Page 64 of Elevate With Me

Like a broken radio

WITH EVERY PASSINGday?, I was falling deeper in love with Haylee. It was impossible to forget how little time we had together when the weekend came, and my grandmother reminded me of it during our video call.

We were makingbracioleand rice, and Haylee was rather happily pounding on the sirloin slices to make them equally thick before I filled them up with a breadcrumb mix and rolled them up. That was whenNonniquite accidentally dropped the news I should’ve had the guts to relay weeks ago.

“Fagiolo, this time next week we cook together here,” she said with a bright smile on her face while wrapping her own breadcrumb mix into sirloin pieces.

My stomach hollowed out. It couldn’t have been this soon. Where had the time gone?

Haylee’s mallet stopped mid-strike, and she turned to look at me.

“What did she say?” she asked tentatively.

My face gave it away. I gripped at the meatroll in front of me hard enough to squish it in half as Haylee’s expression began to match mine.

“Luca is coming home next week,”Nonnasaid cheerily, not paying attention to the screen and the way I shared a pained look with Haylee.

Her eyes glittered, but she set her jaw and swallowed hard. “When were you going to tell me?”

“Red Cheeks—”

Haylee shook her head. She placed the meat mallet carefully on the counter top and stepped away from it. “Luca, when?”

She’d taken to calling me that when we were with my family or after a heated kissing session. It would come out breathless then and drive me absolutely insane. Now though? It sounded chipped, harsh. I deserved it.

I dragged my fingers through my hair. “I thought there was more time.”

“This is not—I can’t—Please?”

My family was now most certainly focussed on their screen, but all I cared about was the desperation on Haylee’s face and what I could do to make it go away. My own emotions were tumbling towards heartbreak real fast, and I had to stop that line of thought while I still could.

I took a step toward Haylee, and she stumbled backward as if my proximity would make whatever she felt worse. Much worse. I would make it better. I would show her I could make it better.

“Haylee, I love you.”

She stopped in her retreat, staring at me, dumbfounded. Then she shook her head again.

“No,” she whispered.

“Yes, I do.”

“You can’t just say it like that.”

“Yes, I can, because it’s true.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks, but she didn’t step away from me when I breached the space between us and pulled her into my arms.

“I’ve wanted to tell you I’m in love with you for a while now,” I murmured against her curls as she buried her face in my shoulder. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”