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The many ways it’s already changed are stacking up quickly. And truth be told, I don’t want to hold him back from experiencing it all. I still have two years left of college, so it’s obvious that I can’t just follow him around the country like I wish I could. Like he deserves.
The thought puts an ache in my chest the way it always does, mirroring the one that’s been there all year when I think about how much I miss him.
Texting, and talking on the phone, and FaceTiming, and gaming late into the night together have not been enough, no matter how intimate our calls can sometimes be.
“I made it! I’m here!” Jude says, tearing me from my many thoughts, and my heart soars. “We’ve got two days, baby.”
We weren’t sure we would be able to make it happen. Not with everything going on. But he did it; he made it happen like he promised he would. As impossible, as improbable, as it seemed.
My heart swells like a balloon and floats right up out of my chest.
I get him for two days. Just him and me.
Addy has been here for most of the summer, but she’s in Texas now, visiting Boss while he’s training, and that’s where she’ll be for the duration of Jude’s visit.
So, again, it’s just Jude and me. For the next two days.
We have two days.
Two. Days.
I already know we’re going to make the best of it.
______
Jude arrives at my dorm an hour later, his arms full of takeout.
I throw myself against him, wrapping my arms around him, bags of foodthumpingandclunkingto the floor, before the two most comforting arms in existence wrap around me, firm palms pressed into my sides and pressing me into Jude’s solid body, his sturdy hold hugging me tightly against him.
Home,my heart screams in contentment.Home, home, home, home, home, home.
He dips his head down and settles his face into my neck as he sighs against me, the gritty sound humming against my skin. My breaths match his own, rising and falling in my chest with an ease I haven’t felt since last summer. Like my lungs have waited for this very moment to expel a full breath.
“Damn, Little D,” he murmurs. “It’s really good to see you.”
Our bodies are flush together, our arms are holding each other as close as we possibly can, our breaths have synced until they’re coming and going as one, and yet still, it doesn’t feel like enough.
He’s here,right here,and my heart still calls out for him.
I squeeze him even tighter, and he bends at his knees, his hands slipping down to the backs of my legs as he draws me up from the floor and wraps me around him.
That’s better,I think, butno,it’s still not enough.
I could bury myself inside him, embed myself in his bones, and it still wouldn’t be enough.
Tears burn behind my eyelids, and within a few seconds, they’re rushing free. I hide them, and myself, by burying my face into his chest, into his dark hoodie that smells just like him, melting against the heartbeat that pounds against my cheek.
“It’s really good to see you, too,” I say, but the words are muffled by emotion and tears and the comfort of Jude’s sweatshirt.
He buries two hands in my hair and eases me out of my hiding place, pinning my gaze with his. “Whoa, baby. What’s all this about?”
I fall deeper into his stare, where it feels warm and safe and achingly comfortable. Where that same word keeps whispering through my mind—home, home, home.
“I missed you,” I hiccup, tears leaking from my eyes uncontrollably.
He wipes them away with the pads of his thumbs. “That goes without saying. But I’ll say it anyhow—I missed the fuck out of you, too.” He plants kisses down the side of my face, and they bloom beneath my ribcage. “Let’s get comfortable, catch up a bit, and eat while the food is hot, yeah?”
“Okay.” I sniffle.