The Way to Game the Walk of Shame(77)

“Yeah, I am…” The sight of her distracted me from what I was going to say. She was in front of me. Here. Now. I mean, I was thrilled to see her, but this wasn’t part of the plan. “Aren’t you supposed to be giving a speech right now?”

“Oh.” She looked a little flustered. “I decided to skip it.”

My eyebrows shot up. She had been preparing for this thing for as long as we’d been “dating.” Hell, she even made me help her with it. And now she was skipping it? Just like that? “Why?”

Her eyes twinkled at me. “I told you. I had to see you.”

Damn, not to sound sappy or anything, but I swear my heart melted at her words. I had this whole elaborate setup planned to win her over, and she ruined everything with five simple words. And I didn’t care.

She was good. She was really good.

I moved toward her in one fluid movement and swept her into my arms. It felt so good to hold her. Like everything was suddenly right again. “God, I’ve been wanting to do that all weekend.”

Taylor leaned into my embrace. “Why didn’t you? Why’d you have to wait this long?”

“Because I’m a stupid moron.”

Her lips curved into a smile against my arm. “That can’t be your excuse all the time, though.”

I kissed her cheek. “I know.” Kissed the other one. “But I’m also an ass.” Kissed her forehead. “And annoyingly wrong and confused.” Kissed the tip of her nose. “And naive, while you’re so understanding.”

She clamped her hand over her mouth before I could kiss there and looked down at our feet. “Flattery and kisses aren’t going to work on me.”

I laughed. “I forgot how stubborn you are. One of the many reasons I love you.”

Her head snapped up so quickly that she almost clipped me in the jaw, like she had that morning in my room. Luckily, I dodged her in time by jumping out of the way. My reflexes were sharpened from all the injuries she’d caused. Her eyes brightened, and she beamed up at me. “You love me?”

My hand brushed against her cheek, and I lightly pinched it with my fingers. “I thought that was obvious.”

Her brown eyes grew big and watery like she was about to cry. Instead, she took me by surprise and jumped on me. Literally jumped on me. Her feet left the ground. Her arms wrapped around my neck and hung on for dear life as she kissed me. Her soft, sweet lips crushed against mine.

And it was the hottest thing I’d ever experienced.

I couldn’t keep myself from kissing her back with everything I felt.

“That’s one hell of a kiss,” I managed to comment when I was able to catch my breath again. My heart thundered in my ears.

“Well, I do aim to please,” she said with a grin. “By the way, why are you wearing a suit?”

My hand smacked my forehead. “It’s all your fault! I had this big surprise—I was going to show up in front of everyone after your presentation with flowers and balloons—”

Frantic barking filled the air, interrupting me. Taylor pulled away just as Oreo started bouncing up and down on the passenger seat, even though I had put him in the backseat. The navy bow tie I’d clipped on his collar was already falling off. He must have climbed up front somehow. He got more excited when he spotted Taylor and struggled to climb through the window.

“—and I even brought Oreo along,” I finished with a sigh. All that weekend brainstorming and prepping with Carly and Aaron was ruined now.

Taylor tried to smother her laughter against her hand as she hugged me close. “It’s so cheesy. Did you plan fireworks and skywriting, too?”

I waved my hand behind her head, hoping that Aaron and Carly understood to cancel the final plan. If she thought this was already cheesy, I didn’t need her to know the rest. “No, that would be going overboard. What kind of guy do you think I am?”

“You’re my guy.”

“I am.” With a grin, I brushed her bangs out of her face. “So about me moving to Florida—”

Her arms tightened around me even more. “We can make it work. We can video chat and call each other all the time. And we can even coordinate our visits back to North Carolina so we could see our parents and each other, and it would be cheaper. We could just meet halfway.”

She took the words right out of my mouth. “You’re brilliant, as usual. What made you change your mind?”

“Just that I realized you’re worth fighting for.” Suddenly, she leaned back a little and punched my shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me about your dad and college sooner? I’m so proud of you I could cry!”

“I wanted to, but I got distracted with all the Brian stuff.”

“Oh.” She bit her lip and looked down. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

I pinched her lips together with my index finger and thumb—not enough to hurt, but enough for her to stop talking. “It’s my turn to talk now, and I’m telling you that it’s okay. You don’t have to explain anything. I understand.” My hand moved beneath her chin to push her face upward. With a sigh, I wiped at the tear on her cheek. “Let me guess, more allergies?”

“Yeah, spring really does suck.” She laughed and wiped at her tears. “So let’s just forget about everything, okay? Today could be a fresh start for the both of us. No apologies, no contracts. Just us.”