No matter what, I’ve said I’ll go anywhere. I just want to be with her. It’s been months since the dreaded six days of hell, but still, they haunt me. I love this girl, I want to be with her, but her staying in Nashville would work out great for me. I don’t want to leave my jobs. Not only am I working for the Bullies and the Assassins, I’ve been asked to be on the staff for the Nashville Aces, our football team. I haven’t committed since I’m unsure of the future, but then nothing else matters, as long as it’s our future.
“I’m ready for you two.”
She grins at me, and I grin back, getting up and heading to his workstation. I go first since I somehow lost rock, paper, scissors in the car. I’m still convinced it was because she grabbed my dick when she threw her paper. I had no choice but to throw rock, but she says she did no such thing. I felt it, and I know for a fact that she wasn’t looking for my car keys. She leans on my leg and watches as the guy gets started. I move her hair out of her face and ask, “When’s Posey getting back?”
“Hopefully the Assassins win tonight, and they’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Cool, and then we start the shitshow of wedding bullshit?”
She shakes her head. “No, after the Cup finals. July, probably.”
“Why are we celebrating a wedding before the wedding?”
“Because it’s Shelli?”
It’s a valid answer. “Will we make it?”
“I sure hope so.”
“You know what, I want to go on a trip.”
“I’m down.”
“To celebrate your graduation and all.”
She gives me a smile. “I thought this was celebrating that.”
“No, this is celebrating the all-consuming love I have for you,” I say, all dramatically, and she snickers. “I don’t know how men do this all the time.”
Aaron snorts. “I thought you were serious.”
Ally nods. “He is. He’s trying to act tough in front of you.”
“Ally!” She laughs as I squeeze her ass, but I laugh too. I really don’t understand why I resisted all this. But I’m glad I did all the years before now with Ally. If I struggled as an adult, no telling how bad I would have fucked this up as a teenager. But when she kissed me back in the hospital during my short stint as a pirate, I wish I had just told her how I really felt. How, when I looked at her, I saw my whole future laid out like a map. Could have saved me the six days of hell and alleviated some of the stress I caused. Now, though, I can’t stop my feelings for her. At every turn, she evokes a new emotion, and I love it. I love her. While she does stress about school, finals, and jobs, I truly believe that she’s happy. That I make her happy, because she brings such absolute joy into my life.
I really don’t know how I thought I could live without her.
Without us.
“Is Stella really moving out?”
I roll my eyes. The latest drama of the Brooks sisters is a knee-slapper. “She claims to be, but Emery doesn’t believe it. I don’t know what my sister was thinking when she cut holes in all Stella’s bras.”
Ally gives me a look. “Stella told the guy who came to bring Emery flowers that she wasn’t into him.”
I just look at her. “Apparently, he wasn’t good enough for her.”
Ally rolls her eyes. “Emery really liked him.”
“She’s a baby! She doesn’t know.”
“I knew I loved you at that age.”
I blink. “No one said you were the brightest crayon in the box.”
She glares and then leans toward Aaron. “Can you stab him a bit harder?”
I grin over at her as she gives me a sideways glance, but the spite doesn’t reach her eyes. No, those green depths promise me lots of kisses and loving when I get home. The tattoo goes quick, and soon it’s Ally’s turn. She holds my hand as he gets started, and I inspect mine. “Yup, mine is cooler.”
“He’s not even done with mine.”
“True, but my handwriting is shit compared to yours.”
She rolls her eyes as she takes a picture of me pointing to my tattoo. “I’m sending it to your mom.”
“You’re such an ass,” I accuse, but then I take one of her. “I’ll caption it, ‘Her first tattoo is of my face and my name.’”
“I’ll kill you dead.”
I snort as I tuck my phone between my legs and watch. She leans on my shoulder and says, “We should go to Disney World.”
I bring my brows together. “What? We’re not kids anymore, Ally T.”
“I know. But we can make it, like, a yearly thing.”
“A yearly thing?”
“We can go as pirates.”
I give her a dry look. “You’re not funny.”
“But, Ash, you’re the Jack Sparrow to the Black Pearl.”
I wrinkle my face at her. “Can a pirate bone a boat?”
She blinks. “Why are you so horny?”
“Because it’s you,” I say, waggling my brows at her, and even Aaron thinks I’m hilarious.
She sighs loudly. “Hear me out. We can go, and when you propose, you can do it in front of the castle. And we can go back when we get married, pregnant, and the kids graduate. It would be sweet. We can decorate our house with all the pictures. I think it would be awesome.”
“I think you think I’m rich.”
She snorts. “Hey, my sugar daddy takes good care of me. Look at my new tattoo!”
I make a face. “I thought you were paying for these?” When Aaron glances between us, she giggles. “I’m joking, dude,” I reassure him.
It’s pretty obvious he’s tired of our shit.
“So, Disney World?”
“No, I have other plans for our big life moments.”
“Life ruiner.”
I laugh as Aaron wipes down the finished product. Ally’s phone chimes all of a sudden, and she looks at me, and I look at her phone. I fully expect her to open the new email since that’s what that notification means. But instead, she hands her phone to the artist. “Can you take a picture of us?”
“For sure,” he agrees, and as I wanted, when we put our wrists together, it’s perfect. I never thought, all those years ago, one day I would be telling her I loved her through a can on a string, but here we are. I lean in, kissing her just as the dude takes another picture.
When we part, her eyes are hooded as she whispers, “I love you, Ash B.”
“I love you, Ally T.”
She kisses me again, and when he hands her back her phone, I hold my breath. She opens her mail and looks up at me. “It’s them.” I’m still holding my breath as she opens it. When the brightest, most gorgeous smile fills her beautiful face, I exhale gratefully. “I got it.”
“Of course you did!”
She jumps up and down until I catch her, lifting her up into my arms. “I can still come back and help with the volleyball team.”
“Yup!”
“And we don’t have to move!”
“I know. Best part.”
She snorts. “And we’ll still be with our families.”
“That’s good too, but we’ll need to stay clear of the girls.”
Her laughter tickles my stomach as she wraps her arms and legs around me. I hold her close, kissing her neck and her jaw. “I’m so proud of you,” I say, kissing her once more. “You finished what you started, and now you’ll have the job you want.”
“And I have you.”
I kiss her neck. “I mean, like Chandler, you’re winning at life.”
She laughs loudly, and I nuzzle my nose in her neck. My heart is exploding for her, and everything seems just right. Perfect, even. “Hey, Ally.” She pulls her head up, cupping my face. “Since you got the job, you wanna do me a favor?”
“Sure,” she says brightly, so giddy.
“Move your ring to your left hand.”
It takes only a split second for it to click, but unlike the reaction I thought I was going to get, she brings in her brows. “And if I had chosen Vancouver?”
I keep my face hard as stone as I say, “I would have asked for it back.” She smacks me hard in the chest, and I laugh loudly, holding her closer. I nip at her nose as she glares up at me. “I kid! I kid!”
She somehow gets out of my arms, smacking me again. “You’re such a brat! And your other plan was asking me in a tattoo shop?”
I grab her hand, pulling her to me as I laugh. She comes into my chest, her eyes burning into mine as I hold her hand, slowly sliding the ring off her finger. “Yes, because I have planned this,” I say as I transfer it to her other hand. “Because every day, I can’t believe this is real. That you’re mine.”
“Oh, Ash.” Her lip starts to wobble as her eyes fill with tears. “I am.”
“I know, and I swear, I’m still scared out of my mind…that this is all a dream.”
Her brows are basically touching. “I thought you were going to say something else.”
I nod. “I know. I planned it that way.”
“I dislike you—greatly.”
“I know. Now, shut up and let me propose.”
“You guys are the weirdest couple I’ve ever tattooed,” Aaron informs us, but in this room, it’s only her and me.