Clay ran the shower warm before helping me step inside, and he came in right behind me, closing the curtain and enveloping us in a warm, dark enclave.

His arms wrapped me up as the water washed down my back, and I sighed at the contentment that spread over me, the pure ecstasy of that moment.

Clay held me like that for a long while before he pulled back, swallowing as his eyes flicked back and forth between mine. He grabbed my face in his hands, thumbs against my jaw forcing me to look at him as he said, “Thank you for trusting me with that, for letting me be your first.”

I bit against my smile, shaking my head. “You really are like a book boyfriend, you know?”

At that, he chuckled, tucking me into his chest again before pressing a kiss against my wet hair. “I’ll be even better,” he said. “Just wait and see.”

And I had absolutely zero doubts that was a promise he wouldn’t break.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Clay

I’d never felt so whole.

Not with a football in my hands, not with my mom’s arm around me in pride on my graduation day, not in any of the moments I’d ever shared with Maliyah.

Nothing had ever filled me up, all the way to the brim, the way waking up next to Giana did.

Her dark curls were an absolute mess, frizzy and sticking this way and that, the golden highlights in the midst of brown like a chaotic halo around her head on the pillow. Her mouth was open, shallow snores slipping through her pink lips as a little drool slid through the corner.

I smiled, letting my eyes trace over the beams of light streaking in through her blinds and casting her in a golden glow. And suddenly, I realized how very differently last night could have gone, how differently this morning would be had I made a different decision — had I not said fuck it and gone after the girl.

My chest ached.

One choice. One moment where I’d decided I couldn’t stay silent anymore, no matter what kind of pain it would bring to her or to me for me to speak the truth. It was nearly a week I let my pride sit on top of me, holding me down with its weight and the stinging reminder that her date with Shawn was what she wanted, what I’d promised to get her.

But when Coach let us go last night and told us to get some rest for the game today, I knew rest would be the last thing I’d find until I told her how I felt.