Naomi, Elijah and a brunette standing nearby all trade a confused look.
“Oh, Jason,” Naomi breathes, her eyes closing briefly. “Please let me introduce you to Addison Potts. Elijah’s girlfriend.”
“His…” The concrete that has been filling every square inch of space inside me cracks and crumbles, the sudden loss of tension almost knocking me over. “You’re not back together?”
She shakes her head and color infiltrates my world again, my lungs expanding with renewed breath. Not together. She didn’t go back to him. My God. “No,” she says with the hint of a smile. “No, he’s with the person he was meant to be with.”
“And what about you?” I say hoarsely. When I don’t get an answer, I reach deep for the speech I’ve been working on for a week. No more fucking around. She didn’t go back to her ex-fiancé and doesn’t seem upset over the loss. Not at all. I’m afraid to translate that into her still feeling something for me. But I still have to take my shot. Look at her. Look at her. She’s worth getting on my knees for. “Naomi, if I didn’t fulfill my obligations, I wouldn’t be a man worthy of you. I’m going back overseas, because I said I would. I committed, just like I’m committed to you. And there are men counting on me. But I’m asking you…no, I’m begging you to wait for me.” She presses a hand to her chest, saying nothing. “I know I’m asking you for a huge sacrifice, baby. To give your time. To give up your family and security. So I’ll make a sacrifice, too. Charleston is your home, so I’ll make it mine, too. I’ll move my business here. I’ll do anything to make you happy if you can…if you can just wait for me. We will have family and security together. We will build those things together.”
Naomi’s voice is feather light. “Why?”
In contrast, I’m all but shouting. “What do you mean, why?”
“Why would you do all of that?”
Awareness creeps over me, not a moment too soon. Leave it to my clueless ass to leave out the most important factor when writing my speech. “Because I’m in love with you, Naomi Clemons. I’m standing here half alive from being without you.” I have to take a breath because my voice is shaking. “Come on, beauty queen. Revive me.”
Her hands join at her waist, wringing together. “A-and Birdie?”
A pang catches me in the chest. “She’s set to go live with my parents after graduation.”
Naomi’s forehead wrinkles, but she nods, shifting side to side in her silver shoes. Here it is. She’s taking everything I offered into consideration and will either sentence me to live or die. I can do nothing but wait for my fate, like a man before a judge, the guillotine on one side, happiness on the other.
“No,” she says, finally.
“No,” I croak, blood draining from my head. “Please—”
“Birdie should come live with me while you’re away,” she interrupts. “Don’t you think?”
I start to double over, pulled beneath an undertow of relief, but Naomi runs and jumps into my arms, staggering me backward instead. “I love you, too,” she hiccups. “I love you, Jason. I’d wait decades for you. I have waited decades.”
I’m barely capable of speech. “Is this happening? Did I get you back?”
“Yes. Yes.”
“Mine for good? You’re mine?”
“Completely. Irrevocably.”
“Oh my God.”
Our mouths meet in a hard kiss, and hell if my eyes aren’t damp as I hold Naomi close as possible, crushing her against me and vowing to never let her go. Ever. When I become aware of our surroundings again, Elijah is escorting his girlfriend away, but not before stopping beside us to clear his throat. “I don’t know if you’ll find this information useful, but if you take a right out of the ballroom, there’s an empty office around the corner and three doors down.”
I give him a look. “Don’t make me like you.”
Naomi buries her face in my neck and laughs. I make short work of getting us to the doors, kicking them shut behind us and muffling the music…and applause. Yeah, there is definite clapping, some whistling, although I can barely hear it over the pounding of my heart. Need to get her alone. We’re together and that fact still isn’t sinking in. I don’t think it ever will, but having her wrapped around me, her mouth on mine, will make this real. It’s real, right?
“I missed you so much,” she whispers into my neck, her legs sneaking up to rest on my hips, tightening in that way I’ve been dreaming about obsessively. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
“You should. You should have known living without you wasn’t an option for me.” I have to stop to press her up against a wall as soon as we turn the corner, our mouths locking in a kiss fraught with shallow breaths. “I shouldn’t have let you leave without making sure you knew I love you, baby. I’ve been so fucked up. Christ, I thought you were with someone else.”