Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
TYLER
With a deep fortifying breath, I push open the door to my house slowly, not entirely sure what’s waiting for me on the other side. My stomach has been a mess of knots ever since Sophie stormed out of the bar earlier after my big, epic fuckup.
I didn’t mean to tell her about the app like that.
I also didn’t mean to practically eat her alive in the back hallway of Jack’s bar, but when I saw her with that guy, I kind of blacked out and I can’t be held responsible for what happened next.
It’s just that she’s so pretty and I want her so badly, and the idea of some other man’s hands on her made me fucking crazy.
I’ve never been a possessive kind of guy, except maybe I’ve always been this way and just didn’t have anyone to be possessive over.
But holy moly I sure do now. I think that little You are fucking mine move was some of my best work, and I know she thought so too because the way she kissed me?
Fuck me. It wasn’t my first kiss. Not by a long shot.
But it felt like my first kiss. The way my brain shorted out and my entire body lit up, the taste and smell of her surrounding me until I forgot about absolutely everything else in the world except for her.
I moaned. I groaned. I’m pretty sure I whimpered.
It was the best fucking kiss of my entire life, and I want to do it over and over again.
I want to devour her mouth and cover her body with mine and learn what she looks like when she comes.
I want absolutely all of her, and I know with a kind of certainty that should be scary but actually isn’t at all that I am going to feel this way for the rest of my life.
It’s wild to me that I’ve felt nothing but friendship for Sophie for twenty-six years and all of a sudden she’s dug herself so deep into my bones she’s a part of me now.
Maybe she always has been.
Sophie is mine.
I like the sound of that.
But I have to convince her first, I think with a wince, stepping through the front door. She was pretty pissed, so I’m sure there will be some groveling in my future, and I’m here for it. It would be my absolute fucking pleasure to get on my knees for Sophie Sullivan.
In the groveling way and also in…other ways. All the ways. Especially the sexy ones.
But groveling first.
“Soph?” I call out as I kick off my shoes and shrug out of my jacket, tossing it onto the pile of Sophie’s discarded jackets, too preoccupied with finding my girl to hang it up.
My girl. I love the sound of that. “I know you’re mad, and I’m really sorry.
So fucking sorry. Come talk to me so I can explain, and then I hope you’ll let me kiss you a million more times. ”
I could swear I hear a snicker, but that can’t be right because two seconds later Sophie appears in the entryway, wearing the same jeans and V-neck sweater she was wearing in the bar, along with a very irritated glare.
She puts her hands on her hips, that glare traveling right down my body and back up again in a slow perusal that makes me feel like her hands are actually on me.
When her eyes finally meet mine, my heart does a long, slow roll in my chest, and I almost laugh at the joy that is my best friend—my favorite person on earth—also being my person.
I am the luckiest fucking guy in the world.
As long as Sophie doesn’t cut off my balls for kind of, sort of lying to her.
“Explain,” she orders, popping a hip and raising a single eyebrow at me in a way that is so unquestionably sexy I almost drop to my knees and start begging.
“I wasn’t keeping a secret from you. I swear,” I say quickly.
When Sophie scoffs, I blow out a breath and try again. “Okay fine, so I was keeping a secret from you, but my intentions were good.”
“Were they?” she asks, with a touch of what I swear is amusement in her tone.
I nod. “Yes. I couldn’t tell you it was me you were talking to on the app until I made you fall for me. Once you did, I was going to tell you everything.”
“Until you what?” she demands.
I shrug, like what I’m saying makes the most sense in the world even though I’m starting to see it’s possible it only made sense in my head and not in practice, but I’m in it now.
“I didn’t know it was you until the morning I…
walked in on you.” I can’t help but grin at the flash in her eyes that makes me sure she’s replaying that morning in her head.
Fucking same.
“As soon as I saw you naked…” I trail off, shaking my head.
“It was like my world exploded open.” I lock eyes with her, begging her to understand.
“It was like I had been wearing blinders for twenty-six years and then, in a split second and the drop of a towel, they disappeared, and I saw you. I saw you, Soph,” I say adamantly, watching as she swallows hard, her fingers flexing on her hips.
Testing my luck, I take a step forward, pushing a rogue curl behind her ear before dropping my hand to flick her bracelets and link my finger with hers.
“You are so beautiful, Sophie. The most beautiful woman in the world. And when I saw you, it was like everything I’ve ever wanted was standing right in front of me.
” Sophie inhales sharply, her finger tightening on mine.
“You’ve been my best friend for my entire life.
Nothing will ever change that. But I also think we could be more.
So, so much more. Everything,” I practically whisper.
“I think we could be everything. I realized that morning I’ve been falling for you for years, without realizing it.
Over a million grilled cheeses and rom-com movie nights and thousands of gas station fountain sodas.
Hundreds of sleepovers and family dinners and years and years of birthday nights and you wearing my jersey to cheer for me at all my games and my T-shirts when you sleep.
Pregame texts and post-game shenanigans and every time I watched you on stage and the times you help me when my brain goes rogue. ”
Sophie’s eyes sharpen, and I realize this is the first time I’ve admitted to her out loud that I struggle sometimes.
But the look on her face tells me I was right to believe she already knew.
She’s always known. Because she knows me.
Lifting a hand, I lay it on her cheek, my stomach exploding with butterflies when she leans into my touch.
“Through it all, I’ve been falling for you.
In a million different ways on a thousand different days.
I’m sorry it took me so long to get here, but I’m here now, and I’m never leaving.
It’s always been you for me, Soph. It will always be you for me. ”
“How did you figure out it was me?” she asks simply.
I smile. “When I was in your room, you mentioned having an interview that morning and told me some fact about how fast people can form impressions. Five minutes before that…”
“I told RenegadeRush about the interview,” Sophie interrupts. A shadow crosses her face at the word interview, and I remember she never did tell me what happened that day. That’s definitely going to change tonight. After. “I told you,” she says with a half laugh, the shadow disappearing.
I sigh, relieved to have everything out in the open. “Yeah. That was too wild to be a coincidence. And then when I thought back through our conversations, I wondered how it was possible I didn’t figure it out sooner.”
Sophie takes a shaky breath, lifting her free hand to take my own away from her face as her fingers find the spaces between mine.
We’re holding hands and it feels like the first time.
It feels…right. Perfect. Like I never want to let go.
“Let me see if I’ve got this straight. Two weeks ago, you found out I was the girl you had been talking to on a dating app for a month.
Then you realized, pretty damn quickly, that you had feelings for me that were… more than friendly.”
“I’ll say,” I mutter.
She laughs, and the sound lifts my soul.
“And instead of being like, Hey, Soph, turns out we’ve been accidentally talking to each other on a dating app for weeks and I kind of, sort of realized I have some very-not-friendly feelings for you, you opted to say nothing, instead concocting some half-baked plan to make me fall for you, after which time you would tell me the truth and then we would live happily ever after. Did I get that right?”
“It was a fully-baked plan,” I mutter. “Sort of,” I say quickly when she levels that glare at me again. “Anyway, yeah, that’s the gist.”
She nods. “Okay, so the little touches everywhere. The way you suddenly decided you needed to sit basically on top of me for every movie night and walk me to my door afterwards even though I live in your damn house. The Broadway rave. Those were all…” She trails off.
“Seduction,” I supply helpfully. “I like you a lot, Sal. Like, a lot a lot. I had to make you like me a lot a lot too.”
Silence falls between us and Sophie stares at me, unspeaking.
The tension between us grows as we both take a small step closer until our chests are almost touching.
I wonder whether she’s going to make the final move or if I am, and I realize I don’t care who does it, as long as my lips are on hers in the next ten seconds.
Except instead of kissing me, Sophie slaps a hand to my chest, shoving me back an entire step. “You absolute idiot!” she exclaims, her brown eyes flashing. “I swear to fucking god, what is wrong you? With men? Why are you all so ridiculously, painfully stupid?”
I open my mouth to respond, but she plows on ahead.
“Make me fall for you?” She scoffs, shaking her head as if that’s the most ridiculous thing she’s ever heard, and I’m about to tell her that actually, it’s the best thing ever, before she rolls her eyes to the ceiling.
“As if I haven’t been head over fucking heels, completely, hopelessly in love with you for three fucking years,” she mutters.
Wait, what?
My heart beats so fast, I’m mildly afraid it’s going to break my ribs. “You’re in love with me?”
Sophie lets out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a scream.
“At this moment I have no idea why, but yes. I have, in fact, been pining away for you like some wife waiting for her husband to return from battle. You drive me fucking crazy half the time but I also, unfortunately, can’t live without you. So…” She shrugs. “There it is.”
I stare at her, my insides going absolutely haywire because Sophie Sullivan is in love with me, and I’m in love with her right back, and remember that time I said winning the Super Bowl was the greatest moment of my life?
I was a lying liar who lies because this, right here, blows that moment right out of the water.
I want to say words. So, so many words about how we’ll be amazing together and I’ll be so good to her and take care of her and love her more than anyone has ever loved anyone before. But first I need to know.
I cup Sophie’s face in both my hands, leaning in and pressing a kiss to her forehead. I breathe her in, memorizing this moment, before leaning back to look at her, asking the question pinging around in my brain.
“Since when?”