“Please, don’t apologize to me.” I scooted over beside him.
“I know you didn’t mean it like that, but I want you to know…I might not be able to say the words yet, and I know you’re nowhere near ready to hear them, but I’m well on my way to being in love with you.”
“Jude.” My heart did this nervous fluttery thing inside my chest. If he kept this up I was going to have a heart attack before we graduated.
“Please, don’t be scared. The last thing I want is to scare you away, but I just want you to know where this is heading for me. I know a part of you still thinks this is a fling for me, but it’s not Tate. When I look at you, I see my future.”
Tears glimmered in my eyes. I wasn’t sure if they were happy, sad, or scared-out-of-my-mind tears. I was going with scared.
“How can you say that?” I asked. I needed to know what made him so sure. Why could he, Jude Man-Whore Brooks, see us together but I couldn’t?
“It’s the truth.” He said it simply with a small shrug, like it was no big deal, but it was a huge deal. At least to me.
A few days ago I would’ve been mad over his words, but now I was simply stunned. The person in this relationship that should’ve been fighting us tooth and nail was Jude. He was the one that couldn’t stay with a girl and settle down. But instead it was me that was scared shitless while he was probably sitting there picturing a wedding and babies and all that jazz. Wow. What a freaking role reversal. This was insane. We were insane.
“Don’t be scared, Tate.”
“I’m not,” I said quickly.
“You’re a really bad liar,” he chuckled. “Whatever you’re imagining, I promise my thoughts aren’t that bad.” He started to laugh harder. “I haven’t named our kids past Jude Jr. I figured I’d let you pick the
other five.”
“Six?!” I screamed. “You want six kids?!” I was pretty close to passing out. Someone grab the smelling salts. Stat.
Jude fell back in the sand laughing so hard he clutched his stomach. “Oh my God! Your face!” He wiped tears from his eyes. “You should’ve seen your face! That was priceless. I wish I’d gotten a picture.”
As he rolled around, still laughing at my expense, I grabbed a handful of sand and threw it at him. He was unperturbed by the projectile. I needed something larger. Like a rock. Or a missile.
“Stop laughing at me!” I scolded.
He didn’t listen.
Finally I just gave up and started laughing with him. It was pretty funny after all.
Well played, Jude Brooks. Well freakin’ played.
“You’re kind of an ass.” I told him when we sobered.
“Ah, but I’m your ass,” he grinned, “and face it, you really, really like me.”
“I do,” I conquered.
“I’m a likable guy.”
“When you’re not being annoying,” I shrugged.
He fake gasped. “I am never annoying.”
“You wish,” I patted his shoulder.
He looked at where my hand was. “Did you just pat my shoulder like we’re friends?”
“I did,” I nodded.
He did the gasping thing again.
Before I could blink he had me pinned on the ground, the sand sticking to my skin. He had quite the knack for pinning me down. I kind of liked it actually, but I was never telling him that.