into his, forcing a smile. “Nah, go see your family. It’ll give us a little time to get settled. But you’ll come back tonight, right?” The words were too similar to the ones he’d said to me the night I bailed and went to the bar instead. I still felt guilty about that, but we had been so much stronger since then. It was the wake-up call I needed.

“I’ll be here.” Fisting the back of his hair, I brought him into a kiss. Every time I tasted his lips, it was better than the last. I kept waiting for the time I’d get tired of this. That I needed space and freedom, but it hadn’t happened. Even leaving him so we could work, or for things like this family dinner, was painful.

I squeezed his arms. “I’ll miss you.”

Dakota groaned and rubbed against me. We were both half-hard from that kiss. “I’ll miss you too. I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“You have Find My Location on?” Dakota rolled his eyes but nodded. After I’d ditched him, we both agreed to put the service on. I had promised myself I wouldn’t look at it unless it was an emergency, I always gave Beck crap for following Riley around, but apparently I was just as OTT as my best friend. I’d gone from constantly pushing Dakota away to clinging way too close.

Dakota hadn’t brought up therapy again, and I’d been happy living in our little blissful bubble. But even as we both knew I’d watch his dot till he made it to his folks’ house, I was aware it probably wasn’t healthy. I vowed to myself I’d ask Wes about the therapist during the cookout.

“I’ll be fine, Jay. I’ve driven thousands of times by myself.” He was trying to hide a smile though. He secretly liked my bullshit.

“I know. Still gonna worry though.”

Dakota smiled. “I kinda like it.” See, told you.

I grinned. “You like me all protective and growly.”

“Yeah, a little. I can take care of myself, but it’s nice to know someone else wants to.”

Fuck, those words made me all fluttery inside. “I always wanna take care of you. Just, sometimes I don’t know how.”

“Just keep being you, Jay. That's all I need.”

He always said shit like that. Which made no sense. He always got mad when I argued about it though, so instead, I just took his hand and led him out of my room and to the front door.

Riley was sitting on the floor with an opened box and like forty bowls spread out in a semi-circle around him.

The dining room/living area was connected to the kitchen by an island. Beck was by the island, on the kitchen side, staring at the two boxes taking up most of the space.

“What’s that?” I pointed to the boxes.

Beck grumbled. “Fuckin’ food. Wes gave us a care package. How much fuckin’ food does he think we eat?”

I walked over, curious. The two boxes were full to the top. I pulled out a box of pasta from the top of one and peered in. There was all kinds of shit. Pasta, sauce, cereal, chips, cookies, bread, rice—I didn’t even know. The other box was insulated somehow and had meat, fruit, and veggies. I don’t think I’d seen that much food in one spot in my life.

“He realizes there’s only three of us, right?”

Riley looked over his shoulder at Dakota. “Plan to eat all your meals here for a long-ass time. Wes is tryin’ to make up for all those years by buying as much shit as he can get away with.”

Beck grunted in agreement, still looking overwhelmed. I dug through the box. I saw my favorite brand of cookies but ignored them. Dakota always bought them for me, and it kind of felt like cheating to eat them from anyone but him now. “Oh sweet. Sour cream and cheddar chips.” I pulled them out and waved them toward Dakota, grinning.

He looked amused, but a little unsure about what he should do. He probably didn’t get the big deal. His ma did shit like this all the time. She even did it for me. The day after I met them, Dakota came home from work with a cooler full of prepped Tupperware. I guess while we were talking I mentioned I was doing double shifts that week, since I took a few days off to move, and she made me some meals and dropped them at the hospital with Kota, so I wouldn’t go hungry. I fucking cried as Kota loaded up the Tupperware labeled with my name in the fridge.

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