Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
SEVEN VIRTUES, NORTH CAROLINA
There are some things I’m grateful for in life.
1. Being alive.
2. Being healthy.
3. One time, just once, being smarter than StellaNova.
I can’t share the reason why, but because Arek Ronan owes me, I’m cashing in. This guy is going to see Beckett Miller and Brendan Blake play at the American Music Awards!
—Viego Martinez, Celebrity Blogger
I hold Fallon close to my chest as she rests, her breath evening out after our last round of making love, and admit to myself that’s exactly what it was—making love. I refuse to lie to myself any longer.
But I can’t outrun the doubts that creep in when I’m not connected to her body, doubts my brother pointed out early in my relationship with her but I already knew.
“How can you pursue Fallon when you can’t give her your full heart?”
Rolling to my back, I keep her body pressed against my length even as my other arm raises to my forehead. I stare up at the shadows shifting across the ceiling as the trees dance outside Fallon’s bedroom window.
I wish the night sky and the gods that roam through them could give me insight into the future, if not answers to the questions my heart has. But as hours pass, I lay there with Fallon’s breath wafting across my chest, forcing my mind to subdue my emotions spiraling out of control. Even with as much as I love Fallon, I need to pursue her slow and steady to ensure I stack the deck against our age difference and the distance between us each day.
When we finally conquer it, I’ll never let her go.