Page 92 of Actions and Reactions
“I don’t ever want you to stop saying it, Vinny.” I see the relief in those brilliantly green eyes, and though it does make me feel like shit, it also reminds me that Iknowhim. All of him. “I know you’re impatient, and impulsive, amd I like those things about you because I know what to expect from you.”
“I also know you, Si. But the way you were before...” He trails off, and then he pulls his hand away, stands, and begins to pace in front of the stools. “I thought, well, it’s been so long since we’ve hung out, maybe he’s just changed a lot, you know? But I knew something wasn’t right and I did nothing. I know theres no real way for me to have known, but I was so busy trying not to push you away that Ididn’t take care of you properly.” He stops and faces me dead on. “That’s never happening again, Si.”
“I don’t want you to be watching over me all the time, though.” I stand too and go to him, then I reach up to rest my hands on his shoulders and shake him a little. “I want us to take care of each other, Vinny.”
His hands go to my waist and I move closer instinctively.
“I want that too,” he murmurs.
I get lost in his eyes again, the butterflies dancing around like little demons, so I take a step back and breathe deeply.
“We need to talk before...” I wave around at the space between us, it’s pretty self-explanatory.
“Yeah.” He rubs a hand over his head. “Okay, so I love you?—”
“And I love you.”
His smile is so instant and boyish that I have to smile back.
“I really like hearing you say that.”
“Then I can say it again.”
“Soon,” he mutters, then shakes his head. “But what do we do now? Like relationship-wise? I don’t want us to start avoiding shit again, and I have no idea what you’ve been through the last three months. Are you going to work at the Pirates? Do I have to stop talking about hockey altogether?”
His chest heaves with agitated breaths and I need to make it better for him. All of it.
“I’m still going to work for the Pirates.” That’s the firstthing I need to tell him, to reassure him. “I don’t want you to ever avoid talking about hockey around me. I do need to tell you about my time at New Hope and about some things my therapist helped me with, but for now let me say this.” I move in again and take his hands. “I’m going to keep going to therapy. I know what my triggers are now. I understand my trauma now. I will do everything in my power to show you every day how much I don’t hate you, especially not for being a hockey player, and I will force myself to talk a lot more about how I’m feeling. I know that’s the one thing that’ll make both our lives easier, and in return I want you to go back to being the guy who would tell me every single genius, idiotic, and psychotic thought that passes through his head. Deal?”
“Yes.” He breathes out the word. “You’ve got yourself a deal, Bullseye.”
I’d smile at him calling me by my old nickname, but he wraps one arm around my waist and dips me back to kiss the breath out of me as if we’re in a movie.
And I’ll never complain about that.
23
Ivan
“Hi.”I wave to the girl from the threshold, and I bet I look like a dork, but who cares?
Annie, that’s what Si said her name is, and he told me very little about why she was in New Hope with him, but the little he did tell me was enough to have me raging mad.
He also advised me to stay a good distance away and not to touch her at all.
“You have to be Vinny,” she says with a shit-eating grin as she walks closer. Her dark eyes sparkle with mischief as she offers me her hand in greeting. I shake off my surprise as fast as I can and take it. “You’re even hotter than he said.”
She points at Silas, who snaps at her. “Shut up.” There’s absolutely no real heat in his voice.
I feel my smile growing as Si’s cheeks become flushed.
“You think I’mhot?” I tease him.
“Of course you’re hot,” he mutters without looking up.
“Okay, hate to break this up, but the doorman just called right before you got here, so we need to go down to get my boxes.”
“Yes.” I snap back to attention and offer her a less manic smile. “Can Si sign for it, or do you have to do it?”
