Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Bailey
Iopen the letter from WHU, then need to read it twice to see if it even makes sense.
Ten years? How the hell have we been out of school for almost ten fucking years?
The reunion is taking place on campus, in WHU’s main hall, and the thought of going back there, of revisiting the place where we met, brings with it mixed feelings.
Surprisingly, I want to see it again, but knowing I graduated ten years ago makes me feel old as hell.
Fuck, it’s been a great ten years though. Our rocky start is more of a dream at this point. We’re both happy and killing it in our careers, we’re thinking about a second fur baby, Chad’s sisters are gearing up to get ready for college, and I’m married to the man of my absolute fucking dreams.
I’d always hoped for a marriage like my parents’, and somehow, I’ve ended up here.
Chad comes noisily into the house, dumping his bag, kicking off his shoes, already talking to Hercules before the idiot runs, yapping madly, out of the room, and when he walks into the kitchen, I hold up the letter.
“Ready to feel old?”
“What is that?” he asks, hair slightly overgrown and flopping over his forehead.
“Our school reunion invitation.”
He blinks at me. “You’re fucking joking.”
“I’m not fucking joking.”
He plucks the letter from my fingers and reads over it, then glances up again, a spark in his eyes that has me wary. “This is awesome.”
“We’re not reliving your frat days while we’re there.”
“Yeah, no, of course not.”
The “yeah, no” does not fill me with confidence.
“It’ll be good to see everyone again,” I say, steering him to a safer conversation. “It’s been a while since we caught up with Zeke and Charles.”
“I know. How dare Zeke be off winning golds for the country.”
Zeke has made everything of his career that he ever wanted. Those two also went through a rocky moment in their relationship, and I’m glad I could be a phone call away for Charles, like he always has been for me.
“I guess I’ll RSVP that we’ll be there?”
“Fuck yes.” He pulls out his phone, and if I know my husband at all, he’s definitely messaging the group chat he has with his Sigma brothers. “This is going to be frat as fuck.”
“Not reliving those days, remember?”
“Yeah, no, that’s what I said.”
I watch while he keeps typing, then pull out my phone too. I fire off a text to Charles. I get the feeling we should be worried about this reunion.
Charles texts straight back. Waaaay ahead of you.
Of course he is. He didn’t spend his whole college career keeping one step ahead of our idiots and learn nothing.
Chad tosses his phone onto the counter with a clatter and pulls me into his arms. “We’re returning to the scene of the crime?”
“Crime?”
“Yeah, there was a theft. On campus. When you stole my heart. Ba-dum-ch.”
I give him the flattest look I can. Then I make it flatter. “Is it too late to take back those vows?”
He chuckles, then lifts my hand to press a kiss to the plain gold band. His matches mine, and the only embellishment we wanted was an engraving on the inside. Mine says “my sun,” and his says “my moon.”
Because that’s what he’s always been to me. Mesmerizing and beautiful, something I look at and want to keep looking. He fills me with awe and inspiration and this deep-seated knowledge that the man I have right in front of me is too big for this world.
Chad’s eyes crease at the corners. “What’s that look?”
“What do you mean?”
“You look all dopey. You’re never dopey.” He scoops me up to sit on the counter and steps between my legs. “I like when you look dopey.”
“What? Why?”
“Because it means I’m doing my job. I’m making you happy.”
And there I go, melting again. “That’s something you never, ever have to worry about. You’re the greatest man I’ve ever met.”
“And you’re pretty great yourself. For a Kappa.”
You can take the man out of the frat, but you can never take the frat out of the man.
And I wouldn’t want it any other way.