Chapter 35 Colton
COLTON
I immediately jump into action, yanking out my suitcase and flying around the room. Choosing Quinn is so painfully obvious that I want to kick myself, or to find a way to go back in time and take it all back.
I set the phone up on the desk, Momma talking through what I should say while I throw my stuff into my luggage.
I barely get it zipped around the crumpled clothes.
When I come out into the living room, Inez and Tomasso are standing there, watching as I sprint around the apartment tossing the last-minute items into my messenger bag.
“Quinn talked to you?” I ask Inez, never stopping.
Inez glances nervously at Tomasso. “Yeah, she did, but what—”
“I’m going after her. I never should have let her leave.”
“Oh, thank god,” she says, a sweet, wide smile spreading across her face.
“What flight is she on?” I ask as I stuff my laptop into my bag.
“I don’t know yet. She promised she’d text when she got it sorted out. I’ll send the information as soon as I have it.”
I run over and plant a kiss on the top of her head. “You’re an angel.”
She laughs. “I’ve never seen you so expressive before.”
I beam at her. “I’m gonna get her back.”
“Good luck,” she yells as I bolt out of the same door Quinn ran through an hour ago.
I sprint towards the closest taxi stand with my luggage bouncing wildly over the cobblestones as I dodge drunk tourists.
I curse the fact that I can’t hail a cab like in New York.
There’s a line of twenty taxis when I reach the back of the stand, and I beg the closest one to take me instead of making me run up to the front cab.
I again curse the damn taxi system when the other cabbies demand I honor the process and take the first one in line.
Finally reaching the front, I throw my stuff in the trunk, too impatient to accept the driver's help, and dive into the back seat. I tell him I need to get to Fiumicino as quickly as possible, and he speeds off, winding through the other cars.
We’ve just reached the highway, so close, yet not nearly close enough, when the traffic hits. Bumper to bumper, with no end in sight. I get a text from Inez with Quinn’s flight time, which is too close for comfort, and yell in frustration.
“You need to go there faster?” my driver asks.
“Yes. I need to get on this flight to catch the woman I love,” I say, playing into the dramatics of the situation.
“Do not worry,” he says with a flick of his hand. “Dominico can fix this.”
He pulls off the highway and slams on the gas pedal. We shoot down the shoulder at a speed that would have scared the living shit out of me on the actual road. But if it gets me there before she leaves, I’ll take it.
And if I die in a fiery car crash, I hope Quinn will come to my funeral.
We reach the terminal with enough time for me to buy a ticket on her flight. I bounce impatiently as I wait in the security line, then sprint to the gate, making it just before they close the doors.
I walk down the aisle, scanning every face for the one I’m looking for.
She’s in a window seat, head leaning against the wall.
Her eyes are closed and puffy. The seat next to her is open, but I continue a few rows back to my assigned seat.
We have time, and I don’t want to start this conversation only to be interrupted by the half-dozen announcements flight attendants make at the beginning of a flight.
An hour later—the longest hour of my life—the flight attendant announces over the speaker that we can move about the cabin, and I shoot out of my seat and up to Quinn’s row.
The person in the aisle seat looks at me funny, but makes room for me to squeeze by.
Quinn’s eyes are still closed, but I’ve seen her sleeping enough this summer to know she’s faking it.
“Hi,” I say. An impressive opening line.
Quinn’s whole body springs up, those beautiful brown eyes rimmed in red. She looks around, confusion furrowing her brow. “How are you here, Colton?”
“I’m coming home with you, and I’m not discussing it again. We have a lot of shit to talk about on this flight, but whether or not I’m going to stand by you next week isn’t one of them.”
“Colt—”
“No, it’s my decision, and I’m 100 percent certain of it. So stop trying to talk me out of it.”
Her mouth curves up, hope shining in her eyes. “For the record, I think this is a terrible idea.”
“For the record,” I echo. “I don’t give a fuck.”
She bites her lip, turning toward the window to hide her smile for a second before facing me again. “So if we’re not talking about you torpedoing your career for me, what’s the ‘lot of shit’ you’re referring to?”
I tilt my head, making sure I have her full attention. “We’ve both lied to each other, and we need to hash this out.”
Her eyebrows shoot up. “I’ve never lied to you. Literally not once in our entire friendship.”
“I’ve never lied to you, either. At least, not outright,” I say, because that’s the truth. “But we’ve both watched the other fill in the blanks with things we know aren’t true, and neither of us spoke up.”
She looks genuinely confused, and it’s so cute and endearing I nearly drop the whole thing in favor of pulling her into my arms. But I almost lost her, and I need to make sure we’re on the same page if we’re going to jump back into this thing.
“Tell me about the Harrow Fellowship,” I say.
Her face twists, panic in those deep brown eyes. This is a conversation—a secret—ten years in the making, and I know she’s terrified of the fallout. She turns, facing forward in her seat instead of looking at me.
“Dr. Cassia told me at dinner. She didn’t realize I didn’t know, and it sent me into a tailspin.
One achievement shouldn’t carry so much weight, but the truth is I never believed in myself before that moment.
It was the foundation all my confidence was built on, and in an instant, it turned from solid rock to a muddy marsh and everything was collapsing around me.
I was too lost in my anger and fear to handle our conversation when I got home. ”
“I didn’t want to hurt you,” she says, so softly I almost don’t hear her.
And I know that’s the case. She was trying to protect me, just like I’ve spent the past year trying to protect her on campus.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” she says, meeting my gaze with tears in her eyes.
“I didn’t want you dismissing the quality of your work because of a broken system.
Me getting it was pure nepotism. Your work was so much better than mine.
You were the one who deserved it, and I didn’t even want it. Please, Colton. Please forgive me.”
“I know,” I say softly. “I’m okay. But please don’t keep secrets from me anymore, even if you think you’re protecting me.”
She nods, tears streaming down her face, and I lean forward to kiss them away. The temptation to turn my head a fraction of an inch, to capture her lips with mine, is nearly overwhelming. But if I’ve forced her to admit her own half-truth, I owe her the same.
I pull back. “I guess it’s my turn.”
Her eyes blink open, still slightly hazy. “What?”
I suck in a breath. It’s not that I think she’ll be upset by what I have to say, but it’s vulnerable, laying it all out there.
“You said during our fight that this summer has been intense because of all these new feelings. And I get that’s how you’ve experienced it, but none of this has been new for me.”
She pulls her lips between her teeth, clearly confused by what I’m saying. I’m totally fucking this up.
“Fourteen years ago, I was a mess. Terrified and defensive and so fucking lonely, and then this beautiful, chaotic girl dropped down beside me and completely rewrote who I thought I was. Within an hour, you were my new favorite person. Within a week, I’d have sold my kidney for a kiss.
Within a month, I knew I was going to love you for as long as I drew breath.
And I’ve never faltered. Not for a single day.
I loved you in college when I got to see you every day and while we were an ocean apart and when it was supposed to be ‘just sex.’ So this big shift you’re stressing over?
It’s nothing for me. Just a regular Friday, honestly. ”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asks, her voice cracking on the words.
I look up at the ceiling of the plane, focusing on the line of lights dotting the aisle.
“Because you really are my favorite person. You never showed any signs of romantic interest in me, and the thought of losing you was debilitating. I was happy just being your friend—I’d still be happy just being your friend—because you’re the sun.
All I’ve wanted for the past decade and a half has been to enjoy your warmth in whatever way you’ll allow me. ”
“Colt—”
“So you have to understand that I could never regret choosing you. I’d give up my career, never step foot in Rome again, if it meant keeping you in my life. I’ve chosen you every day for fourteen years, and I’ll keep choosing you as long as you let me.”
“What about your mom?”
I tsk. “We finally had that conversation you’ve been telling me to have for years. Apparently I just needed the proper motivation to get over my bullshit and tell her the truth.”
Quinn points a finger at herself, the cutest smile on her face. “Me? I’m the motivation?”
I roll my eyes, and her smile widens. “The best motivation of my life.”
She lets out a little watery laugh, twining our fingers together. “So I lied about your career and you just lied about loving me a lot.”
I kiss her forehead. “Hey, you lied to protect me. I lied to protect myself.”
I love the little smile that tilts her lips. “I can get behind that spin.”
My forehead drops to hers and I let my lids fall closed, breathing in her citrusy scent. “I know you don’t trust love, and I get why. But trust me. Please don’t run from me again. I’ll take you back every time because I’m so pathetically in love with you, but it hurts like a bitch.”
She nods quickly. “No more running.”
My fingers twine in the soft blond hair, and she tilts her head to bring her lips to mine. It’s the softest brush of a kiss, and it’s more devastating than the most passionate of kisses we exchanged this summer.
“I love you, too,” she whispers against my lips. “Just in case you’re wondering.”
“I wasn’t,” I say, my mouth tilting up. “You’ve always been transparent as hell.”
She laughs again, light and airy—so fucking addictive—and kisses me harder, nipping at my lip before she soothes it with her tongue. I groan, grabbing her hip and pulling her toward me, nearly onto my lap.
A throat clears behind me, and I turn to find the third person in our row grimacing. “Um… do you think I could maybe take your old seat?”
Quinn buries her face in my shoulder, her whole body shaking with her silent laughter.
“28E,” I say. “The whole row’s open, so enjoy.”
“Oh, sweet,” the woman says, gathering her things from out of the pocket and slipping out of her seat.
I turn back to Quinn, wrapping a hand around the back of her neck and whispering, “I thought she’d never leave.”
Quinn giggles, her breath coasting over my lips before I capture them again. We kiss and we kiss and we kiss, and I hope this plane never lands. I’d live in this death tube thousands of feet above the earth forever if I could stay just like this.
Quinn eventually pulls back, and I grunt at the loss of contact, trying to pull her to me, but she leans back, tossing her legs over my lap. She intentionally rubs against where I’m so clearly hard, and I hiss, grabbing her knee.
“Unless you want to join the mile high club, you need to cut that out.”
She smirks, shifting against my hard cock again. “Not opposed. But before that, I wanted to tell you an idea I had for when we get home. It’ll take a lot of work over the next week before the faculty senate’s supposed to meet, but if you want to help, I’d love to do it with you.”
I can’t help the broad smile that stretches across my face, because this is everything I’ve ever wanted. The two of us, together and happy and a team.
“Put me to work, Chaos.”