Page 95 of Tangled Up In You
I gaped at him, surprised he remembered that place. It was a small clearing on his land, but the picturesque scenery would make for one hell of a beautiful ceremony for sure.
“I’d love that,” I said as my heart skipped a beat.
It didn’t matter if we were in the middle of a crowded restaurant or wrapped around each other in bed, when I was with Corbin, time seemed to react differently. The hands on the clock still moved, counting the seconds and minutes. However, the seconds could last for minutes, and those minutes…hours. When his fingers interlocked with mine, the warmth of his touch would expand time; draw it out as if we were moving in slow motion.
And when we kissed, the seconds would last a lifetime.
***
I woke up a few mornings later and smiled as I stretched, feeling sore from a long night of sex but loving it. A grayish light shone through the window in Corbin’s room, and thunder rolled in the distance. Knowing it was rainy and gloomy outside just made me want to lay in bed even longer and be lazy.
But then I stretched my arm toward Corbin and only felt a cool mattress. I looked at the digital clock on his nightstand and saw it was seven in the morning. He wasn’t working out that day, so he didn’t have to be up early. And Corbin was the kind of guy that liked to sleep.
Suddenly, the thought of staying in bed was no longer appealing, and I got up. Spotting my discarded pants on the floor, I pulled them on before leaving his room and going down the hall.
Before I reached the living room, I heard him talking.
“I don’t really give a fuck what you want, Will,” Corbin growled into the phone. “I’m not signing those damn papers just so you can smear my name and talk about how I liked to fuck.” A pause followed before he said, “Too bad. I don’t condone you writing a book about us.” Another pause. “Oh? So you were fucking other closeted guys too? Wow. You’re a real piece of work, Will.”
Not wanting him to think I was purposefully eavesdropping, I moved into his line of sight and went toward the coffee machine. When we made eye contact, I gave him a tightlipped smile.
“I don’t care if the other guys signed the release forms,” Corbin continued, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Chapter nine will just have to be cut out of your book.”
After he hung up the phone, he stood up and came up behind me, wrapping his arms around me and resting his head on my shoulder.
“You were chapter nine, huh?” I asked, closing the lid on the machine before hitting start. “How many chapters are there?”
“Twenty,” he answered, not moving from his spot on me. “And yep, before you ask, it’s a different guy per chapter.”
I turned in his arms to face him and looked up into his pale eyes. “You okay?”
He nodded and smoothed his thumb along my unshaven jaw. “I need to tell you something.”
Damn. My stomach coiled. His words seemed like the equivalent ofwe need to talk, which anyone in a relationship knows meant something huge was about to go down.
“Okay,” I said, leaning against the counter and crossing my arms. It was a defense mechanism to put some distance between me and the person confronting me.
“I got offered three more years,” Corbin said, cutting right to it. He stood a few feet from me and ran a hand through his hair in that nervous way he did.
Not again.
Things had been going great between us and we’d made plans for the near future. Plans that didn’t involve him being gone for half the year. For three more years. Once again, those plans we’d made would be thrown out the window.
However…it wasn’t about me. His passion was football and his dream career was to play it professionally. What kind of fiancé would I be if I denied him that? Sure, we’d have to postpone certain plans, but life was made up of unexpected moments that made you switch things up.
“Congrats!” I leapt forward and threw my arms around his neck. He gave a surprised grunt as he returned my embrace. “I’m happy for you, Cor.”
And I was. Beneath the slight disappointment and shock of the news, I was happy for him. Because I knew how much he wanted it. We would make it work.
“I told them no,” Corbin said, leaning back to look at me. “As much as I love playing football, I love you more, Hunt. I let go of you once for my career, and I won’t make that same mistake again.”
He pressed his head to mine and hugged my waist tighter. We kissed then, and conflicting emotions went through me: happiness that he said no, but also heaviness in my gut because I felt he’d regret that decision. It was the same struggle I’d faced the day I broke up with him.
I snuggled more against him, finding my favorite spot to rest in the crook of his neck.
“Is that what you want, though?” I asked. “I don’t want you giving up your dream for me.”
I could handle a lot of things in life, but having Corbin mad at me for something so selfish was not one of them. I refused to crush his dreams.
