With her fingers on my jaw, she turned my face to hers and fixed me with a loving gaze, her eyes serious.

“I don’t understand how you can see that side of it and not extend the same sympathy to yourself. I love you,” she said. “This doesn’t change that. You’re the same person you were yesterday. Or five minutes ago, for that matter.”

The more understanding she was, the worse I felt. “I hope you know I was only trying to protect you.”

Bailey nodded slowly. “I see that now, even if I don’t agree with your tactics.”

“I couldn’t live with myself if you lost out on that scholarship because you were connected to me.”

“I don’t want that scholarship if it means I can’t have you. I’ll take out student loans. I don’t care. That’s fixable. Losing you isn’t.” Her voice wavered, breaking something inside me with it.

“What about the internship? You said it was the kind of thing that could make or break the start of your career.”

“There would be others.”

“It would still be my fault if you lost this one.”

Her brows knit. “First of all, it wouldn’t be your fault. And if anyone blames you after what Kristen did, I don’t want to be associated with them.” Bailey’s bottom lip trembled, and she skimmed her fingertips along my cheek. My heart swelled at the love brimming in her eyes. “Those other things are replaceable, Chase. There’s only one you. I need you.”

“What if this blows up?” I asked. “There’s a good chance it’ll get even more ugly now. Lawsuits, criminal charges, bad publicity. You know Luke is going to come out swinging. If I get dragged through the mud, I don’t want to bring you down with me.”

Who knew what other skeletons Luke might unearth. Nothing else would be as damaging as this, but I was sure the laundry list of girls I’d slept with was a bad enough look in and of itself. I wouldn’t put it past him to hire people to straight up lie, either.

“Loyal to a fault, remember?” She kissed my cheek. “You’re not the only one who’s stubborn. If it comes down to it, I’ll jump into that mud myself.”

58. as I am

CHAPTER 58

AS I AM

Chase

The next morning, I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed to attend an early morning ice time. After crashing hard and sleeping for the first time in a week, leaving the comfort of Bailey’s body beneath warm, cozy blankets was a struggle. I’d regressed to the phase when things were new with us, and I was actively trying not to be a stage-five clinger. Except right now, I wasn’t trying to fight it. I was straight-up, unapologetically clinging. I didn’t want to let her out of my sight.