Page 63 of Brazen Being It

“You keep showing up,” I whisper.

“So do you.”

I pull back just enough to look him in the eyes. “You’re not just my Hellion anymore.”

He grins. “No?”

“You’re the love of my life.”

He kisses me there in the driveway, soft and sure, while the wind kicks up leaves around our feet.

And for once, I believe I deserve all of it.

That night, we sit on the trailer steps with a mug of hot tea for me and a bottle of beer for him, watching the stars come out.

“She’s gonna be okay,” I say.

“You are too.”

I nod, smiling. “It’s a good kind of quiet now.”

He squeezes my hand. “Let’s keep it that way.”

And we do.

Two weeks later, I open the email on the couch with Little Foot sitting beside me.

I cover my mouth when I see the wordPassed.

“Babe?” he says, concern slipping into his voice.

I just hand him the phone, eyes already filling.

He reads it. Then looks at me.

“You did it,” he breathes.

“I really did,” I whisper.

He lets out this joyful, unfiltered sound—half laugh, half yell—and pulls me into his arms, spinning me around until I’m dizzy with it.

“You freaking genius,” he says, kissing my face like I’m some rare prize he’s won at the fair. “You’re brilliant. You’re unstoppable. You—God, Cambria—I’m so proud of you I don’t even know what to do with myself.”

“I know what I want to do with you,” I murmur into his neck. That gets his attention.

“Oh?”

“Mmhm,” I say, already standing and pulling him toward the bedroom.

The moment the door clicks shut, the energy changes. I press my back to it, looking up at him with something between heat and disbelief in my eyes. “I passed.”

“You did.”

“I’m a high school graduate.”

“You are.”

He steps toward me, slow. Deliberate. His voice drops. “Do you know how beautiful that is?”

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