Page 121 of Forever Yours

“Not as much as I love you.”

EPILOGUE

Ten Months Later…

I regretfully peered up the flight of stairs and groaned. It was too damn sweltering for so early in the day, but that was late August weather in North Carolina for you.

After a dozen trips carrying an elephant’s weight in cardboard boxes, my arms and legs felt like jelly. I was hot and sweaty and would sell my soul for a sweet iced tea.

“This is the last box. Where do you want it?” I asked David as soon as I walked inside the apartment on the second floor.

He, Lamar, and Shawn weren’t living in dorms this year but decided to rent one of the cheap apartments near campus where a lot of undergrads and grads lived.

He dropped what he was carrying on the glass coffee table and pointed to the kitchen. “In there’s fine.”

Lamar and Shawn came out from one of the back bedrooms where they’d been assembling a bed frame.

“Eli, grab me a bottled water,” Shawn said, dropping to the sofa with a sigh.

David picked up the football from the floor and chucked it at him. “Get it your damn self.”

Lamar did a running steal and snatched the ball in the air before plowing on top of Shawn.

“Get off, fucker,” Shawn grunted, trying to shove him off.

David, Lamar, and Shawn had recently returned from football camp and pre-season training, and it was good to see them again. We’d kept in touch over the summer, but it was David who I was closest with. He and Ash were my guys, like Jayson and Ryder were Julien’s.

“When’s Ash coming?” David asked, reading my mind.

Fallon worked his magic once again, and Ash and I would be rooming together again. Julien and I flew to Seattle last month to visit him. Seattle was beautiful, green, and vibrant, but it rained too much. It was someplace I’d like to visit again, but never a place I’d ever live. How did people put up with the crappy weather all the time?

I snagged four chilled bottles of water from the already stocked fridge and tossed three of them to eager hands.

“Next Saturday.”

We had one more week before our sophomore year began. Until then, I was staying at the condo in Julien’s room.

Things were really good between us—really good—and I was more in love than ever. And it was time. I was ready. Julien was ready. We were making plans about our future. The things we wanted. But most importantly, we wanted those thingstogether. A life, a family. A forever. So, I’d asked Jayson the other day if he’d like to help me shop for an engagement ring. He went nuts. I hadn’t seen him that excited about anything in a long time. But not as excited as I was to propose to Julien, the love of my life.

Needing out of my sweat-drenched shirt, I pulled it off and tucked one end into my shorts. Taking the cold water, I pressed it to my chest and neck. The A/C was blasting, but we’d been coming in and out through the front door often enough that the living room and kitchen were stifling.

“Goddamn, blondie,” David said, and Shawn whistled.

I twisted the cap off the water and drank half in two swallows. “What?”

David eye-fucked me from across the room, and I could feel my face blush. I knew he still had a crush on me, but we’d maintained a close, platonic friendship despite his continued interest. No more semi-awkward moments like that first time he confessed his feelings for me.

“Dude’s almost as big as you,” Shawn remarked to Lamar.

I’d been doing a lot of swimming and CrossFit over the summer. The changes in my body were obvious.

Lamar flexed his tree-trunk arms, biceps popping, and posed. “No one is as big and beautiful as me.”

Shawn jokingly gestured at his crotch. “Yo says that about me.”

“Don’t need to hear that about my sister, asshole.”

Shawn and Lamar’s sister, Yo, got engaged in April. I’d finally met her when she came to visit during Homecoming Week in November. April came up as well, and we celebrated her eighteenth birthday in style. There was no talk of Mom or Justin. I’d closed that door for good.

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