“Don’t worry. I tucked your birth control somewhere she will never look so she won’t hide it from you.” He laughs, reading my look, and I giggle, dropping my forehead to rest against his chin. His hand moves to my jaw, and his thumb skims across my lower lip as he tips my head back to meet his warm gaze. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” I whisper before he lowers his head to place his lips against mine. I accept his kiss, then smile against his mouth and giggle when I hear Leah shout a loud “I told you so!”
“Your friend is as crazy as you are,” he tells me. I look around at Leah, who’s giving me a thumbs-up from where she’s tucked against Tyler’s side.
“She’s crazier than me,” I say, and Gaston shakes his head.
“Your crazy might be silent and hers might be vocalized, but you’re both insane.”
“Whatever.” I laugh, and his eyes bore into mine before he drops his head to kiss me again, this time longer than before. When he pulls away, I’m half-drunk on his kiss.
“I hate to say this, baby, but you guys should go before traffic gets so bad you spend New Year’s Eve watching the fireworks from your car.”
“Aren’t you coming with us?” I ask, and he shakes his head, causing disappointment to fill my stomach.
“I need to stay at least a couple more hours, but I’ll be there to ring in the New Year with you.”
“You just admitted traffic is going to be crazy, so unless you plan on arriving in your spaceship, how are you going to make that happen?”
“I have my bike. It’s parked out back, so even if there’s traffic, I’ll make my way through it and be there to kiss you at midnight.”
I tip my head to the side while lifting my hands to each side of his face, and then I tell him quietly, “You know I love you. You don’t have to keep your true identity from me. I won’t tell the government about you.”
He tosses his head back to laugh; then, still laughing, he places his lips over mine. I soak up the feeling of his kiss and his happiness before he pulls away.
“It’s good to know you have my back, sweetheart.” His voice is filled with humor as he turns me into his side and leads me to our families and friends. Once he’s passed me off to my brother with instructions to get me home safe, he looks at his mom, and I do the same, noticing she looks a little pale. “Are you okay, Mom?” he asks her.
“I think I’ve drunk too much wine. I’ll be okay,” she tells him with a wave of her hand.
“Are you sure, Rita?” I take a few steps closer to her and place my hand on her arm, not liking the color of her skin or the way her eyes seem to take longer than normal to focus on me.
“I’m sure,” she says, wobbling, and my heart drops into the pit of my stomach as she suddenly reaches out for me, grabbing hold of the top of my dress and ripping it as she falls. With a startled cry, I try to catch her, but her weight is more than I can bear alone, and I hit the ground with her landing half on top of me. Commotion surrounds us as everyone jumps into action, lifting her then me off the ground. I stare horrified at Rita as she’s placed on a couch, and I hold my breath when Gaston shouts in a fear-filled voice for someone to call an ambulance as he drops to his knees and begins to check his mom.
“Are you okay?” Leah asks me worriedly, holding my arm as I grasp the top of my dress with my hands.
“I’m fine,” I tell her shakily before I rush to Gaston’s side, dropping to my knees next to him. “Is she okay?”
“I don’t know,” he says, and I lean in closer, then reach out for her hand, wrapping my fingers around her wrist to check her pulse. When I was working as a manager at the restaurant, the owner required us all to take CPR classes just in case someone ever choked. Thankfully, our instructors were thorough in everything they taught us.
“Her pulse and breathing are both normal,” I tell Gus when I feel the steady beat of his mom’s pulse against the tips of my fingers, and I watch her chest rise and fall without wavering.
“That might be, but something isn’t right,” he tells me as he lifts her head to the side and it falls right back against her shoulder without him holding it up.
“An ambulance is on the way.” I know it’s Tyler speaking. I look over my shoulder and find him holding his phone to his ear, with Leah, who looks completely freaked, tucked under his arm. “They say they’re less than five minutes away.”