Page 78 of The Future Play

“When I want something, I’ll do anything to get it. And there’s nothing I want more than us.”

I hold him tighter, fingers curling into his hair.

That L-word rings in my mind again, but I tamp it down. It’s too much. It’s too soon.

But.

Butmy heart says.

It’s there, whether I’m ready to accept it or not.

And if our date is anything like he says it’s going to be, I might not have a choice.

Jamie

Finally.

Two months of planning. Six months of wanting her. Almostnine months of knowing her. It’s all been building since the moment I laid eyes on her in Joel’s kitchen. My world changed that day in the best possible way.

Hopefully, tonight will be the night she officially becomes my girl. And I’ll be her man.

For most of my life, my dream has been baseball, and if you’d asked me a year ago, I would’ve said nothing would change that. Romance and love are for the future. But now I understand we don’t get a choice on that. When the right person comes along, you fight with everything you have to make it work.

I’m not naive. We’re young. There are going to be multiple challenges in our future. But I don’t quit. When I’m committed to something, I see it through, and I don’t half-ass it. I give my absolute all. Will there be a balance in figuring out how to do that with both baseball and the girl I… am falling for? Fuck. I don’t think it’s falling. I might actually be in love with her. Which sounds crazy since this is our first official date, even though we’ve had plenty of lunch dates, coffee dates, and I’ve spent multiple nights at her house, holding her while she sleeps and feeling like the luckiest man alive.

Okay, yes. Fuck it. I’m in love with her.

Am I going to say that tonight? Probably not. I’m not a lunatic.

I’ve just caught the same bug a bunch of my friends have—love. Love when you’re least expecting it.

I wasn’t expecting it to find me at eighteen, but I’m not risking losing it by worrying about my age or her age or any of the rest of it. We’ll figure it out. If we really want to, we can.

Okay, maybe I’m a little naive.

But I’m not giving up.

I’ll fight with everything I have to be the man she deserves and make her happy. And that starts tonight.

Again, fuck it. It started months ago, and that further proves I’m an idiot, but I’mheridiot as long as she’ll have me.

I’mhopeful that Amanda’s entire family won’t be there when I knock on the front door. I want to pick her up and revel in the moment, not be on the receiving end of inquisitive or downright menacing looks. Especially when I asked her to pack a bag.

Maybe I’m overshooting with my hopes, but I’d rather want it and get shot down than not take the risk at all. I want to enjoy a weekend alone with her.

I haven’t heard much from everyone down in Charleston, other than a text that Aaron and Rae finally got back together. It’s about time. They’ve both grown a lot in the last year, and I have a feeling nothing will hold them back this time.

I’m grateful that them being in Charleston and focusing on all the romantic things down there means they aren’t paying attention to us. We’ve made it seem like we’re just friends.

Which we are.

But we’re more than that too.

And hopefully, today, we become an official couple.

I swing my car door open and grab the bouquet I brought—not just flowers, but wrapped heart-shaped cake pops too—and head for Amanda’s front porch.

When I knock on the door, it swings open immediately, and my breath sticks in my lungs. Holy shit, she’s gorgeous. She’s wearing a spaghetti-strap dress that cinches above her waist, perfectly showing her cleavage, then the fabric flows down to just above her knee. It’s light pink at the top but uses a floral pattern to fade into almost all maroon at the bottom.

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