The truth of his words reflects in his eyes, but the thought of him trying to push me away stings. “I should torment you. Make you grovel.”
He falls to his knees and puts his hands in prayer pose.
“I was kidding. Stand up.” I don’t want him to beg or grovel. I just want him to love me.
He stands. “I was thinking about it, and I could close Ink Envy and open up in Houston. Or do a branch. Maybe Frankie runs this one, I don’t know. Or I can tattoo in someone else’s shop down there. I can find clients. I’m talented.”
“You’d move to Houston?” A warm feeling fills my chest.
He nods. “I can’t do long distance. I don’t want to be away from you, so if you’ll let me, we’ll move in together. Or we can get our own places. Whatever you want.” He looks around, then down at my hands. “Shit, are you leaving? Let me pack a bag and hopefully I can get a seat on the same plane.” He backs up from me and turns to run across the street.
“Dylan!” I yell.
Jax and Knox are hanging on the street corner, Adrian dropping off the guys before going to park his car. Dylan turns around in the middle of the street.
“I’m not going to Houston,” I say.
He looks over his shoulder. Jax and Knox laugh so loudly, they startle the people walking by.
Slowly, Dylan crosses back to me. “You have to. You’re too smart.”
I put my finger on his lips. “My life is here. In Cliffton Heights, with you and all our friends. I’m trying to figure out what will make me happy, and one thing I know for sure is that a big part of that is you and everything else I have here. Maybe part of the fun is figuring it all out, I don’t know.”
“You can still have me. I’ll go with you. We’ll make new friends.” He takes my hands.
“Hey now!” Seth yells from across the street. “You have free bagels for life. You won’t find that in Houston!”
We both laugh.
“I like us here. This is where we fell in—” I stop because I’m fully aware that I told him earlier I loved him and he still ran out on me.
“Love.” He cradles my cheeks and steps closer. “We fell in love.”
My eyes water and I nod. I inch up on my toes. “Don’t ever run away again.”
He bends down, bringing his lips closer. “I promise.”
Then he seals that promise with a kiss. And like a cheesy romantic comedy movie, all our friends clap and cheer around us.
Problem officially solved.
Epilogue
Dylan
Today is the day I prove to Rian how serious I am about us. That I’m not going anywhere unless she’s next to me.
“You’re being secretive today. What gives?” she asks, coming out of our bedroom wearing a sundress. Although it’s early fall, we’ve been lucky to have an extended summer.
Jax moved in with the guys, so the apartment is officially ours alone. It’s weird to have two empty bedrooms, but we turned one into an office with a futon and the other into a guest room.
“It’s something we should’ve done a long time ago, but we’ve been so busy, I haven’t had the time. This is your first weekend without a function to bake for.”
Rian finishes putting in her earring and sits on a kitchen chair, sighing. “I never would have thought I’d be in the sweets business.”
Rian quit her job at Pierson months ago. It didn’t take her long to get her baking business off the ground, and she’s doing better than I think she ever expected. She makes anything from cookies to cupcakes, to cakes for people and businesses.
I slide a piece of paper in front of her and massage her shoulders from behind. “You think you’re ready to start your own bakery?”
Rian’s rents out an industrial kitchen space, where she takes orders online or by word of mouth. She’s not ready to put all her eggs in one basket until she knows she’ll be happy. Forever the girl with a plan.
She leans back in the chair and her eyes roll shut. “Maybe. I think it would be easier in some regards. I don’t much like the hours I have to keep at the industrial kitchen space. But that’s a lot to take on. Being an entrepreneur.”
I get what she’s saying. I’m fortunate that with Jax coming on to Ink Envy, we’re back in the black. I’m surprised he’s stuck around, but I’m happy he has. It’s given us time to rebuild our friendship.
“Take a chance,” I say. “I heard there’s an open space by this amazing tattoo parlor who will pimp out your goods. Supposedly the owner is really hot.”
“Oh, maybe I’ll have to check it out, but my boyfriend might get kind of jealous.”
“Your boyfriend is a little protective when it comes to you. But I get why. He was lucky enough to find a girl like you, so he’s right to be afraid to lose you.”
She tips her head back and smiles at me.
I lean down and place a kiss on her lips. “Look at the paper.”
She picks it up to read it. “What is this?”
“It’s my in case of emergency for my insurance,” I say.
I take a seat beside her and watch her read the paper. When she’s done, she puts it down, comes over to me, and straddles my chair.
“Seth is going to be upset,” she says.
“I don’t give two shits about his ego.” My hands find their way to her ass like they always do. “So what do you say? Will you be my ICE?”
She kisses me. “I say yes.”
I squeeze her ass and pull her closer. “I love you.” Never have truer words left my lips.
“I love you. Is that what you were planning this whole time? You didn’t even have to ask me. I wouldn’t say no.” She moves to stand, but I hold her to my lap.
“I have another surprise. I think it’s definitely get-me-laid material.”
She narrows her eyes. “Are you complaining about our sex life?”
Visions of us all over this apartment run through my mind like a movie reel. “Never. Maybe I should say blow job material. Deserving of a swallow.” I grin and wink.
“Hmmm… you have my curiosity piqued.”
I pat her ass to get her up. “Then let’s go.”
We leave our apartment, and I walk her down the street toward the gazebo where the event is taking place. How she hasn’t already bothered me about coming to this, I have no idea.
She cringes. “You’re not planning some surprise with my parents are you?”
“Never.”
Her mom didn’t talk to her for three months after Rian declined NASA, but last month, we had them over for dinner. I let her mom’s ridicule roll off my back, and when we shut the door on them at the end of the night, we agreed that another dinner wouldn’t happen for a very long time. Maybe with time things will improve, but since they both act like assholes and make my girl doubt how brilliant she is, I’m not a fan of them being a part of our lives until that changes.
“Good.”
We pass Las Tacos and all the activity in the park up ahead is chaotic. Luckily, I already called in our reservation.
“What is this?” she asks.