I don’t know whether to kiss or smack him upside down.
“You liked me in high school?”
“A whole lot.” His smile is easy, but his gaze is steady and doesn’t leave mine.
“Why? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Cass, I was a dumb kid. I loved our friendship, and I didn’t want to ruin it. I still worry about that.”
All I can say is, “Oh.” So that means…this isn’t going anywhere? I almost feel as if he should never have said it.
I feel like I’m at the center of a tornado—all the memories of my life swirl in front of my eyes. But now with a whole new layer of meaning in them.
“All this time?”
“I pushed it down and pushed it down. What can I say? I’m an idiot.”
“You are.”
He barks out a laugh and presses his thumbs into his eyelids. As exasperated and thrilled and confused as I am, I feel guilty. He’s physically and mentally exhausted. I check my watch. Only another hour or two. He could probably be fine to go to sleep now, but far be it from me to go against the doctors’ and nurses’ instructions.
And now that he’s being truthful with me, I guess it’s time that I tell him my truth too.
“Titus, do you know why I never dated anyone exclusively in high school?”
“I know why people thought you didn’t.”
I fix him with a dark stare. “I know what people said about me. I know they all said I was a tease. I wasn’t. I just wasn’t interested in anyone…but you.”
Titus’s body is pivoted toward me on the mattress, and his leg rests at an angle in front of him. I watch as his hand goes from where it rests on his knee to inching across the bedspread.
My hand still fists the blanket, so he cups my elbow. Titus and I have hugged, had tickle fights, and treated each other’s bug bites and snake bites. This simple touch feels new and thrilling.
“Cass.”
“I thought you didn’t like me in that way because you believed what they said. That I would string boys along. They all said it in high school. And when I came to college, I thought it was an opportunity to reinvent myself. But it just continued. I couldn’t get you out of my head. Nobody ever gave me that feeling but you. And so the ‘dick tease’ thing started again.”
I could describe his expression as enraged. “I fucking hate that. But you won’t have to worry about that anymore.”
“I’m not?”
“No. Because you’re mine.” His grip is firm on my arm, and his eyes are fierce. No jokes. Oh my. This fluttering, tingling feeling is like a thousand butterflies waiting to escape my body.
The bottom has dropped out, but I’m not falling. I’m floating.
Is this real?
“Are you serious? Are you sure it’s not the head injury talking?”
Titus blinks at me, then slides his grip from my elbow, covering my hand. It stays like that until the warmth of his body heat melts me, and I let go of the blanket.
Our hands join, palm to palm, fingers entwined. I can barely breathe, but it feels so wonderful.
“I remember what I said, Cass. I promise you; it’s one hundred percent indisputable fact. You are beautiful. Objectively beautiful, inside and out.”
I shouldn’t let him kiss me, even though I desperately want him to.
“So what do we do about my brother?”