Page 84 of After the Snap

My eyes close as heat curls through me again. It would be so easy to keep going, to kiss him again and stay in his lap until neither of us gives a damn about the clothes between us anymore. His bedroom is somewhere beyond this room, and unlike Houston, we’re alone without a morning waiting a few hours away when one of us has to disappear before the other wakes up. I want that badly enough that I stay exactly where I am for another few breaths, my mouth against his jaw and his hands warm around my waist.

Eventually, I shift onto the couch beside him, but Jubal’s arm opens before I can decide how much space to put between us. I curl into his side, resting my hand against his stomach while his thumb moves lazily along my arm. With his heartbeat beneath my ear and his mouth occasionally brushing my forehead, I stop paying attention to how long we’ve been sitting there.

When I finally glance at the time, it’s late enough that staying much longer will turn into something else I’ll have to explain to myself tomorrow. I sit up, but Jubal’s hand slides down my arm and catches mine before I get very far.

“We leave on Saturday.”

I tip my head back to look at him. “I know.”

“I know you know.” His thumb keeps moving against my arm as he looks down at me. “But I’m telling you, Pea.”

The smart-ass answer waiting on my tongue disappears before I can use it. Jubal doesn’t need to tell Coach Quinn’s daughter that the Valor have an away game this weekend. He wants me to know that he’s leaving.

“Okay.”

“I’ll text you when we land.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I know. I want to.”

He says it so simply that I can only stare at him. I’ve spent my entire life knowing the team schedule because of Dad, but no one has ever looked at me like Jubal is now and made an away game feel like something happening between the person leaving and me. His expression softens before he gently tugs on my hand, and whatever intention I had of going home disappears as I settle against his chest again.

Saturday has been on the schedule for months, but lying here with him, it suddenly matters in a way it never did before.

Because this time it isn’t only my dad who’s leaving. It’s Jubal.

Chapter Twenty-One

Calliope

Ibarely make it through the doors of the testing center before my brain decides now would be an excellent time to revisit every answer I wasn’t completely sure about.

I knew this would happen before I walked in this morning, because apparently, spending months learning how to stop second-guessing myself doesn’t mean I can shut it off the second the test is over. There were questions I knew immediately, others I had to work through, and a few where I could probably spend the entire drive home convincing myself that either answer I considered was the right one.

After months of practice tests giving me a score the second I finished, walking out of the testing center today without one feels wrong. There isn’t anything else I’m supposed to do now, no missed questions to review or study schedule to rearrange around whatever went badly. Trying to rebuild the test from memory won’t tell me whether this attempt was enough, which means all I can do is wait.

I make it all the way to my car without trying to remember another question before finally turning my phone back on after hours of testing. Notifications fill the screen almost immediately.

Dad

I'm proud of you, Bug. Call me when you’re finished.

I smile as I read it, already knowing that calling him means answering questions I don’t have answers to yet, but the next notification keeps me from deciding whether I have enough energy for that conversation right now.

Old Man

You should be done by the time you see this, so congratulations on surviving.

A second message sits beneath it.

Landed.

A smile tugs at my mouth as I stare at the two messages. Jubal said he’d text when they landed, and traveling for an away game didn’t stop him from remembering that I was spending most of the morning taking the exam.

I unlock my phone and type out my reply.

Glad the plane survived having your ego aboard.