I laugh through the tears now. "I bought all the seats," I inform him.
He whips his head around to look back at me. "What?"
"Well, if you weren't going to show up, I needed to sulk in private, and then if you did show up, I wanted to have an open conversation without people listening," I state, wondering how this conversation will actually play out. "To be honest, I was thinking you weren't going to show up." I look down.
"I took an Uber here." He starts to talk. "And she got rear-ended by this truck who got rear-ended by another, and it was a clusterfuck and a disaster. She was crying. It was her first day, and then she had to call her mom to come and get her." He shakes his head and laughs. "But I'm here."
"I missed you," I tell him.
"I missed you more," he whispers, putting his arm around my chair, and I turn to face him.
"I'm sorry," I say softly.
"There is no reason for you to be sorry," he says, his hand coming up to cup my face. "I should have given you time to think about things instead of just demanding that we jump into the water." He shakes his head. "And then I had to leave for work, and coming back, all I wanted to do was see you and talk to you, and it just—"
"It hurt you," I say for him. "I hurt you."
"I hurt you," he says softly. "Not coming after you today was the hardest thing I've ever done. There is already gossip about Sheila, and I just didn't want the extra gossip." He looks down. "Plus, I don't know how long PG would have lasted." I laugh.
"I went to see Joseph." I want to make sure that he knows everything. "After I left your house."
"Do I want to know?" he asks as I can see him swallow.
"Well, he's still a dick." I laugh at him. "And he’s jealous of you," I disclose to him.
"No surprise there," he says. "I don't care." He comes close to me, and my heart speeds up. "Shelby," he whispers. "I can't do this if we're a secret."
"I wouldn't want you to be a secret," I tell him. "Not now. Not ever. You deserve more." I smile at him.
"I deserve you," he tells me. "After all this time, I deserve you."
The crowd starts to go crazy, making us look up, and we see ourselves on the screen with a heart around it. "It's the kiss cam," I say, smiling and putting my hand on his leg.
I look up at him. "It's about time," he says, turning and grabbing my face in his hands. "It's about fucking time."
Chapter 33
Ace
She looks up at me, her blue eyes shining exactly like they did when we were away. "It's about time." I grab her face in mine. "It's about fucking time."
"What?" she whispers out on my lips, getting closer and closer to me.
"I paid the guy to make sure I got to kiss you." I shrug as people chant kiss.
"Yes, please," she says, the smile on her face so fucking big her eyes light up. My own smile fills my face, and my chest that felt pressure for the past week feels like I can breathe again. My lips finally land on hers, and the stadium erupts. She laughs when I let her go and then turn back to look at the camera and throw my hands in the air. She laughs and shakes her head but not before I take another kiss from her. This time my tongue slides into her mouth, and we get lost in the kiss.
"Do you want to get out of here?" I look at her, touching her face with my hand, and she nods. I get up and hold out my hand for her. She puts her hand in mine as she gets up, and instead of letting it go, she links her fingers with mine.
I let her lead the way to her car. We zigzag through people, both of us looking at each other from time to time and smiling. Each time she leans into me, until I finally release her hand and wrap an arm around her shoulders. She looks up at me, and I stop to kiss her lips as soon as I hear someone call my name. "Weston." I look over and see Sheila standing there holding a beer and a hot dog. She looks at me and then looks at Shelby, then her eyes go to the arm that I have around her. "Um," she says, not sure, and I look down at Shelby, who looks at me and then at Sheila.
"I'm going to go to the bathroom," Shelby says, and even though I don't want her to leave me, I know that she's giving me the chance to have a private conversation with Sheila.