Page 131 of Jace
I know what he’s going to say, going todo.I already saw it in Missy’s sad smile when she let me in.
My instincts never failed me before.
So I’m already shaking my head. “No. No, no, no. I’m not having it.”
“Tyler,” he replies almost pleadingly. “We’re leaving. This can never work.”
“It’s only three months,” I whisper, frozen in the entryway. “It’s only three months!”
He’s the one shaking his head now. “It’s not, babe. You know it’s not. We’re leaving, the other three graduate after this semester, so we’re not coming back.”
“You’re not planning on finishing your degree?”
He doesn't answer. The devastated look on his face explaining enough.
I’m shaking my head again in denial. “No. No way. You’re staying the summer with me, remember? We’re going to sun and surf, and have way too much sex. We’re going to irritate my brothers to no end when we take some shifts in their gym. You can flirt your ass off with all the middle aged women who are going to try to get in your pants, and I’m going to laugh at you for it.”
I’m in front of him now, my hands sliding up his cheeks, wrapping in his fuck-me hair, and I push our brows together, inhaling on a sob when he gives me a stupid crooked smile.
“I’d love that,” he says softly. So softly I think I wasn’t intended to hear it.
“Then why?” My voice sounds hoarse, and fuck it. I press our mouths together in a desperate kiss. Inhaling through my nose when the love of my life kisses me back.
But he lets me go immediately after.
“Do you evenwantto break up with me?” I crack, and I see it in his stormy eyes when he shakes his head, the pain, the refusal, the fucking ugly truth. He doesn'twantto end anything, he just feels like heneedsto.
“I’m so sorry.”
Those three words break me the fuck apart.
I can’t seem to stop shaking my head, can’t seem to stop the tears from fucking welling up. I don’t fucking cry.Ever. But this is killing me. “Jacie, baby,” I try, but he shakes himself loose, taking a step backward.
At least hetriesto step back. I might be a damn quarterback, but I sure as fuck know how to tackle. So I take a page out of Lamar’s book, and push Jace on top of his bed, straddling his familiar waist immediately and holding his wrists above his head. “Look at me, Jace. Don’t do this. It doesn’t make any sense.”
He takes in a big shaky breath, making him tremble beneath me, but never wavers his gaze. “It does make sense, Tyler. It does. You know it does. We have a contract, a fucking contract, and we’re leaving town.”
“We can video call. LA is not that far,” I croak. “We can make it work.”
“Can we? Yes, I’m going to LA for a couple of days, but we’ve signed for a damntour. We’ll be gone for months on end,opening for one of the biggest rock bands of our time.I don’t know what’s going to happen next. Where we will live. Where we will play. We could be anywhere in the world if this works out.”
“I don’t care. We can make it work, I know we can,” I repeat desperately, hopelessly, something vital cracking in my chest. “Ican travel to you when I have a couple of days off. I’ll make sure I’ll pick up extra shifts at my parents’ diner so I can book a ticket. You can come over when you’re close by. We could–”
“Ty, babe. Don’t,” Jace interrupts, the pain so clearly visible on his stupidly, perfect face. “And what after next year? Whenyougraduate? When you sign a contract yourself? Have you thought that far ahead? Because I have. Because I know that’ll happen. You don’t even know which state you’re gonna live in. Missy explained how the draft works.”
“I’ll quit football.” The words leave my mouth before I know I’d utter them. But I know them to be true. Nothing has been truer in my damn life.
Now his gorgeous gray eyes are welling, appearing more stormy than ever, and I snuggle into his throat, not being able to watch it.
“You’d do that for me?” His voice is so low I can barely hear it.
I lift and meet his sad eyes again. “Of course I would. I’d do anything for you. For us.”
He shakes his head again. “I’d never make you give up your dreams.”
And something clicks. Fuck. This is hisdream. He never wanted anything else in life than this, than his music. Performing is his life, music is his football.
Until me. He told me that. That he hoped forme.
