Page 54 of Spring Breakup
“What’s happening?” Leo whispered.
“So, you know, it’s not going to be a nothing burger on my end, and that’s scary,” Tyler finished. It was the most anticlimactic confession ever, but he was trusting his gut for once in his life. Acting before thinking himself into a hole.
No one moved.
“Yep. So I’ll keep talking if I have to,” Tyler said, nervousness bubbling up inside and making him lose control of his mouth. “I never want to hurt you, Dean, and I can see now that you are. I’m so sorry. You’re amazing. And not just because you’re hot and mind-blowing in bed.” He saw Rosie cover her mouth with her hand, probably in secondhand embarrassment for him. She had an engagement ring on her ring finger. “Wow. You’re engaged. Congrats.” He turned back to Dean. “I should have told you that at the lake. That you’re more than I deserve. You’re more than anyone deserves. The real you is pretty fucking great. You’re not shallow. You’re an incredibly talented artist. You’re not all the jokey, horrible things you say about yourself. I’m scared that I’m not good enough, and that you’ll see that so freaking quick. And that’s terrifying.”
Shocked silence echoed through the cabin. Tyler wanted to sink through the floor and never see any of them ever again.
Except Dean. He wanted to see Dean every day.
He opened his mouth to keep going.He would. He would tell Dean that he loved the way Dean had kissed him during the sunrise. That he thought Dean was brilliant and that teaching was a remarkable, generous use of his talent. It made him shine brighter.
But Dean stood up before Tyler managed to continue word-vomiting all over the room. Dean slowly walked around the table.
He stopped and kissed the top of Leo’s head. “Congratulations.” His eyes didn’t leave Tyler.
When Dean made it to Rosie’s perch on the back of the couch, he pressed his lips quickly to her cheek. “Congratulations.”
By the time Dean made it to him, Tyler’s breath was coming in bursts, and he felt overexposed and burnt by the attention.
Dean grabbed his cheeks, held them, and stared down at Tyler.
No walls. Just fierceness and affection.
“I want you. I want to watch TV with you and drag down your trivia team at the bar. I want the tough conversations. I want the friendship. I want to sleep next to you every night. I’ve wanted that since the first night here in Alaska, when next to you I felt peace for the first time in so fucking long.”
“First night?” Tyler said. He hadn’t realized. His whole world tried to recalibrate with all the new information hitting him at once.
“Yeah, angel. First night. You’re beautiful. You’re funny and smart and so maddening. And I want this to mean something.”
Tyler clutched at Dean’s shirt. “It does. It does.”
“I am so irritated with you,” Dean said, his voice gruff and full of tenderness.
Tyler’s face split into a smile he couldn’t control. “Irritation is better than nothing.”
“I feeleverything. I feel so much.” He pressed Tyler’s hand against the drumbeat of his heart. “For you.”
“I think Francis stealing my money was the best thing to ever happen to me.”
Dean laughed, and Tyler saw infinite emotion in Dean’s eyes—the exhilaration, the astonishment, the relief. Nothing was hidden.
“I think a moose almost killing me was the best thing to ever happen to me,” Dean said.
“Yeah.” Tyler nodded, uncontrollably happy. He was about to cry, and he’d never cried out of joy. “Yeah. That was great. Top five moment for sure.” He yanked Dean closer. “Come here.”
Tyler kissed Dean. A reckless crash of lips that softened and sweetened. It felt incredible to break his last rule. To have broken all of them, one by one. The last threads of Tyler’s fear melted away like ice under the summer sun.
Tyler deepened the kiss, let his mind rush with possibility and his body sing at the rightness of having Dean in his arms.
Dean held onto Tyler like he was the most precious person in the whole world, like he was never letting Tyler go, and Tyler believed it.
Epilogue
FIFTEEN MONTHS LATER
“Alaska hasthe highest number of plane crashes per capita in the world,” Tyler said.
