Follow You (Second Chances Series Book 3)

Some day soon...

"Abby wait."

I follow her out of our room but she just keeps walking. I catch up to her at the front door. When she goes to pull it open I reach past her and slowly close it. She doesn't turn around.

"Abby, look at me please."

She rests her head against the door and shakes it side to side.

"No. Because if I look at you then you're going to say something about the fact that I said I love you and I can't deal with your response, one way or the other, right now. I didn't mean to say it right then but I won't take it back and I won't pretend I didn't mean it because I did. But I also haven't come to turns with what that means or how I feel about it yet so, please Andrew, just give me time to sort it all out in my head before you give any kind of response." She takes a deep breath. "Okay?"

I turn her so she has to look at me.

"Okay."

I'm not happy about it. I want to talk about now but I won't push her. She looks suprised.

"Really?"

I pull her against me and take her face in my hands.

"Really. But not because I don't want to talk about it or because I don't know how I feel about it. I'm not pushing the issue because you asked me to give you time so that's what I'm going to do."

She closes her eyes and let's out a breath.

"Thank you."

I kiss her gently on the lips and then we head over to the party.

Everyone claps and cheers when we walk in the backyard. It's all of our friends from here in Cincinnati and a couple of Abbys friends from Chicago. My dad and his wife are here along with Maggie. I still haven't really had much contact with my mom beyond phone calls so she isn't here but Noah's parents are, so I'm happy about that. We say hello to everyone and then I head over to the outdoor bar. I take a sip of my whisky just as Noah stands next to me.

"You okay there, brother? You look a little shook up."

I answer him without turning to look at him.

"Abby told me she loves me."

"That's great!" He pauses a minute. "Right?"

I finally turn to look at him.

"It would be if you wouldn't of interrupted us before I could say something in return and then she went and hid in the bathroom and got herself all worked up about it. And now she won't talk about it and she won't let me talk about it until she has time to think and process how she feels about being in love me. So yeah, sure, it's great."

I raise my glass in mock solute before I down the the rest of it.

"Wow. Okay, sorry about interrupting but I'm sure she will calm down by the time you guys get home and then you can talk about it. You love her too, right."

I give him a look but before I can answer Kate walks over with Abby.

"We're getting in the pool. You guys should join us."

She goes to Noah's side and he wraps his arm around her.

"You all wet in a bikini? I'm in."

He kisses her before looking at me.

"Yeah, sure."

Abby has her bag and reaches in to grab my towel.

"I'm going inside to put on my bathing suiting. I'll be right back."