Page 95 of Forever Yours

CHAPTER 27

I landed on my ass. Hard.

“Up,” Fallon said, offering me a hand which I gladly accepted.

Apparently, part of learning how to fight was also learning how to fall down and get back up. I’d done a lot of that. But I’d asked him to teach me, and I wasn’t going to bitch about his methods. I told him not to go easy. It was my own damn fault that my backside was sore from how many times it had hit the floor in the last hour.

After helping me up, Fallon slicked back his blond hair and shook it out. “I think that’s enough for tonight.”

“Okay.” I tried to sound disappointed, but on the inside, my tired muscles were throwing a celebration.

Fallon released a sharp bark of laughter. “You’re too damn stubborn for your own good. You’d let me kick the crap out of you for the rest of the night just to prove a point.”

I took the bottle of water he handed me. “That I’m good at falling down?”

He hip-checked me on the way to one of the sofas that lined the wall in the basement. I knew the stuff that happened on those sofas, and there was no way I was getting comfortable on one. I’d gladly stand.

“No, dumbass. You’re the strongest person I know. You never give up.”

Fallon rarely gave anyone a compliment. Just wasn’t in his makeup. His favorite two words were “fuck off.”

He threw his bare feet up, tucked his hands under his head, and laid back, getting comfortable.

“How are you liking college life?” I asked.

For someone who never intended to step foot on a college campus, he seemed content. More settled. I knew his home life wasn’t great.

“It is what it is. How about you? You and Jules seem to be in a better place.”

I screwed the cap back on the empty bottle of water and walked over to dispose of it in the recycle bin they had next to the trash can.

“We are. It’s just…” I reached an arm over my head and leaned to the side to stretch out my tricep. “…still complicated, I guess. Every time we… you, know,” I said with a hand gesture. “I see that tattoo. It’s like I’ll never escape from the hold she has on him. Like, Julien will never truly be mine because he was hers first.”

Sitting up, Fallon propped his elbows to his knees. A thinking man’s pose.

“He’s yours, El. That guy loves and adores you. Elizabeth was a huge part of his life. He has enough room in his heart for both. It’s a weird dynamic, I know, but you need to trust it. Trust him. And don’t let David push a wedge between what you and Jules have worked so hard for.”

My lips folded under, and my eyes widened. “Did Julien tell you?”

I knew Jayson wouldn’t have said anything to Fallon. That hate ran deep between the two of them.

“He did not.”

Fallon didn’t elaborate further. The guy had connections everywhere, so it shouldn’t surprise me that he knew stuff.

“David knows we can only be friends. He’s a good guy, Fal. Please don’t go all protective and do anything to him. Just like you said for me to trust Julien, I need you to trust me. David is off limits.”

“You like him.”

“I do. As afriend. Off limits, okay?”

Fallon smiled. “Unless he does something to make him not off limits.”

CHAPTER 28

“I feel like we’ve been passing ships in the night,” Ash said as we locked up.

Over the past three weeks, we’d barely seen each other. With my work schedule and new exercise regime that included morning runs with Julien and afternoon swims with Jayson, my weekends spent over at Julien’s or back home, and my tri-weekly visits to Fallon’s frat for mylessons—not to mention Ash being gone a lot because he was doing stuff with Mei—it left no time for Ash and me to hang. We did go watch David’s game against Duke together last week, and I most definitely brought my pom-poms. Jayson and Ryder came with us, but Julien had practice.

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