COLTON

WHILE ALEX WAS OUT visiting Gertie, who’d come back to LA to spend the Christmas holidays with her family, I was rearranging our room so we could fit another dresser. After sliding the bed over to the other wall, I went on a scavenger hunt, foraging through the crap that had somehow migrated underneath, and that’s when I found it—the letter.

Dear Colton,

I miss you already, and I haven’t even left...

As soon as I finish writing this, I’ll be on my way to the airport to catch the next flight home. Dean’s dad was in a bad car accident this morning, and it doesn’t look good. I know that you understand how much Mr. Ryan means to me, and why I need to be there right now. Still, I hate leaving without saying goodbye—truthfully, I hate leaving at all. The past few weeks, especially last weekend, were the happiest I’ve been in years.

This is a conversation I hoped we’d have in person, but I don’t want you to come back, find me gone, and assume the worst. So, this letter will have to do. I’ve made my decision. Hell, if I’m honest, I made it the minute I hopped on that plane to come to LA—to come to you. You’re the reason I couldn’t say yes. I know that now, without doubt. There’s no way that I could ever marry Dean feeling the way I do for you. I’m in love with you, Colton Fowler. I think maybe I always have been.

Thank you so much for everything. The summer, this weekend, your big cock—the shirt, you perv. I’ll call you later tonight when I get settled.

Love always,

Allie

xoxo

I sat at the foot of the bed, reading it over and over again. My heart broke as I imagined the pain she must’ve felt after baring her heart like that and then thinking that I’d run off and slept with Lyla.

I couldn’t believe that girl pulled such a juvenile stunt, but I let her know in no uncertain terms that if she even looked my or Alex’s way again, I’d report her to the coaches and have her ass banned from the gym and thrown off the cheer squad. Lyla hadn’t been a problem since.

Mine and Alex’s relationship had been perfect since she moved in a month ago, but I walked around with a knot the size of Texas in my chest, constantly feeling like this was all too good to be true. Like it wasn’t going to last because it never had before. Our parents always said we were destined to be together. But, it felt like fate just really liked fucking with us.

“What’re you reading?” Allie asked, plopping down beside me on the bed, so engrossed in my thoughts, I hadn’t heard her come in. When I turned to look at her, my heart sped up. Fuck, she was gorgeous, I thought, staring down at her windburned cheeks and bright red nose. At her teeth biting her lower lip.

“Hey,” she said with a giggle, cupping her icy cold hands on my cheeks. “Are you okay?”

“You look really nice today, Al,” I rasped, unable to focus on much else. She was here, and she was mine. But for how long?

Alex’s eyes narrowed as she searched mine. “Thank you, Colton...You’re acting weird. Did something happen while I was gone?” Jeez, I needed to snap out of this.

“Well, I found about five hundred pairs of dirty panties under the bed,” I chuckled, glaring at her.

“Hey, you can’t blame me for those. You’re the one who’s always rippin’ ’em off of me. You should clean up after you eat,” she teased, scrunching her nose at me.

“I also found this,” I said, passing her the letter.

My beautiful girl’s face flushed with embarrassment. “Told you...” She folded it up, setting it on the bed behind us. Her eyes darted around the room as she crossed her legs, the top one swinging rapidly.

“I’m in love with you too, Allie,” I said, moving to kneel in front of her. Alex and I had been saying the words ‘I love you’ to each other since we were kids, but loving a person and being in love with a person were not the same thing. I felt the earth shift when I read her words, so I got it. I understood when her shoulders started to shake and her eyes welled up with emotion. It was the relief of knowing that when I said those three words to her now, they meant something more.

She blew out a long breath. “You are?”

“Alexis Mack, I’ve been in love with you since we were in high school, maybe even before that,” I said, reaching up to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. “All it took to make me realize it was seeing you with Dean, and by then I was already too late.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“You seemed so happy, and I was afraid that if I told you and you didn’t feel the same, things between us would change, and I’d lose you.”

Realization dawned on her. “So, the move to California was because of Dean and me?”

I shrugged. “It was easier when I didn’t have to see the two of you together.”

“We really screwed this thing all up, didn’t we?” she asked, running her fingers through my hair.

“I don’t know, Al. Maybe if we hadn’t tried with other people, we would’ve always wondered if what we had was real, you know? It was all we’d ever known.” Growing up, I’d always assumed Allie would be mine. I’d learned the hard way never to take her for granted.

“Well, you sure sampled enough of the female population to make sure.” Alex’s eyes twinkled with mirth. “Were blowjobs your way of coping?” She snorted.

“A man’s got needs, Al.” I shrugged, rising to my feet, which were starting to cramp from sitting on my heels so long. “I didn’t know that you’d ever leave Dean. But, yeah, I guess you’re kinda right. Girls get less emotionally attached from sucking dick than they do from fucking.”

“Hmm,” she said, twisting her lips to the side. “Guess I never thought about it like that.”

“See, so every time I let a girl put her lips around my cock, it was for you.”

“You’re too kind.”

It was Christmas Eve, and we were getting all decked out to go celebrate with my coaches and teammates. I felt awful for not being able to take Alex back to spend the holiday with our families, but we were in the middle of a big tournament, and I couldn’t leave. Allie refused to go without me, so here we were.

“Your girl about ready, Fowls?” Finn griped, pacing the living room in his three-piece suit. “I’m starving.”

It was after 5:00 p.m. and Alexis had been getting ready since early that morning. When I’d told her this dinner would be a formal affair, she’d worked herself into a mini panic attack. Unlike myself, who’d grown accustomed to the lavish productions the program put on, Alex hadn’t worn a formal dress since our senior prom. So, as an early Christmas gift, I’d set her up with an appointment at a designer boutique a few days ago and then surprised her this morning with a day at the salon—hair, nails, makeup, waxing, the whole shebang. All she had to do when she got back two hours ago, was put on the dress, which she had yet to allow me to see, mind you. I was dying to get a look at her.

“She’s coming,” Blex announced, rushing down the stairs. “Just needed a little help.” That asshole smirked, waggling his brows.

“What kind of help?”

“Zipper...titty tape...”

My eyes narrowed across the room at my best friend. “You touched my girl’s tits?”

Blex burst out laughing. “No, I just helped her figure out how it worked and zipped her up when she was through.”

Our conversation ended when the sound of Allie’s heels echoed off the stairs. Time stood still as I watched her step into view. Her dress was floor length with a slit that came up to mid-thigh. The skirt was red and trailed behind her, even in her sexy as hell, four-inch silver stilettos. The top was sheer silver with rhinestones that clustered in the shape of a bra to cover her breasts and were dusted lightly over the rest of the see-through top. She looked like she belonged on a runway.

“Well?” she asked nervously when I stood there gawking, unable to formulate words.

“Jesus, Alex,” I rasped, loosening the knot on my tie. “You look...wow.” I closed the few steps between us and lifted my hands to her shoulders, lightly trailing my knuckles down her arms. “So fucking beautiful, Allie.”

“Thank you,” she whispered, placing her dainty hands on my chest. “This suit is—” she closed her eyes, growling low in the back of her throat “—so hot,” she added, her eyes fluttering open.

“You two lovebirds ready?” Blex called from the door. “Car’s here.”