Chapter 32 #2
“Oh yeah? Have you suddenly gone pro social media? Are you a changed man, Lawson Moore? One for the influencers and famous pets?” She sucks in a breath.
“Have I accomplished the impossible and made the Lawson Moore, mister I-refuse-to-let-anyone-see-that-there-really-is-a-gooey-center-under-all-this-lava-rock-armor, actually enjoy sharing the tiniest parts of him for the world to see?”
“I do not have a gooey center.”
She pats my abs with a smile. “Don’t worry. Your secrets are safe with me. No one will ever know that you love to do face masks with me and cry at the ending of Homeward Bound.”
I scoff. “I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t. They traveled all that way to be reunited with their best friends!”
She sticks out her bottom lip and cups my face, swiping her thumbs over my cheeks. “I know, handsome. I know.”
Growling, I tickle her sides. She shrieks, trying to wiggle away from me but I tighten my hold around her waist. Breathing heavily, she cuddles into me when I settle back in my seat.
I stroke my hands up her back, twining my fingers in her long golden waves.
“You made all of this possible, Sydney. Possible for me to even stand having to do it. Because without you, I wouldn’t have been able to.
You made it all worth it every time I’d see you light up when I’d agree to do a video or let you pull me in for a selfie.
You gave my life more meaning than I would have ever thought of.
Before you, I had exactly ten pictures on my camera roll and eight of them were ones the boys took when I’d let them play games on my phone. ”
“Please tell me they weren’t feet pics. I’m all for kinks but I don’t know if I could handle that one.”
I give her a flat look. “No. They’re not pictures of my feet.”
“Doesn’t have to be your feet in the pictures. Who knows, maybe you’ve snuck a couple shots of mine while I’m distracted.”
“Would you feel better if the feet pictures—that I don’t even have—are yours?”
“I mean. It only makes sense because you’re obsessed with me.”
I chuckle and shake my head. “Down to your pretty pink-tipped toes.”
She nods. “Then maybe I can look past this little fault of yours.”
Sighing, I drop my head back. “I said I don’t—you know what?
It doesn’t matter.” Lifting my head, I pull her closer against my chest. “What I’m trying to say is that before all of this, I wasn’t really living life, I was simply trying to survive it.
But then you came in and made even the smallest acts, like making faces on pancakes with whipped cream, become my favorite parts of the day. ”
“I think I really captured your essence with the devil one.”
“It was uncanny.” I smirk. “You’ve breathed life into my sorry existence, Sydney Collins.
Taken me from this empty person who was just surviving each day to a man who wakes up excited because the first thing he sees is sunshine even in the darkest of mornings.
You wormed your way into this cold, dead, guarded block of ice and made it beat again for the first time in its existence.
I say I couldn’t do any of this without you, but the truth is I don’t want to.
Because there is no me without you, sunshine. ”
“There’s no one else I want to do this with either, Lawson. You’ve been it for me since the moment I realized what boys even are.”
We both laugh and I pull her in for a soft kiss. “You’ve always been mine.”
“Yours,” she murmurs against my lips.
I lean my forehead against hers and we sit in a comfortable silence, just soaking in the presence of one another. I could do this all day every day.
Her in my arms.
Her fingers idly twisting the hair at the back of my neck.
Our hearts syncing where they’re pressed together.
Tilting my chin forward, I kiss her softly and hum. “Thank you for making me into the man I am today.”
“I didn’t make you this way. You were right there, this entire time. I’m just the one who shined a light on the parts you tried to hide away, even from yourself.”
“It’s because of you I feel like I can finally breathe again. It’s because of you I don’t have to stumble through life hoping for something I know I’ll never have.”
“You do have me,” she whispers.
“I know. I have you and I’m never letting go.”
“Promise?”
I hold up my pinky and wait until she wraps her much smaller one around mine. “Pinky promise.” She smiles into our kiss before I shift back slightly. “We did it.”
“Did what?” My lips twitch and she sucks in a breath. “You got the contract.”
I nod. “You’re going to have to finally choose whose race number you wear, sweetheart, because I’m not going anywhere.”
She squeals, throwing herself at me. I laugh as I stand with her in my arms and burrow my head into her neck.
“We need to celebrate!”
I pull back and gaze down at her. “What should we do?” She rolls her lips, that certain sparkle in her eye causing my eyebrows to shoot up. “What are you plotting in that beautiful, slightly crazy, mind of yours?”
“Follow me and you’ll find out.”