Page 57 of False Start

“Vaughn?”

“Yeah?” His voice sounds strained, and I hate that he’s afraid right now. That I made such a brave, sure man terrified of telling me he loves me.

“Say it.”

His eyes widen now, and his eyes search mine. “Really?”

I smile at him and nod. “Please.”

He cups my face in his big hand and smiles—great big and sure. “I’m so damn in love with you, Austin Pierce. I have been for a long, long time.”

I swear a tear falls out of my eye and down my cheek—I couldn’t stop it if I tried—and he uses his thumb to wipe it away, holding my gaze. “I love you too. I’m sorry I was scared. I thought you were just trying to say it to make me feel better about being in love with you.”

He laughs at that and shakes his head. “You’re ridiculous.”

“That’s your job,” I tease, using his frequent line, and he presses a kiss to my lips.

“Yeah. Yeah it is.” He kisses me harder, and I kiss him back, getting lost in the moment when he tucks my body under his, threading his fingers through my hair. He looks down and into my eyes. “Never forget how much I love you and never be that ridiculous ever again.”

“Never stop telling me how much you love me,” I say as I bring him back down to me, pressing my lips to his and holding him there.

“That will never ever happen. You thought I was a cuddler before, now you’re my boyfriend who I get to looooove all loud and shit. All the time.”

“You really are ridiculous.”

I can feel him smiling into the kiss, and I smile too.

Finally, everything feels right, and no matter what comes at us, we’re going to go through it together.

27

VAUGHN

“So is the boyfriend coming tonight?”

“That’s kind of personal, isn’t it?” I tease Jacob, who takes a minute to catch up and then shoves me.

“Not what I was asking.”

I laugh happily, walking between classes with him. We had our last class together and also have our next one together. He’s become a pretty good friend, so I was more than happy to have two classes with him this semester. “Yeah. He should be here when I get back to the dorm.”

“You should see your face right now, man.”

“What’s it doing?” I grin even wider because I know exactly what he’s talking about. I’m happy. Really, really happy. When Austin told me to say it—to tell him out loud for the first time just how much I love him—I thought I was dreaming. Or that maybe it was a trap or something.

But he wasn’t kidding, and I was fully awake. And I’ve said it every single day since that one. And I miss him even more now than I did before.

This going to separate colleges sucks.

Jacob says something about next year and maybe being able to talk Austin into coming to a game or two, and I want to be excited about that. Get Jacob on my side and talk Austin into it, but really the thought leaves me a little sad. I don’t know if I can deal with two different cities for another year. I want to be with him.

And I know he went to school to get some space from me and maybe clear his head, but now we’re together. I want to actuallybetogether.

I don’t care that we’re too dependent on each other. To me, that’s just stupid. We’re two people choosing to be together because we make each other happy. There’s nothing wrong with that.

“Yeah, sure. Maybe,” I answer Jacob in the most vague way, but he’s already moved on to the next topic when we run into some more of our friends.

After class, Jacob is right by my side, along with John and his new girlfriend. “So do we get to hang out with Austin or are you going to hog him?”

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