Page 80 of Always a Roommate
Lucky for him, Lola had told me to order an extra shirt in case he did something stupid. “In your dressing room.”
He smiled. “Thanks. You’re the best.”
When he was gone, I fell against Shane, my entire body shaking with laughter. “Is anyone going to wear a shirt at this reception?”
His arms tightened around me, and I looked up at him.
“I do have two rules if we’re going to keep up this whole kissing thing.”
“Yeah?” He smirked. “And what would those be?”
“You need to move back into the house. Be my roommate again.”
He picked me up and pressed a kiss to my lips. “Thank you. My mom is driving me nuts.”
I stifled a laugh. “And number two… this is more than just kissing.”
He brushed the bangs from my face, his fingers trailing over my cheek. “Rae, it was never just kissing.”
I realized he was right. No matter what we’d said, we’d fallen for each other little by little, day by day, kiss by kiss.
We were never just anything. We were always everything.
32
SHANE
ONE YEAR LATER
I never thought I’d get here.
The day I broke my engagement with Diana had seemed like the end of something, but I realized now it was the beginning of everything else. It got me here.
A year ago, I realized I’d been wrong. It hadn’t been impossible for me to fall in love with someone. Only impossible to fall in love with anyone who wasn’t Rae.
And now, I didn’t have to. Rae had thought she’d never find someone who loved her in all the right ways, but she’d just been waiting for me.
As I looked at myself in the mirror, I saw no hesitation, no worries. The future lying before me was brighter than any I’d imagined.
“You done getting pretty?” Tanner called from the other side of the bathroom door. I was at my parents’ house with my brothers and Knox, getting ready for the moment I’d been waiting for, the one where the last year came into clearer focus and was less of a dream.
I walked out to find my brothers waiting, but they weren’t alone. Trevor stood with them. I’d kept in touch with him after he moved, sending plenty of pictures of Cane, whom Tanner had adopted. But I hadn’t known he was coming today.
“Come here, kid.” I pulled him into a rough hug. He’d changed my life, made me realize I could make a difference. Since then, I’d started a program with some other teachers at school to monitor kids we thought might need help at home. We’d provided necessities like food and school supplies to some families, helped others cope with loss.
For once, we all felt like we were doing more than impacting kids for a short period of teaching every day.
Rae and I had ended up buying the house we rented, and I’d spent my free time fixing up the gardens and redoing parts of the inside, making it a true home for us.
Now, today was the last step.
Rae had suggested eloping, and I’d considered it, but our family wouldn’t stand for it.
I looked at my brothers and Trevor, realizing just how lucky I was. “Are we ready to go?”
“Someone is anxious.” Johnny laughed.
“I just really want to get married.”
