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  “I don’t want to take you home,” he said once we’d cleaned up and tossed our trash.

  “We still have a few hours left before I have to be home,” I said with a sad smile. “Let’s make them count.”

  We got back into the vehicle, holding each other in the back seat with the windows down so we could hear the ocean waves crashing against the shore. Luca turned off the overhead lights and then wrapped an arm around me.

  “I miss you already,” he muttered, and I could hear how choked his voice was. “I knew this was going to be hard, but I never realized…”

  “I know. But we’ve got this.” I hugged his waist tighter. “It’s only a few months.”

  “Yeah,” he gritted out. For a long while, we were both quiet. There was so much to say, but we didn’t really need to speak the words aloud. So we just sat there holding on to each other and let our hearts do the talking for us.

  “Do you think your dad will kill me if I marry you the day you turn eighteen?” Luca surprised me by asking out of the blue.

  “I thought we were waiting until I was twenty-one,” I reminded him with a smile.

  “I don’t know if I can,” he said, his voice full of longing.

  I stroked my index finger down his jaw. “Maybe I’m greedy, but I think we’ll be too busy the day I turn eighteen to want to have to worry about a wedding.”

  “Yeah?” He cocked his head, and I knew if I could see his eyes right then, they would be a molten amber. “What will we be doing, baby?”

  “Everything on the list I’ve already compiled of ways I want to make love.” I leaned up and brushed my lips over his ear. “Starting with the one we watched together the other night.”

  His groan was full of need and pain. “You’re right. Maybe the month after you turn eighteen, then. Because it will probably take that long for me to even put a dent in that list of yours.”

  I grinned wickedly up at him. “You’re pretty confident we’ll get that far into the list? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll want to try some of them over and over again just to make sure we get it perfect.”

  “Fuck, you’re perfect, Vi.” He kissed me, but he pulled back before either of us could get carried away. “Promise me we’ll have more phone dates like we had the other night.”

  Pink filled my cheeks. My parents had been out of the house for date night, and I’d locked my bedroom door and called him after opening my laptop and finding the site he’d sent me months before. It wasn’t the first time we’d had a “phone date” like that, but I still couldn’t think about them without turning blood red. Or squirming because it had been so much fun.

  “I promise.”

  For the next few hours, we just sat there cuddling. At eleven thirty, he muttered a curse and opened the door. I felt like time was pushing me into a corner. A small, tight corner, and all the air was quickly being used up. But I couldn’t let him see how hard it was for me that our day was almost over.

  When he opened my door and scooped me up into his arms, I wrapped my legs around his waist and kissed him. He slammed the door shut and then pressed me back against it, deepening the kiss and pressing his lower body roughly against mine.

  “I love you,” he groaned as he trailed his lips down my throat. “I don’t want to leave you. Maybe… Maybe this whole plan was stupid.” I felt him begin to shake. “Maybe I can just go to a college closer to home. Somewhere we can still see each other every few days. I’ll make it work. I—”

  I covered his mouth with my hand, swallowing my tears so he didn’t hear how close to breaking I was. “This is our plan,” I told him. “It’s the best plan to fulfill your dreams. You’re not giving it up. We’re stronger than that, Luca. A little time and distance aren’t going to ruin anything.”

  Kissing my palm, he pulled it away from his mouth. “My dreams are of you. By my side, as my wife. I don’t want anything else. Just that. Just us.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “Nothing else matters.”

  “Yes, it does. Your heart is just a little bruised right now, and you can’t see the bigger picture. You’re going to do amazing things in the world of football. And I will be right there beside you every step of the way.” A tear spilled from his eyes, and I swiped it away before I lost the battle against my own. “Three years from now, this will just be something we look back on and remember as another stepping stone that made us stronger. Because there is nothing that can tear us apart, Luca.”

  “You’re my favorite person in the world, you know that, right?” I nodded, the lump robbing me of my voice for a moment. “Everything I do, it’s for you and us.”

  “I know,” I whispered.

  “But it’s so much harder to leave you than I realized.”

  “It’s going to be okay. I promise.” I kissed his chin, then his cheek.

  “It doesn’t feel like it right now, but I believe you.” One more kiss and then he was opening the passenger door and placing me inside. After fastening my seat belt, he glanced at his watch and cursed. “We better hurry, or you’ll miss curfew.”

  He pulled into my driveway with only a few minutes to spare. I was quickly losing what hold I had on my emotions, and knew if I didn’t go inside soon, I wasn’t going to be strong enough to let him go without his seeing my tears. Hand in hand, we walked up onto the porch.

  “I’ll text you once we land in Alabama tomorrow afternoon,” he promised.

  “Good. I want lots of pictures of your room and your roommate.” I grinned up at him, hopefully hiding how much my heart was hurting. “Please stay out of trouble.”

  “For you, I’ll do my best.” He cupped the side of my face, his thumb caressing my cheek before tracing my bottom lip. “You own my soul.”

  “You know you own mine, too.” I hugged him hard, but I only allowed myself a few seconds before pulling back. “I love you. Always. Now, I need you to go.” My voice broke, and I tried to hold back my tears. “Because I can’t hold on much longer, Luca.”

  “Baby.”

  “Please,” I begged. “You shouldn’t leave with me crying. I want to send you off with a smile and my ‘I love you’ as the last thing you hear.”

  I watched his throat bob, his eyes glassy with unshed tears. “I don’t know if I can,” he rasped out.

  “For me.”

  Those two words were the only thing I knew could move him. He touched his lips to my forehead and then stepped back. The hold he had on my hand tightened, but when his feet reached the top step of the porch, we both let go. “Vi.”

  “I love you.”

  He didn’t have to repeat the words. I saw them blazing at me out of his hypnotic eyes as he backed down the steps. On the last one, he curled his right hand into a fist and touched it to his heart, just like he did every time he saw me when he took the football field.

  I stood there fighting my tears until he got into his SUV and drove away. Only once his taillights faded into the darkness did I release the hold on my tears. A sob came choking out of me so hard my knees went weak.

  I didn’t hear the door open behind me, but Dad wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in for a hug. “It’s okay, honey,” he murmured. “It’s not forever. I promise.”

  “I miss him already,” I whispered, pressing my tear-soaked face into his shirt.

  He didn’t say anything as he picked me up and carried me into the house. Mom was already sitting on the couch in the living room, a blanket over her legs and a box of tissues beside her. Dad set me down beside her, and she cuddled me close.

  I fell asleep tucked between both my parents hours later, the two of them holding on to me, because I couldn’t hold on to the one person I ached for the most.

  Chapter 18

  Luca

  Every muscle in my body ached as I walked into my dorm. College football practices had nothing on high school. I was taking and dishing out hits with ten times more force than I was used to. But it was nothing I couldn’t handle on
the field.

  My defensive coordinator had told me after practice earlier that I would be starting the first game of the season. I was the only freshman on the defense to start, but I was also taking a junior’s place on the roster. My fellow freshmen were jealous as hell. The guy whose place I was taking was pissed that I had pushed him to the second string. He wouldn’t be getting much game time this year, and from what I’d heard, he’d been thinking of going into the draft come spring.

  I was making enemies left and right in the locker room, it seemed. But it didn’t bother me. I wasn’t there to make friends. I wanted to be coached by the best, show the world every Saturday what I could do, and get a killer rookie deal when I entered the draft. Nothing else mattered but doing my job and getting things done so I could take care of Violet for the rest of our lives.

  We didn’t need the money from me playing pro football, not with both of us set for life with the trust funds our fathers had set up for us. But I wanted to be the one to provide for us. Our trusts could be set aside for our own kids one day. Everything that Vi and I had in life, I wanted to be the one to buy for us.

  I took the elevator up to the suite I shared with three other football players and dropped face first onto the couch in the sitting room. All I wanted was about ten hours of sleep, especially since I would have to get up before dawn the next morning for yet another practice, but I didn’t have the energy to make it all the way to my private bedroom. Just because I’d been told I was going to start didn’t mean I could slack off during practices. My head coach wouldn’t even hesitate to push me to second string, or even third, if I didn’t consistently prove to him I belonged as a starter.

  My eyes had barely closed before my door opened and my roommate walked in. Marsh Lewis was a sophomore running back. He was from Washington state and was a second-generation footballer. He’d been groomed from birth to play with the mind-set of go pro or don’t come home. The guy breathed football, and I was glad to have him as a roommate because that meant I didn’t have to worry about some idiot trying to pressure me into doing stupid shit that would get me off track.

  The other two guys we shared a suite with I couldn’t say the same about. One was a freshman like me, the other was a junior, and after today, I wasn’t confident either of them would have my back on or off the field.

  Marsh saw me, and his lips twitched with amusement. “I was going to ask if you’re hungry and want to grab some dinner with me, but I can see you’ve got other plans.”

  I groaned and sat up. My stomach was growling with hunger, but I didn’t know if I could keep my eyes open long enough to eat. I couldn’t lose any mass by skipping meals, though, so I forced myself to pick up my phone. “Let’s just order in.”

  “Sounds good. You go grab a shower, and I’ll order the food. I remember what you like, man.” He walked to our small kitchen and pulled out a sports drink before grabbing his phone to make a DoorDash order. “Besides, you need to call your girl before you crash for the night.”

  Thinking of Violet put me on alert a little more, and I actually had a smile on my face when I walked into my bedroom. After a quick shower, I texted her to see if she was free. School had started back for her earlier in the week, so I knew she might not be able to talk yet with the time difference.

  Me: So tired. Need to hear your voice before I sleep.

  Violet: Give me ten minutes. I swear I’ll call you as soon as I get out of this stupid class.

  I dropped back onto my pillow, determined not to let sleep make me miss the chance to talk to my girl.

  Fifteen minutes later, my phone went off, and I answered it before it could fully ring. “I’m so sorry it took so long,” Violet said with a huff. “Someone stopped me in the hall on the way out.”

  There was something in her tone that suddenly had me on alert. “Is somebody giving you trouble, babe?”

  I heard another huff and pictured her nose scrunching up like it did when she was unhappy. “There’s some new guy who has been hitting on me all week. I’ve ignored him, but he just cornered me at my locker to ask me out.”

  I tensed, my free hand balling into a fist. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I just did, Luca,” she said with a tired sigh. “I didn’t want to distract you when he was just harmlessly flirting. But when he asked me out, I explained to him I have a boyfriend whom I love more than life itself and told him he needed to set his eyes on someone else because I wasn’t available.”

  “What’s this guy’s name?” I gritted out.

  “Luca…” She laughed then changed the subject. “How did today go? Did they announce who will be starting?”

  “His name, Vi.”

  “Remington.” I heard a few voices in the background and recognized Shaw’s then Cannon’s and knew she was getting into his car. “Well?”

  “Well, what?” I grumbled, wanting to punch the guy who’d not only been flirting with my girl but had dared to ask her out.

  “Did they announce starters or not?” she asked with another soft laugh.

  “I’m starting on Saturday.” I had to pull the phone away from my ear when she screamed her excitement, and my lips twitched with amusement.

  She was the first to know because I hadn’t texted either of my parents or even Lyric yet about the news. I needed to remember to do that before I fell asleep.

  “I knew you would,” she said in a rush. “You’re a beast on the field, Luca. They would be stupid to start anyone but you.”

  I didn’t want to talk about myself. “This Remington guy, what’s he look like?”

  “You’re really hung up on this,” she muttered unhappily. “Don’t you trust me, Luca?”

  “Of course I do, baby,” I rushed to assure her. “It’s him I don’t trust.”

  “You don’t even know him. He’s actually really nice, and when I told him I was committed to you, he backed off and actually apologized.”

  That she was defending him only made me hate the guy more. “Do you like him?” I snapped.

  “What? No!” She muttered a curse under her breath that I barely heard, then exhaled slowly. “You’re obviously tired because you’re being unreasonable right now. Maybe you should go to bed.”

  “I plan on it. As soon as you tell me what this guy looks like.”

  “Why are you hung up on what he looks like?” she practically yelled at me.

  “Because I want to know what you really think of him.” I knew I was being a jerk, but I couldn’t stop myself. I was jealous, and it seemed to me that Violet was trying to protect this guy for some reason. “You said he’s nice. What’s so nice about him, Vi?”

  “You know what, I’m done with this conversation. You’re treating me like I’ve done something to feel guilty over. When you’re ready to apologize, call me back. Until then, go to bed and get some sleep.”

  “Wait!” I shouted, trying to stop her, but the phone went silent. Cursing myself, I called her back.

  “What?” she snapped.

  “You’re right, I’m tired and being irrational. I’m sorry, baby. Please don’t be mad at me.” I rubbed a hand over my face in frustration. “I miss you so damn bad, and just the thought of some guy talking to you makes me crazy.”

  “You have nothing to be jealous of,” she said in that soothing, sweet voice of hers that I wanted to wrap around myself and fall asleep to. “I love you, Luca. Only you. Nothing and no one will ever come between us. I promise.”

  “If this guy flirts with you, or if he asks you out again, I want to know.” I waited for her to agree, and it came, although reluctantly. But it was enough to make me relax. “I love you, babe.”

  “I love you too. Now, please, go get some sleep.”

  I could smell food coming from the sitting room, and my stomach cramped. “I will as soon as I eat. I need to text my parents and Ric to tell them the good news too.”

  “You haven’t told them yet?” she asked, surpr
ised.

  “I always want to share the good things with you first, baby,” I told her, fighting a yawn.

  “You drive me crazy, you know that?” she laughed. “One minute you make me want to punch you in the face, and the next you make me want to kiss you until neither of us can breathe.”

  I grinned. “At least loving me isn’t boring.”

  “Nothing about you is boring. Go eat. Get some sleep… Dream of me.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” I stood, but I didn’t move toward the door. “I really am sorry for being a dick.”

  “I know,” she said softly. “And I forgive you.”

  Chapter 19

  Luca

  Homecoming weekend fell on parents’ weekend, and I couldn’t remember when I’d ever been so excited to see my mom and dad in my life. I hadn’t seen them in a little over six weeks, and I’d missed them like crazy. Maybe not as much as I missed Violet and Lyric, but enough that I was jogging out of my dorm the second Mom texted me that she and Dad were only a few minutes away.

  As I stepped outside, someone called my name, and I did a double take when I saw who it was. The second I saw her blond hair and those damn purple eyes that owned me, my knees went weak. Then she smiled and took off running toward me. A few feet away, Violet jumped, and I caught her around the waist. Her legs wrapped around me, and her lips touched mine.

  I kissed her, re-memorizing her taste all over again until Dad cleared his throat loudly. “Need to come up for air sometime, son,” he muttered, and I reluctantly lifted my head.

  Giggling, Violet pressed her forehead to mine. “Surprised?”

  “That’s an understatement, babe.” I kissed her quickly, then set her on her feet. As soon as I did, she wrapped her arms around my waist and held on tight. I glanced at my parents. “Thank you,” I choked out.

  Mom gave me a bright smile. “You seemed to be taking out some serious aggression on the opposing team last weekend, and Dad and I thought maybe you needed a little pick-me-up.” She leaned in for a quick hug before stepping back to let Dad get one.