“Where’s Coop this morning?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know. He said he had to go do something. I’m kind of wondering if it was to get rid of that pink bear they talked about. The one from Claire.”
I try to hide my smile, knowing how badly jealousy can sting, regardless of how innocent it is. “Did you ask him why he kept it?”
“He said it didn’t mean anything romantic. That he didn’t hold any angry feelings toward her, and it just made him think of happy memories.”
“Guys are stupid sometimes. Even Cooper, but that’s not the worst reason to keep something.”
She shakes her head. “I know. I probably have a dozen things from exes. I don’t keep them because I’m holding a torch for any of them. Some of the stuff I just like, and others…” She shrugs. “It makes me think of happy memories.”
I think of the things I collected on our trip, the dozen pens from the hotels, the shirts, a sweatshirt of Tyler’s that had been in my bag that he’d carried in San Diego. I can’t imagine parting with any of them, regardless of what happens between us.
“How are you doing?” Nessie asks, reaching for a shirt.
Before I can respond, there’s a knock on our door. “I’ve got doughnuts and can’t reach my key,” Cooper calls from the other side.
I grin, watching the smile that consumes Nessie at the sound of his voice. She jumps to her feet, tossing the shirt back to the mound of clean laundry, and unlocks the short series of deadbolts he helped install when we moved in. She freezes, her attention shifting to me, eyes wide. “Chloe, he needs your help.”
“My help?”
She nods, taking a step back, opening the door even wider. She folds her lips against her teeth and waves for me to hurry up.
“Help with what? It’s not your box of things that you forgot at all the hotels, is it? Because…” My words trail off as tears fill my eyes, my heart stuttering as Tyler steps into our apartment. I can’t talk because my throat is filled with emotion, and I can’t see him clearly because tears are spilling down my cheeks. His strong, warm hands are on either side of my jaw, kissing my cheeks and my lips as he pulls me into his arms. I’m consumed by his scent, and the strength of his chest and shoulders feels so good as I lean into him, kissing him.
“What are you doing here?” I ask. “How?”
“Well, football starts in two days, and Coach Harris is a real asshole when it comes to players being on time.”
“Damn straight, he does,” Cooper says, coming inside and closing the door. He sets a box of doughnuts down in the kitchen. “We’ll give you guys a little time.”
Nessie flashes a smile at me, and then they disappear back to her bedroom.
I shake my head, working to understand his words without hope reading too far into the situation. “What about England? What about the hotels? Your dad?”
His fingers weave into my hair, and he smiles. I don’t know if my memories and pictures didn’t do him justice or if somehow in eleven days, he’s gotten even sexier. “Chloe, truth or dare?”
“Are you serious right now?”
He laughs at my duress, waiting for me to answer him.
“Truth?”
“Okay, I dare you—”
I laugh. “I said truth.”
I feel the rumble of his laughter against my chest. “I love you, Chloe. I don’t want to live in a world where you don’t exist. We have two years to figure out how we can make this happen, and since you can understand exoplanets and astrophysics, I’m pretty sure this will be a cakewalk. So, truth: I want to be with you. Truth: I want to kiss you every fucking night. Truth: I want to see you at every one of my games with my number painted on your cheek. Truth: I want to make your coffee and be your sounding board when you’re trying to figure out other galaxies and hypothesizing about what forever and endless really mean. Because I feel like I understand those concepts, both of them, because that’s how I feel about you. I know it in my bones, this—us—we’re endless and forever.”
There are so many questions that no one understands, some of life’s biggest questions like how or why we are here, and how our universe was created. We are a minuscule dot in space, and yet, as I stand here in Tyler’s arms, it doesn’t matter—none of it matters. Because if I have to write the book on understanding how we got here and why, he would be my answer. I was made to love him, and he was made to love me, and together this beautiful and tragic and endlessly unknown universe was made so we could be together.
Epilogue
Tyler
I’m so winded, my lungs burn as I come to a stop.
“I didn’t hear you guys. I said, are we ready?” Coach Harris places a hand at his ear.
We bellow out, “Yes!” All of us are eager for this next season after our past undefeated one.
Coach chews a wad of gum as his gaze slowly crosses each of us. He stops on The President, and then Pax, and Arlo, and then to me. My name made a short news circuit with my leaving for London and then immediately returning to Brighton, and it made its way to Coach. Thankfully, Coach isn’t big on details. He just needed my assurance I was here for the team and that he could count
