All Over Again

| Chapter Fifty-Two |

"Really?" Raffo scoffed, doing nothing to hide the surprising disgust on his face that made her laugh out loud. "That was your break?"

Ruth, having upheld his personal request to know everything of nothing, casually rested in the crook of his arm with a giant smile on her face. She knew her break sounded boring, with absolutely nothing to do, but where could she have gone? Oklahoma City was tainted for her, though she would never admit that to him aloud. Emily was a chill coffee shop type of girl and her cousins were the party hard type, or do nothing at all and shop type. And seeing as how Ruth wasn't the party hard girl, she stuck to doing the casual stuff they wanted to do around town. Though it must have sounded embarrassing, she spoke of her lack of break without an ounce of shame.

"Told you I was boring," she teased, tugging at a lock of his hair that fell over her face when he gazed down at her.

"Should have listened to you the first time you told me that," he teased back, curling his arm beneath her so that he could hold her to him a little better with his hand resting on her shoulder. "Looks like you just have your looks to get you through life now."

"Huh. Think those could get me far?" she asked, wrinkling her nose.

Raffo scoffed loudly and her giggle of delight coasted around her room. "You're the prettiest girl in Oklahoma, Semple. What do you think?"

"Since you put it that way," she drawled sarcastically. "What about you? What did you do?"

Ruth knew he spent most of the break with his friends, Mirana included, so she wasn't completely bothered hearing about their break together now that they were boyfriend/girlfriend once again. He told her about being at the basketball courts most of the time to try to get her out of his head, and when he realized that wasn't working because his friends sucked at basketball compared to Ruth, he hung around town. Despite kissing earlier, and hoping it would lead to more, it was nice to talk and catch up again. They weren't apart for a very long time, but it felt long enough. Long enough to miss his attention, his touch, his comfort, his words . . . him. Anything involving Raffo Leflore, she missed.

And by the way his touch lingered on her skin, or the smile curving at his lips as he watched her gaze up at him, she knew the feeling was mutual.

"I liked hanging out with Mirana . . . but she wasn't you," he murmured when her lashes had unconsciously lowered. His thumb grazing her cheekbone stole her wandering gaze back. "If I wasn't such a stubborn asshole, we could have spent another month I couldn't afford to lose together."

Ruth's stomach lurched. "Raffo—"

"I still want to try," he reassured her honestly, his eyes gentle. "I want to try that long distance bullshit and make it work."

But for how long? Where could they both live together that either would be happy? Would one have to give up the life they always dreamed of living in a preferred state?

Ruth couldn't afford to answer those questions; not yet. Not when she just got him back, and not when he gave her the option she always wanted to hear from him. They could worry about that in the future after she graduated.

Plus, she couldn't deny the way her body relaxed with his confession. "Okay."

Ruth pulled herself impossibly closer to him. He wound her up in his warm embrace and held her for as long as they both needed. His arm was surely going numb at that point, but he acted like he didn't care. Holding her mattered more than the painful tingles of poking needles possibly drifting from his fingertips to his shoulder. Not yet done with being selfish, she tilted her head back and puckered her lips expectantly, earning the deepest chuckle out of it. He wasted no time in trailing his fingers up the curve of her back and moved his head down towards her until their lips met.