Page 31 of The Truth About Love

I move in the direction of an empty chair, but he’s quick to tug me into his lap and position me the way he does on my balcony when we’re home alone.

“This is a bit more than I was expecting,” I whisper, checking for Marlowe and relaxing when I see that Tyler has taken her to get a drink.

“Oh no,” Auden sighs and buries his face in my neck. “I didn’t know, I swear. Fred invited them all. You’re mad, aren’t you? Oh, baby, please don’t be mad at me.”

Am I mad at him?

Surprisingly, no.

I believe him when he says he didn’t know, but a heads up still would’ve been nice. That said, if he’d told me in advance then I probably wouldn’t have shown up at all.

“No.” I smile, stroking a hand through his hair to soothe him. He’s pretty cute when he’s drunk. “No, I’m not mad.”

The sigh of relief he releases is almost comical.

“Oh, thank fuck for that. I think I’d die if you were mad at me.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m not then,” I say, shifting to place a kiss on his stubbled cheek. “Happy Birthday, quarterback.”

His face brightens with a full tooth grin that could rival the smile of a small child waiting in line for an ice cream cone.

It’s adorable.

And it makes my heart swell with an unfamiliar feeling. A feeling that has me leaning to brush my lips against his, capturing them in our second ever kiss, and forgetting all about the fifty or so other people surrounding us for the brief few seconds we’re connected.

For those precious moments, it’s just us.

Just a boy and a girl and a kiss on the beach.

And though it doesn’t occur to me until later, it’s at this very moment with our lips linked together and his hand on my cheek that I fall in love.

Because he was right all along. Of course, he was. I never believed that love didn’t exist, I just didn’t think that I’d ever be blessed enough to experience it for myself. I refused to acknowledge its existence because I’ve never deemed myself worthy of it.

And I still don’t.

But right now, I don’t care about anything other than my quarterback and the way his gentle touch fills my heart with warm golden light.

“Best birthday ever,” he breathes, blinking slowly in his rose-tinted drunken haze.

I laugh and ruffle his hair.

Scanning the beach for Marlowe, I find her walking towards me across the sand, beer bottle in one hand and Tyler in the other. I raise an eyebrow and her eyes widen as if to sayI don’t know what the fuck is happening right now.Her terror at the situation is palpable, but I know that if she wasn’t okay with what’s going on then she’d make it more than clear. I mean, the girl called me a cynical bitch in our first ever conversation, so I have faith that she’s okay.

They both collapse into empty chairs around the fire and continue with whatever conversation they were having. So, I turn my attention back to Auden, who’s head is resting on my shoulder with his nose stuffed into my hair.

“Are you sniffing me?”

“Mmm,” he moans. “So good. Like peach cobbler.”

“You like peach cobbler?”

He nuzzles into my neck and I’m pretty sure he’s minutes away from falling asleep. “I like you, pretty girl.”

“You do, huh?”

“More than I’ve ever liked anyone ever.”

I giggle, dropping a kiss to his forehead. “I like you too, quarterback.”

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