a twenty-one-year-old boyfriend.” He raises an eyebrow with a smirk before digging into his nachos. “Should I apologize for earlier?”
“What’s there to apologize for?”
“For . . . fighting in public. Now that I think about it, it makes me seem immature as hell—especially since I’ve done it around you twice.”
“There’s no need to apologize, Nolan. That’s one situation where I would expect you to fight. He deserved it.”
He lifts his fists and stares at them, smiling. “My hands got kinda fucked up.”
“You destroyed your knuckles Nolan,” I giggle. “And his face.”
“Anything for you, babe. I’d fight over and over again if it means you’re safe.”
I smile, grabbing my wine and taking a sip. At this point I just can’t help myself. I need to tell him everything. “Do you remember when you asked me why I loved you, Nolan?”
He looks up at me, most likely confused on where I’m coming from. “Yeah . . .”
“Can I tell you now?”
He smirks, placing his bowl of nachos down slowly. He pats his lap with his palms twice, gesturing for me to climb aboard. I place my bowl down, grab my blanket, and sit on his lap. I curl against him as he leans back to get comfortable. My forehead presses against his neck and he breathes down on me, his breath tickling every bare inch of my body that’s visible, and sending goose bumps to ride along my skin.
“I’m all ears,” he mumbles.
“You have to tell me why you do as well as soon as I’m done, okay?”
“I will. Promise.” He kisses my forehead and it gives me more than enough encouragement to tell him why. I don’t even allow myself to gather my thoughts, the words just tumble out of me.
“I called my mom about you earlier,” I say, squeezing myself against his chest. “I told her during those few weeks without you, I felt so out of it. I felt so down—so lost without you. I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t become happy again. Everyone noticed that I wasn’t the same. Even Harper thought she was going to have to send me back to South Carolina at one point,” I laugh. “I forced myself to move on because . . . well I thought you didn’t want me back. I thought maybe you weren’t the one for me . . . or either I wasn’t the one for you. Have you ever just wanted to hold onto someone that didn’t want to be held onto at the moment?” I ask.
He nods but remains silent.
“I felt like that with you. I wanted to call you whenever I felt lonely. I only wanted to hear your voice. My mom told me before to just give you time—to let you have your space. Space is something I didn’t want to give because I’ve always been one that wants what I want immediately. I’m spoiled, I guess, and when I have my heart set, I keep it solely on that.” I sit back to look into Nolan’s eyes, my vision blurring.
“Nolan.” I grip his hand and he brings it up to his lips to kiss my knuckles. “I will never be able to explain to you why I love you. Ever—not thoroughly anyway. There are so many reasons that if I sat here and named them all, we would be sitting here for months. I’ve fallen for you because I know we’re meant to be together. We were meant to mend one another’s hearts and cherish all we have. We’re meant to hold one another, kiss one another, see one another every day and joke around with one another—” I laugh as a few hot tears trail down my cheek.
Nolan’s head tilts as he brings a hand up to run his thumb across my cheeks. He observes me, watches as I try to hold back on the tears but it’s nearly impossible. I can’t because we’ve been through so much and I’m just now realizing it. We were so torn apart but all we needed to do was fight for each other to be put back together again.
“I understand, Bunny,” he whispers to me. Cupping my face, he brings my lips to his and kisses me fiercely, passionately. I melt against him, holding on for dear life. Never wanting to let go. The velvety textures of our tongues collide and soon after, the blanket that was on top of me has been removed.
He stands quickly with me in his arms. He stumbles his