Page 98 of Take Me
That doesn’t seem to be the plan.With a shiver, Erika pivots to face me.“I checked your location last night, and I’m sorry for invading your privacy.I’ve deleted you from the app, and I wanted to say you have my blessing.You and Annabelle, I mean.Your happiness matters to me, Mason.The only thing that matters more is your friendship.”
Oh, hell.
She shivers again, and I peel off my jacket.First things first.
“Here.”I drape it over her shoulders, half expecting her to argue.Instead, she pulls it around her.“Better?”
She bites her lip.“Thank you.”
“Okay, look.Just let me clear up?—”
“Please wait.”She looks so tortured I shut my damn mouth.“I need to just say this before all my courage runs out.”
“All right.Ladies first.”
She snorts, then squares up her shoulders.“I fell in love with you, Mason.Not the friendship kinda love, though that’s part of it.And I know it’ll ease up with time, but I might be raw for a while.I needed to say that out loud, so you understand why I can’t just go back to how we were before all this happened.We’re still friends—we’llalwaysbe friends—but I need time and space to move on now, okay?”
“No.”My heart bangs around in my rib cage like a trapped animal.“No, that’s not okay.”
She frowns.“Which part?”
“All of it.Well, everything except the friendship.”
She shivers again, pulling my jacket tighter around her.“I don’t understand.”
“One second, okay?”I know we could do this inside, but Erika won’t want an audience for this part.I get it, I do.“Stay right here.”
“Uh, okay.”When she shivers again, I order myself to hurry.
Which I do, rushing back through the door and right to the table where my mother sits chatting with Jake.She takes one look at my face and reaches under the table.“Now?”
“Yes.”
She hands me a brown paper bag.“Good luck.”
Clutching the bag, I run back to the door.I have to dodge a trio of tux-clad groomsmen and my great aunt, who jumps like I might run her over.Muttering apologies, I burst back out the door to Erika’s side.
“Here.”I reach into the bag and drag out the sweater.The sunflower one that my mom used to wear.“This is for you.”
“Mason, I—” She stares like I’ve brought her a chalice.“I can’t take your mother’s sweater.”But she fingers the buttons like she wishes she could.
I don’t give her more chances to argue.I wrap it around her, securing the buttons over my tux jacket.She looks like a bright, woolen mummy until her hands find their way out the sleeves.“Thank you,” she says.“I’ll give it back.”
“No, you won’t,” I tell her.“When I told Mom how you remembered it, she insisted it’s yours.That it’s time for the next generation of family to have it.”
“But—” She blinks.“I’m not family.”
“You’remyfamily, Erika.You always have been.And you’re my friend, too—you always will be.But that’s not enough for me anymore.”
She blinks.“Wait—what?”
“I want to wake up and have your face be the very first thing I see every morning.I want to fall asleep every night feeling your leg slung over me like you’re wrestling me into submission.I need you as my karaoke partner and my wedding date and my beach-walking buddy, but I also need you in my bed and my fantasies and mylife.I want to make love to you as often as humanly possible, and then I want to test the human limits of what’s possible because, honest to God, I can’t get enough of you.”I’m breathing hard, but I can’t stop now.“I can’t go back to pretending I’m not insanely in love with you because I am, Erika—I love you, and that’s not going away.If you want to move on, I’ll follow you.I’ll follow you to the ends of the goddamn earth.Because I love you, Erika Gentry.I’ve loved you since the third grade, and I love you more now than I ever thought possible.”
She stares at me in shock, her pebble-gray eyes shimmering.“You’re serious right now.”
“Dead serious.”Does she really doubt it?“I’ve always loved you, Erika.It just took me twenty-six years to understand what kind of love it is.”
A fat tear rolls down her cheek.“Wh—what kind of love is it?”
