Page 61 of The One for Me
“Not a chance.”
“Good.”
He smiles. “Good.”
“Still, you don’t think it’s weird?”
His hand stills, and I feel his shrug. “Yes and no. If you asked my brothers, they would say this was a foregone conclusion. Not the sex tonight,” he adds on quickly, “but that we’d be together. They’ve known I have been in love with you for a lot longer than I did.”
The words that fall so easily from his mouth feel like a sledgehammer hitting me. “You love me?”
Sean jerks up a little, lifting me with him. “I’ve always loved you, Dev.”
“No, I know that,” I say, swatting him with my hand. “I get that. I’m saying that youloveme. You’reinlove with me?”
“Do you feel nothing but brotherly love for me?”
I jerk back a bit. “Of course not. I love you. I’ve always loved you.”
And then it hits me.
I’ve always loved him in a way that was different from how I loved Declan, Jacob, or Connor. Always more than I loved someone who was just a friend. There was this twinge or a niggling feeling that would bother me when he talked about a girl he liked. I would get jealous but then brush it off as if it were silly for me to think she would take him from me.
I never considered the possibility of being anything other than that. If I had, I would have had to admit that I wanted him.
My eyes meet his, and I let out a soft breath. “I love you.”
Sean brushes his thumb across my lips. “Say it again.”
“I love you. I love you as something more than a brother or a friend. I think I’ve always loved you.”
He brings his lips to mine in the most sweet and tender kiss I’ve ever had.
“Come snuggle with me,” Sean encourages. “I need to hold you.”
We settle back down, and I am nicely tucked into his side, both of us facing each other. “This is nice.”
“This is right.”
My cheeks are going to hurt from the amount of smiling I’m doing tonight. I look over at the clock and see what time it is. “Sean?”
“Yeah?”
“Happy Birthday.”
He looks down at me with so much affection I could cry. “You’re the best gift I’ve ever gotten.”
I laugh once. “Better than the bat I got you?”
I saved up for months to get him this bat he wanted. It was aluminum and had some special thing on it or something. He talked about it nonstop, but there was no way his father would ever get it for him, so I did. The look on his face when he opened it was worth every second I spent doing extra chores.
“You are definitely better than any bat in the world.”
“Hmm,” I say and move my fingers up his chest. “I’m glad to hear that baseball equipment doesn’t do it for you anymore.”
“No, but I bet you’d like to see my equipment.”
“Oh yeah?”
