I shoved his face as he laughed. “For real!”
“For real,” he agreed as he tried to bite my finger. I pulled it away just in time.
“Everyone knew.”
“They did. I’m actually surprised they were able to keep it a secret. No offense, none of you are exactly… subtle.”
“I take all the offense,” I told him. “On their behalf too.”
“Sledgehammer, remember?”
“Vaguely.”
He shook his head. “I just needed you to know that I was serious. That since we’re gonna do this thing, I’m all in. And Sandy said that the only way you’d believe me was a big spectacle.” He frowned. “Now that I think about it, I should have known by the way he was grinning at me that he was giving me shit.”
“Undoubtedly. And yet here we are.”
“Here we are.”
I traced a finger over his eyebrows. “What about waiting?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t want to wait anymore. I notified the university. Oh, by the way, you’re going to have to sign some paperwork, just to keep everything on the up-and-up.”
“Like a love contract?”
He groaned as he rolled over onto his back. “Jesus Christ.”
I laughed at him. “You’re making me sign a love contract.”
“I take it all back,” he said, staring at the ceiling with a pretty scowl. “I changed my mind about all of this.”
“Nah. Dude, it’s already out there. You told the university. About your love.”
He snorted. “Dude, like, totally.”
I laid my head on his shoulder, and he wrapped an arm around me, holding me close. “Did you get shit for it?”
“E
h. A little. Mostly from a couple of my colleagues, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. But I made it clear to the powers that be that nothing happened while I was your professor and that you wouldn’t be in any of my classes again.”
“What if I want to come and blow you in your office?”
He jostled me. “Don’t even try it.”
“You say that now. Just you wait.” I hesitated. “You sure about this?”
He kissed the top of my head. “I’ve never been surer about anything in my life. This… I wasn’t expecting it. Wasn’t expecting you. I thought I was okay with the way things were, but looking back, I don’t know how I convinced myself of that. And it’s not just about you, though you’re the biggest part of it.” He sighed. “It was the way that Sandy lit up when he was telling me about what he thought I should do. It was the way that Paul and Vince were on board immediately. Hell, even Darren only complained a little bit. And then Nana and Larry and Matty got involved. And Charlie and Dad, and I remember him hearing about all this for the first time, sitting with Charlie’s arm around him, and I swear to god, I’ve never seen him so happy before. It was like he had this… light burning inside of him. And it was because of me and how stupid I was over you that I was even considering doing this, but also because of how he felt being surrounded by all these people who love you. You and Charlie, you’ve given us a place to belong. A place where we don’t have to be anything but who we are. I think—I think we forgot what that was like. It was just us for a long time.”
“But not anymore,” I whispered.
He nodded against my head. “Not anymore. And that’s how I know I’m sure. Even if I had any doubts, the way that they all dropped everything just to make sure this went like it did… well. How could I not want to be part of that? And still it all came back to you. Because you’re the best part of all of it.”
I kissed the underside of his jaw. “We are pretty great. And dear god, please tell me there are videos of whatever slapdash rehearsal you guys had. I want to laugh for days.”
He growled at me as he rolled over on top of me. The weight of him was warm and real. I didn’t know what I’d done to get to this place, but it must have been something right. “There might be a video or two,” he said begrudgingly. “And I’m sure what happened today was recorded by more people than I care to think about.”
“Probably already online. Gonna go viral.”