Page 61 of Top Shelf

I am important tomyself. And there is really no describing that feeling.

When you’re loved correctly, you can learn to love yourself correctly. And when you learn to love yourself, you start to feel like you can do anything.

But I’ll start with making breakfast.

I go all out. I cook up eggs, bacon, my grandma’s homemade biscuits, some fried bologna, and waffles. And after a little while of cooking up a storm, I hear the stairs creak.

“Mornin’,” he says sleepily, his hair messy and unkempt, making him look more delicious than anything I’ve just made.

“Morning,” I say. “I hope you’re hungry.” He smiles as he looks at the spread, then walks around the island to wrap me in a long hug as I stir the last of the eggs.

“I could get used to this,” he says. “Shit, I alreadyamused to this.”

I smile.

“What? Me making you breakfast fit for a king?” I ask. He nuzzles my neck and smells my hair.

“Nah…I mean, that’s a bonus, don’t get me wrong,” he says. “But just…this.You, first thing in the morning, feeling at home.Beingat home. Being happy.”

I put the spatula down and turn to him, wrapping my arms around his neck.

“If I’m with you, I’m home, Calway,” I tell him. He kisses me long and hard until I feel that familiar burning in my belly, the heat between my legs. I pull away with a sly smile, spanking his ass lightly. “Watch it, sir,” I say. “I didn’t cook up this meal to let it get cold. There will be more time for that later.”

He smiles and kisses me again before taking a piece of bologna off the plate and walking to the table.

We eat together, smiling, laughing, and sometimes sitting in perfect, comfortable silence.

A little while later, we’re doing the dishes and listening to Sam Cooke when his phone vibrates on the counter. He looks down at it, then quickly dries his hands on a dish towel and picks it up. He looks at me.

“It’s Hal,” he says before he walks out of the room. My stomach flips as I take over washing the dishes, waiting anxiously to hear what he says. Oh, God. What if he’s made it worse somehow? What if he can’t let it go? What if he was lying?

But a moment later, he walks back in.

And if I’m not mistaken, there’s the start of a smile on his lips.

“He dropped the charges,” he says, waving his phone in the air and putting it down on the counter. He scoops me up and kisses me, spinning in circles before setting me down on the counter. “Thank you, baby. This is because of you.”

I kiss him back, squeezing him tight.

I did it.

He’s gone.

It’s over.

So now, it can begin.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR

tyson

Elated isthe only word that comes to mind to describe the last twenty-four hours. So much has happened, so much heavy shit, but now, it feels like we can come up for air. It feels like we’re in the clear. No more pretending. Now she is officiallymine.

And I plan to keep it that way.

Like clockwork the next morning, my phone rings again while I’m on the way to school.

“Hey, Levi,” I say, stopping at a red light in town.

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