Letterman Jacket

41 / one day before

"I'm tempted to drag you back here."

I grinned and held the towel closer to my chest as I walked out of the bathroom. "So why don't you?"

Nico groaned. He grabbed my pillow from the other side of the bed and shoved his face into it. "You're such a tease."

Laughing, I turned around and headed for the suitcase locked inside the wooden closet—because I was too lazy to unpack—and brought it out. "Never claimed to be anything but, baby."

He didn't answer, and my hand stopped its search for clean clothes as I looked back at him with an arched eyebrow. "What?"

"Nothing," he said, placing his hands behind his head—purposefully flexing his muscles, I was sure, since he was naked except for boxers—and his mouth curled wider into a boyish grin. "Mornings with you are nice."

"Don't propose to me yet, babe. College first."

Nico let out a laugh. "Fuck, I'm so in love with you."

At that moment, it would've been so easy to say the words back to him.

Instead, I bit my tongue, turned around, and took the towel off my body.

Nico's sharp intake of breath made my own smile grow wider, and the rustling of the covers on the bed told me he sat up straighter to enjoy the show. I bent down to step into my shorts and slowly slid them up my legs.

"You're going to make us late," he said, voice a little breathless.

"We don't want to be late," I answered with a mocking gasp as I slipped on my shirt. "We're supposed to go hiking today."

"Tease," Nico muttered again, and before I knew it, a squeal escaped my lips as he picked me up and laid me down on the bed. The mattress creaked with the sudden weight.

"Don't," I warned him with raised finger when he started to crawl over to me on all fours. "Nico, we are going to be late."

He dipped his head and lightly brushed his lips across my jaw. "Don't care."

I found that I didn't, either. I knotted my fingers around the messy strands of his hair as he kissed me slowly, leaving me dizzy and gasping for more. My toes curled when Nico pulled back and kissed down my throat, and my back arched involuntarily. My hands roamed the back of his shoulders and south to his stomach and happy trail while he peppered light kisses across my chest.

"You know you're it for me, right?" he whispered, pulling back. "Thea. Years from now...I'm going to marry you."

"No," I whined, pushing him away to cover my face. "Don't make me cry, my eyes will get all puffy."

Nico leaned forward to gently pry my hands away. "Sometimes, I still worry about this. About us."

I drew my eyebrows together. "What do you mean?"

Nico's eyes softened as he reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. "I'm terrified that you're going to slip through my fingers one day. I'm terrified of the day I'll screw up, and you're going to walk away and wonder why you ever wasted your time on me."

My heart just broke. I blinked rapidly when I felt tears forming around my eyes. "How can you say that?" I murmured, cradling his face. "That's not—that's never going to happen."

"Surreal," he said, giving me one last kiss. Nico smiled and pulled back. "Ah, I wish I could just stay here forever with you. I'm going to take a shower real quick then we can leave."

"Wait," I said quickly, catching his arm before he could move.

"Yeah?"

The words were at the tip of my tongue.