“For fuck’s sake,” she yells back down. “Put on your big boy panties and fix it, Carter! I’ve got a tiny human gnawing on my nipple! I don’t have time for your drama!”
I throw my arms around Carter’s neck, and he holds me as I cry. “I’ll always need you. That will never, ever change.”
“Promise?” he asks on a whisper.
“Promise.”
GARRETT
I’m hit with a weird sense of déjà vu as I hesitate outside Jennie’s door with my hockey bag slung over my shoulder, sticks in my hand, like the first time I was here to check on her, pre–exploding box of dildos in my face.
It’s not that I’m afraid to knock; it’s just that I’m…
I’m a little afraid. Jennie’s so strong and confident. She’s certain about so many things in her life, and the only thing I’ve ever been so sure about, well…it’s her.
I’ve been dying to hold her, kiss her, but I don’t know how to take what I want right now. Do we need time? Do we have to ease back into it? I’ve never felt like there was much easing into anything in our relationship. Sure, some of the pieces came with time. But for the most part, Jennie opened her heart right away and asked for what she wanted, and I gave it to her without hesitation: friendship. I got to have all of her, even the parts I didn’t know I wanted. Now that I’ve had them, I don’t know how to slow down. All I want to do is barrel forward, but I don’t want to push her.
Clearing my throat, I knock. Music filters from inside, and after a few more knocks, I try the handle, stoked to find it unlocked.
The music coming from her bedroom is so loud it’s no wonder she can’t hear anything. I drop my equipment by the door, kick off my shoes, and head down the hall.
“Jennie?” I call softly, sticking my head into her room. Her bedside table is open, blankets mussed on the bed, and I plod toward the bathroom, where I hear her humming, calling my name.
I’m not sure what I expected, but it sure as hell wasn’t a bright array of dildos and vibrators covering nearly every inch of the sparkly white quartz counter.
I also didn’t expect to find Jennie naked and leaning against the wall, eyes closed while she moans, one hand moving between her legs, the other wrapped tightly around Indiana Bones, like she needs something to hang on to.
“Holy fuck.”
Jennie’s eyes flip open, and she leaps into the air, one of her bloodcurdling shrieks leaving her mouth. Haven’t heard one of those in a while. Forgot how much they spike my blood pressure.
She twists in every direction like she’s looking for a place to hide, and when she doesn’t find one, she accidentally swipes every single toy clear off the counter, until they’re buzzing and jumping at her feet. Indiana Bones flings from her grasp, and a scream rips up my throat as that meaty fucker soars through the air, coming right for my face in slow motion.
“Ah!” I shriek, clapping a hand over the right side of my face as he strikes me and clatters to my feet. “My eye!”
“Garrett!” Jennie screeches, two hands on my chest as she shoves me out of the bathroom. “Out! Get out!”
The door slams in my face before I have time to comprehend what’s happening, and when it opens again eight seconds later, Jennie’s covered in one of my T-shirts, cheeks flushed red, music dialed down to a quiet hum. She doesn’t look any less angry, and I haven’t had time to process, so I’m still on edge.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she yells at me.
My arms come up, waving wildly through the air. Maybe if I make myself look bigger, she’ll be less scary. “Your door was unlocked! I-I-I…I heard my name!”
“I leave my door unlocked and say your name all the time!”
“Why would you leave your door unlocked if you had all your fuck toys out?”
“I do what I want!”
“Why are you masturbating with your door unlocked?”
“I do what I want!” is all she shrieks again. “You weren’t supposed to be home ’til midnight, you dink!”
“I flew home early to be with you, you turtle!”
She blinks up at me, the rise and fall of her chest slowing, our jagged breaths heavy in the air. “Oh. That’s…” She scratches her scrunching nose. “Sweet.”
We stare at each other for a long moment, and when she launches herself at my chest, I clutch her so tight.
“I fucking missed you so much,” I whisper. She’s so warm, so soft, this perfect body that wraps around mine and makes everything feel so incredibly right.
With her chin on my chest, she gives me a goofy, dimply smile, and when she tells me, “I love you so much,” I cover her mouth with mine.
Jennie’s fingers sink into my hair, tugging me closer as her tongue glides against mine. My hands creep beneath her shirt, skimming the arch low in her back, pressing into her smooth skin and holding her to me.
“You’re really staying?”
“This is where I belong, Garrett.”
“Together?”
“Nowhere else.”
“What about your dream?”
“I want my own studio. I want to teach dance in a way that doesn’t encourage obsessive-compulsive tendencies. I want to teach kids how to love something so much and still have healthy boundaries around it instead of letting it consume them. My dream is to have all the love I want, the love I need, and the love I deserve. And this, Garrett, is where I have that.”
I lift her into my arms, winding her legs around my waist before I sit on the edge of her bed. “I’m proud of you for recognizing what you need and deserve. And selfishly, I’m happy you’re staying.”
“I was worried if I stayed, it would be because I was too comfortable here, because I didn’t know how to stand on my own,” she admits. “I didn’t want to go for the wrong reasons, but I didn’t want to stay for them either.”
“Standing on your own doesn’t mean without love, Jennie. It doesn’t mean you have to do everything alone, that you won’t grow unless you’re doing it by yourself. Because you can already do all that. You’re fierce and independent. You can grow on your own, and you can stand on your own. But the most important piece is knowing that you don’t have to.”
“It’s okay to be one part of a whole.” She speaks the words gently, like a realization that’s already dawned, the final pieces coming together, taking it from a fantasy to a truth. Her soft blue eyes lift to mine, and the gratitude shining there, the love, it’s enough to knock the breath from my lungs. “I think you’re the biggest part, Garrett.”
My lips crash down on hers, and suddenly we’re nothing but grazing hands, sliding tongues, slow, wet kisses, like we have all the time in the world to be together. I think we do.
When we break apart, Jennie rests her forehead against mine. “Did you ever worry we’d never make sense? That we were too different to make this work?”
“Sometimes opposites attract. But for what it’s worth, I don’t think we’re all that different, and there hasn’t ever been a part of me that thought we couldn’t be exactly what the other needed.”
I take her face in my hands, studying those violet-blue eyes that hold all my favorite pieces, the humor, the relentless teasing, the confidence, the uncertainty, the compassion, the love.
“Every bit of you fits every piece of me, and that’s how I know. We bring out the parts of each other we’ve spent so much of our lives being too scared to show. You’re my best friend, and we found everything we needed when we found each other. Falling in love with you is like checking the very last thing off my bucket list.”