Page 58 of Old Money

“‘We’?”

“You spent the evening with my family. I thought maybe we could spend some time with yours. If you don’t want me to go, though, I promise, I understand. I’ll fly with you just to spend some time with you, and then I’ll get a hotel. I just wanted you to get a little more time with her.”

I feel my stomach flip again, and a knot forms in my throat.

“Julian…I…this is too much. This is…”

He takes a step toward me.

“I need you to trust me when I say that I will never be able to repay you all that you have given me.”

I think for a minute.

“This issonice. But I’m supposed to work two shifts before I fly out at the end of the week, and?—”

He sighs, taking my hands in his.

“That’s the other thing I wanted to talk to you about,” he says. “Please don’t take this as me being controlling or me trying to do anything but make your life easier. I want you to quit.”

My eyebrows raise.

“Wh…what?”

“Just…hear me out, okay? I figured out how much you make hourly there. And then how much you would make if you worked five days a week, like you have been, for the rest of the semester. I deposited that much, plus an extra month’s worth, knowing you’d probably stay for a few weeks after graduation, into your bank account last night.”

My eyes widen again.

“You did what?” I ask. I’m overwhelmed with conflicting emotions of both relief and feeling unsettled.

“I’m sorry. If you really don’t want it, you can take it out. I just… You work so hard, baby. Between your classes starting back up, the mini-mart, and everything you’ve been through these last few months…I just want you to have a little break. You should get a break like every other student. You should get to spend time with your mom. I promise I didn’t go overboard. It’s just what you would have had if you had kept working.”

“Julian, I don’t…”

“You will never owe me. You can never owe someone who loves you anything, Sawyer.” My eyes lock with his. “Just think about it, okay?”

I nod. I stare at him, his brownish-gray locks blowing in the wind, his perfectly imperfect nose, those big brown eyes that swallow me whole.

He does make me feel loved. And he does it really fucking well. I take a step toward him and take his hands again.

“I want to go to Seattle now,” I say, “and I really want you to come with me to my mom’s.”

He smiles down at me as I throw my arms around his waist, burying myself into him.

Once we’reon the jet, I curl up next to him.

“Does all love feel this good?” I ask him.

He wraps an arm around me, pulling me into him tight. He tucks a stray strand of hair behind my ear and stares down at me, his thumb stroking my cheek.

“I don’t know,” he says, “because I don’t think I have ever known love until you.”

* * *

We land a few hours later,and I am giddy about getting to my mom. She doesn’t know I’m coming in yet, which makes it even sweeter. And she definitely doesn’t know that Julian will be with me, which makes it all the more exciting.

I’m not nervous about telling her. She has never been anything but supportive. Cautious, yes. But always supportive. My only fear is how my being with him might change her life. But that’s a worry for another day. Today, I’m just going to bask in being with my two favorite human beings in my favorite city in the world.

Julian has a car waiting for us in the airfield, and Russ and Tyler are both with us. Russ drives, and Tyler sits shotgun as we make our way out and toward the city. I look out the window, soaking in the familiar skyline that’s always given me so much peace. It’s funny, though, because I don’t feel that same sense of overwhelming relief I normally do being here. Like it’s my sanctuary. Being with my mom, that will heal things in me that I didn’t know were broken. But I’ve found peace in other places.

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