Page 37 of The Exception to the Rule

Callum pulls the small box from where it’s trapped between us and wraps his other arm around my waist. He lifts my feet off the ground and laughs, low and rumbling. The sound vibrates down my spine.

He is tall, arms long and muscular, and his skin smells soap-clean ... My mind keeps reverberating back and forth between the disbelief that I am meeting C ... that I am hugging Callum ... that I am meeting C ... that I am hugging Callum ... and when I manage to merge these two realities, I become wildly aware of the heat and mass of his body. He feels incredible against me.

“Is it really you?” I ask into his neck.

“Yeah. It’s really me.”

“No way.” I squeeze my eyes closed, holding him tighter. “I cannot believe this.”

“Realizing it was you in the closet was the wildest thing that’s ever happened to me,” he agrees, his breath warm against my skin. “Let me see you. Come here.”

He sets me down, stepping back, and as I sweep my gaze over his face, rewiring everything I imagined with everything I know, I am overcome with the urge to cry.Thisis the person behind the computer for the last ten years. It’s crazy, I mean, it is c-r-a-z-y, but certainty lands when he says, “Woodbridge,” and I reply, “Uni High,” and he says, “Terra Bernice,” and I reply, “Callum Jude,” and he says, “Rowing,” and I pause and then reply, “You already know I played lacrosse,” and then he cups the side of my neck with hisnon-cupcake-holding hand and leans in. “Too soon?” he asks, breath minty, his lips only an inch from mine.

“I don’t normally kissbeforethe first date,” I tell him. “But you’re the exception to the rule.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

2025

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 14, 2025

Subject: Happy Valentine’s Day

I win.

I love you.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 14, 2025

Subject: Re: Happy Valentine’s Day

CURSES! You distracted me with orgasms and then got up to get me water, like a real prince. I love you, too. SO much. I also forgot that I had an alert chime for this email, and the sound of it just gave me a shot of endorphins.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 14, 2025

Subject: Re: Happy Valentine’s Day

That you have any endorphins left right now is a shock, woman.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 14, 2025

Subject: Re: Happy Valentine’s Day

---