Elena- now

As I turn to walk around my car to go to walk towards the house, Colin opens the side door. I swallow thickly as his gaze connects with mine as I cross the driveway and then brush past him at the side door, which he holds open for me. I wrinkle my nose as I smell something unfamiliar to the house hanging in the air but then forget all about it as Colin continues to hold my gaze as he closes the door behind him.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t come. I’m glad you’re not avoiding me anymore.”

My pulse speeds up as I spin on my heels and cross my arms over my chest.

“You think I’ve been avoiding you?” I ask, my tone one of clear disbelief. “That’s rich, all things considered. You’re the one who said I needed to focus on myself and finish out college—all while I begged you to reconsider. Then you disappeared into thin air and stopped calling or writing.”

He sighs and leans back against the door.

“Don’t twist things around, Little Bird. I called you every day for three weeks, and you didn't answer the damn phone even once. I let up because I could see you were angry and needed time to stew."

“You’re damn right I was angry. You made it seem like my being a… a virgin,” I continue after a pause, “somehow made me defective. You have no clue how humiliating that was. Yeah, you called but after the way things shook down you should’ve realized why I wasn’t answering. I was embarrassed. And what? Now you’re just—” I gesture to the room around me, “here?”

“Yes, I’m here. I’m home," he stresses. "But to be perfectly blunt, today hasn't gone the way I'd hoped, and I've spent the hours since you left the gym wondering if I'm too damn late. Is there something you want to tell me, Leni?

I don't know what the hell that means, and I'm too agitated to decipher it.

"Too late for what?" I snap. "You didn't even see me in the gym today! I might as well have been invisible, and I wasn't even fifteen feet from you. Not once did I see you looking through the crowd for me even though you had to know I was there. Do you have any idea how badly that hurt?"

Putting his hand up to the back of his next, he rubs at it as if he's stressed. "Of course I knew you were there, Leni. I always know where you are, even if you think I don't. You have no idea how fucking difficult it was not to look your way today, but it had to be done. If I wanted to keep this job—and keep us in the position of living in this house full time—I needed to keep to my end of the agreement, which was something I was hoping to discuss with you. Meanwhile none of that really fucking matters right now after what I saw in the gym this afternoon."

I'm so confused I must look like Britney Spears judging the X Factor, and it's surprising that there are little birds circling my head. "What did you see in the gym this afternoon?"

Colin frowns as he drops his hand from behind his neck. “Miles was all fucking over you, Leni. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that you’ve transitioned from just friends to—” he grimaces as he looks away. “Lovers,” he finishes a second later.

Did I say I was confused a second ago? Back then I was only slightly off-kilter. Now I’m stunned.

This big lug is so exasperating! After admitting to actively ignoring me in the gym he pulls this craziness out of his ass?

“Miles is my best friend,” I remind him. “Always has been and always will be. He is not now, nor will he ever be, anything other than that. It’d be like you sleeping with Sam or Lolo. We’re no more and no less affectionate than you are with them. There’s nothing sexual between the three of you and nothing sexual with Miles and me. He’s like a brother—”

I get no farther because in the blink of an eye he's covered the space between us. With one arm he pulls me against his chest. His free hand traces the curve of my face as he leans in close and covers my mouth with his. If I live to be one hundred and nine, I'll never get over the way it feels to be kissed by Colin Findlay because he owns me with each and every one.

My senses are overloaded with Colin—the taste, the feeling of his muscular body beneath my fingers, the scent that I'm insanely addicted to. I haven't seen him in weeks, but there's absolutely no discomfort. Being in his arms is where I feel most at home.

I shiver as he threads his fingers through my hair just above the nape of my neck, the gesture proprietary, and oh-so-him. I grumble as he lifts his lips from mine, unwilling to break the connection. Taking control I reach up, grab his chin and pull him back in to extend the kiss. His warm chuckle tells me that he has no problem with my forcing the issue.

Suddenly we're moving. It's my turn to laugh when I feel the counter behind me. Gripping my waist, he lifts me up and sits me on the edge before pulling his lips away again. Raising his hands, he cups either side of my face and looks at me.

“God, I fucking missed you. These past two months have been torture, baby. If you ever spend so much as two minutes avoiding me again, I’m going to lose my shit.”

I can’t help narrowing my eyes. “You’re the one who told me we were making a mistake,” I remind him.

“How you took it is not at all what I meant to say,” he growls. “You make it sound like I said I didn’t want to be with you and nothing could be further from the truth.”

"Well, that's what I heard," I admit. "To me, every word out of your mouth sounded an awful lot like someone who wanted to get as far away from me as possible."

“What I was trying to say back then—apparently poorly—was that I didn’t think it was fair to you start a long distance relationship. You kept your virginity for a reason, and I didn't want to do anything to take away from how monumental that is. Making love and then being separated from you wasn't okay with me. You're young and in college and I'm—"

I raise my hand between us and slap it over his mouth. "I swear if you say old I'm going to pitch a fit. The argument was ridiculous then, and I guarantee it'll be the one thing in this room that hasn't aged well if you say it again."

He chuckles before nipping at my palm playfully so that I’ll remove my hand. “What I’m saying is that I want a lot from you, Leni. I needed you to have the option to wait, especially once I knew you were a virgin. Me living two hours away and you dealing with college douchebags hitting on you all the time wasn’t how I wanted us to start our relationship.”

My eyes go wide at his use of the R-word.

“Relationship?” I ask with an endless well of hope in my tone.

“You see me here right now?” he asks.

I nod.

“I came home for you because I’m in love with you. Relationship is way too fucking tame a way to describe what I want us to share.”

A huge smile breaks out on my face as I lean in closer. “I love you, too” I murmur.

As his lips cover mine, I don't think I've ever been happier—until a dose of reality slaps me upside the head. Tearing my mouth from his, I grimace.

“But what about the university? They made it very clear today that if anyone gets caught, shit will hit the fan. I don’t want you to lose your job!”

“They can’t catch us doing what they already know about,” he says dryly.

I cock my head and wrinkle my brown in confusion. “What?”

"As soon as you ghosted out of here like a thief in the night I knew I needed to do whatever it took to move here permanently. I might've said it wrong, but the thought behind my words was right. Long distance relationships are hard, and I didn't want that for us. Two days after you left I heard about Coach Adams from Sam's dad. Mr. Lewis is tight with president Rothstein, so he didn't hesitate to sit in as a consultant on some of the legal aspects of the separation between the university and the coach. He put my name forward as a candidate and Rothstein and Dean Pritchard were immediately interested because I'm an alumni."

He’s ever so gently rubbing his hands up and down my sides as he speaks, which is making it just a bit difficult to follow along.

“I stretched the truth a little during my interview and told the dean that you and I have been together for a long time. I kept to the truth when I told him it’s so serious that we own a home together.”

My eyes go wide with surprise. “You did?”

"I knew it was the only way to get them on board. They needed to be aware that we aren't having some tawdry affair, and that settled it for them. If you were anything other than a senior, or if I were your teacher or coach, it would've been a harder sell. In the end, they made the exception because the cache of having a former member of the NFL who also happens to be an alum was too damn perfect for them to pass up. Rothstein asks that we keep it respectful and not flaunt the relationship on campus, but otherwise we're good to go."

I can’t contain the shit-eating grin that is spreading across my face. Colin moved here for me—for us. Holy shit there's an us now. This is happening. We've said the words. We're in love, and now we're together.

“So we’ll get to see each other a lot now that you’re home,” I say happily.

"Hope so," he says with a strangled laugh, "since I'm thinking we'll be living together."

Holy crap. He’s really, really serious about this. No hesitation at all.

“Really?” I squeak, the excitement I’m feeling very apparent in my tone.

“Yes, really. When you love someone you want them with you all of the time. That’s how I feel for you, Leni. Our future starts now. In fact, I have something to show you.”

Lifting me from the counter he carries me through the kitchen and the living room and then up the stairs. The scent I noticed when I first walked in gets stronger as he goes up the stairs. I’ve only ever smelled something like this in a new home. I open my mouth to ask him what it is only to lose the train of thought entirely as he crests the top of the stairs and I see the hall, which has been freshly painted. The carpet is gone, replaced by beautiful espresso hardwood floor. The biggest shock is that where once there were two doors on the left side of the hall—one for his bedroom and one for mine—there’s now a set of double doors in the middle, where the wall for the bathroom used to be.

“What did you do?” I whisper.

He laughs as he comes to a stop in front of the double doors. “I made us a home, Little Bird. I knew neither of us was going to want to move into Nanny and Pop’s room—so I had some work done. This is our master and I turned what was their giant room into two smaller rooms. It worked out to be an even swap, space wise.”

When he turns the handle to our bedroom—holy shit, Colin and I have a bedroom—my jaw drops. It’s absolutely positively perfect. The espresso floors are accented with a giant area rug that sits under a black four post king sized bed covered in the most gorgeous duvet set. The furniture and the linens are just some of the things I’ve been coveting at Pottery Barn for the last year. I sniffle at the same time I laugh because this tells me Lolo and Sam helped decorate. They know how much I love Pottery barn because I spent weeks shopping with them when they redid their house last year.

“It’s perfect,” I murmur, my voice thick with emotion. “You did all this in eight weeks?”

He snickers as he carries me through the room to a large barn-style door on the wall. When he slides it to the left, I find myself looking into the world's most stunning bathroom.

“Not eight weeks, baby. It was five from beginning to end up here. They’ll be here next week to run the hardwood all throughout the downstairs as well but all the furniture and décor down there is on you. I think Lolo and Sam were ready to fucking strangle me having to guide me through it up here.”

I giggle as he sets me down in the middle of the bath. Running to the glass shower wall, I let out a long sigh of contentment as I open the large door in the center. The massive bathtub takes up a large portion of the right side, but the entire left is dominated by showerheads on the ceiling and the walls. There's a long bench and tons of insets for shampoo, conditioner and body wash. This couldn't be more perfect. For years I've dreamt of having a separate wet room, and now, I have one. Looking my shoulder at Colin who has been assessing my reaction, I wiggle my eyebrows. "Get ready to spend a ton of time in here,” I tease.

“I’ve been ready,” he answers huskily.

I walk out of the wet room directly into his arms, hugging him tightly. Standing on my tiptoes, I rain kisses on his face. "You did really, really good."