Page 244 of Cloudy With a Chance of Bad Decisions

“I swear to god.” Mom hung up as she started yelling again. I set my phone down with a laugh, amused—andrelieved, now that I didn’t have anyone else to call.

“Feel better?” Alex dug into my arch again. I sighed and nodded, slipping low onto the couch, foot pushing into his grip. “You look like you feel better.” He sounded entertained.

“I feel like I can breathe,” I confessed, eyes flitting to the high ceilings, my heart skipping a beat. “Is that…weird?”

“No.” Alex’s hands walked up my legs, rubbing at my thighs as he hummed thoughtfully. “I think that’s a good thing.”

“I just willingly chose to uproot my life,” I said—once again, managing to soundgiddyabout that, rather than upset.

“And you’resmiling.”

“I am?” My hands slid up, phone abandoned so I could brush along the shape of my smile—memorizing the feel of it, because it was simply that foreign. “I am.”

“You are.”

“I’m happy about it.” Even though I’d admitted that to my mom, it still feltodd to acknowledge out loud. “Are you…happy?”

I knew realistically that he was. His rain-soaked declaration had been far prettier than my own. Way longer too. Like the dam had broken and all his thoughts had spilled free. I was still reeling from some of the things he’d said—and some of the promises we’d made.

But still…

June’s words haunted me, even now.

And I needed confirmation that Alex was as happy as I was.

Alex stared at me for a second.

It was a new expression.

Like he’d never been asked a more stupid question in his life.

I couldn’t help but giggle. Giggle, and then squawk, when his annoyance meant those big warm hands yanking me up—and across—and into his lap. “Of course I’m fucking happy, Georgie Porgie,” he sighed. “My cat came home.”

And then he kissed me.

His mouth was hot and needy, this kiss lingering long enough to make my toes curl.

With hair damp from the shower, Alex was as delicious as he ever could have been.

Delicious, because he was as mine as I was his.

“Ask me if I’m happy again, and see what happens,” he murmured threateningly against my lips, hand cupping my throat to hold me still.

I laughed—and he laughed too, the sounds vibrating between us.

“Alex—” I started.

“Don’t you dare.” The hand on my throat squeezed a fraction. “George—” If he was trying to intimidate me, he was going to fail. I wasn’t scared of him. And that realization, along with the others, only seemed to make the love I had for him expand in my chest.

All my life I’d wanted to be enough for someone.

And as Alex’s chest rumbled against mine, as his eyes spoke truths, truthsabout our future, about his feelings—about the absurdity of all of this, and the rightness of it too—I couldn’t help but recognize that I was.

Not because he’d said so.

But because heshowedme.

With everything he did.

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