Page 48 of Crazy Love

“By move forward, do you mean get married?” I ask playfully.

He reaches out and tickles my side, which sends me jerking and clamping my hand over my mouth when my laugh is a little too loud.

“So forward,” he says, laughing. He looks at me and shakes his head before starting to laugh again. “I can’t believe this. You’re serious?”

“Good idea, right?”

“You could’ve thrown in flowers to really seal the deal,” he says.

I give him a flirty grin. “Turns out we didn’t even need ‘em.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

WHATEVER YOU WANT

PENN

Well, Sam and I are quite the pair the next morning.

I couldn’t sleep due to the fact that Addy hadasked me to marry her. And Sam looks like he lost a fight with a wrecking ball.

He’s doing a hell of a lot better than last night, but his eyes are swollen and edged in black and purple. Every time I look at him, I want to throw someone through the wall for putting himin the ER. But he’s chipper, stuffing a waffle in his mouth while wearing my sunglasses and a baseball cap.

“Dude,” I say, sitting across from him. “You look like a celebrity avoiding the paparazzi.”

He lifts his chin, pushing his sunglasses higher on his nose. “My face looks like a crime scene.” He finishes the waffle in three bites, and I slide another on his plate. He looks at me gratefully, taking another huge bite. “I love these waffles. Thanks, Penn.”

“Sure thing, bud. What’s mine is yours. I appreciate that you’re grateful, but you don’t have to keep saying thank you. I want you to get comfortable enough around here that you tell me whatever you need. We can go to the grocery store later and you can pick out all the things.”

“Really? That would be awesome!” He leans forward. “I like vegetables too. I promise I won’t just pick out junk.”

“I trust you, little dude.”

He grins and then it falters. “I do kinda need one thing…or two.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, I don’t really have my clothes or sneakers. I didn’t have many that fit anyway, and they’ve probably already given them to another kid.” He lifts his shoulder in a shrug. “Just something for school tomorrow.”

That’s all I need to hear. “As soon as you feel up to it, we’ll go shopping.”

“Today?”

“If you’re feeling good enough to go, sure.”

He smiles again and I keep being struck by how young he looks when he’s happy like this.

“I’m feeling good,” he says. “Do you…do you think I’ll get to stay? With you?”

“I think I’m going to do whatever it takes to make that happen…even if it takes extreme measures.”

His eyes brighten and he nods happily. “Okay. Let’s go today then. We can pretend like we’re skipping school.”

“One of us is skipping school,” I tease. “But I did call the school and it’s an excused absence.”

“Did you get in trouble for missing practice?”

I make a face. “Nah. Coach Evans wanted to give me a hard time, but I told him about what you’d been through and he was really sorry to hear that you’d been hurt. He remembers meeting you at last year’s family day and liked you a lot. I hope it’s okay that I told him a little about what happened.”

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