Page 162 of Only in Your Dreams

Since you were kids. Until you’re old and grey, with kids of your own.

“What’s Noah talking about?” I counter, but Zac only buries his face in my neck. Wrenching out of me a stupid, embarrassing giggle. He surfaces from the crook of my neck, looking pleased as punch.

“Wipe that smug look off your face or you don’t get to hear my news,” I tell him.

He quickly rearranges his expression into an emotionless mask. “Go on.”

“I got a new job today.”

Zac jolts. “With the Knights?” When I nod, he looks even happier than I was hearing the news. “I knew. I fuckingknewit. They’d have been idiots not to hire you. You’re going to kill it.”

I hold his face between my palms, trying to absorb his elation into my skin. That’s one-out-of-two discussion points out of the way, and I’m nervous as hell. I need every bit of strength I can muster here.

“That’s only part of the uh…” I squirm in his arms until he sets me down. “Okay, you know I’m terrible at this. The sappy, cheesy stuff is definitely more in your wheelhouse, but I want to ask you something important.”

He tips his head. “Hit me.”

“Well, I was thinking that… Look, I know you like it here, that you’ve always lived here, did the whole waiting around for years until I came back thing. Which is incredibly romantic, and kind of what I’m banking on when I ask you this.”

Zac’s gaze drifts off to the side. I’ve confused him.

“I have no idea how it would work, because there are only two college football head coach positions in the city and they’re currently occupied. So, there’s a chance you’d be without a job for a while as we figure it out. But I think that we could. Figure it out, I mean. Together. If you lived there. With me.”

Zac’s brows inch up his forehead. “You’re asking me to move with you?”

“It’s crazy, I know. I was thinking it through, how to ask you, and then I realized… In movies and books there’s always this big, grand gesture, and some sort of panty-melting speech asking their lover to take a leap of faith. But seeing as I’m terrible with love speeches—clearly—I came up with something… different.”

The flush in my cheeks feels like I’ve dipped my head straight into an open flame. But I guess there’s no turning back now—definitelyno turning back now—and so I lift my shirt, carefully peel away the bandage at my side and twist around to show him.

“Melody.” Zac traces around the small four-leaf clover tattoo over my ribcage, freshly done this morning after I put in my notice at both jobs. “That’s… that’s very permanent.”

“So are we, as far as I’m concerned.”

I watch a smile take over his face. “You matched my tattoos.”

“Yes, well.” I release a breath. “You’ve been full of grand gestures this whole time. So, I… you know. Thought I’d throw you a bone.”

Zac bursts into laughter. “It’s a good bone. I love it.”

“What about the other stuff? I know it’s unconventional, that I’m supposed to be the one moving for my man becausepatriarchy, blah, blah. And it would probably require you to be unemployed for a bit, but… please move with me.”

Instead of answering, Zac holds out his hand and leads me up the stairs to the bedroom. The curtains are open, letting the moonlight spill through the window. Pillar candles line the entire perimeter of the room, and on the bed is a confetti of yellow rose petals.

He stops us at the foot of the bed, letting me take it in.

“What’s all this?”

“My grand gesture,” he says, looking around. “It’s not as good as yours. But it does involve several orgasms with the intent of making you see what you’d be missing if you said no.”

“Said to no what?”

“I was going to beg you to let me move with you.”

Hope bursts in my chest. “Really? You’d quit your job?”

“Sort of.” Zac takes in a breath. “I ran into the head coach for the Knights’ football team while you were interviewing with them. He told me he’s retiring at the end of this season, that the team’s interested in me as a replacement. That he’d put in a good word for me if I want it. It really sounds like my chances are good.”

I stare at him. Zac looks so edgy, telling me all this, that I’m convinced I must be missing something. “Are you not interested in working there?”

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