Page 7 of Almost Beautiful (Beautiful 3)

“Just say it, Pidge. I need to hear you say it. I just … need to know the truth,” he said, defeated.

I cupped his jaw in my hands and skimmed his ear with my lips. “When I thought you were trapped in that fire, I knew. I knew I would never love anyone else, that you were it for me. That I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, and I thought it was too late. I am your beloved,” I whispered. My eyebrows pulled in. “And you’re mine. Getting married … I don’t know, it feels real. Unbreakable. Being your wife is what I want. It’s all I want.”

He turned, touching my cheek with his fingertips, and watched my eyes for the tiniest hint that I wasn’t being completely honest.

I offered a small smile, keeping my worries hidden deep inside. The words passing my lips were the truth, but I felt the need to protect them as if they were lies.

Travis didn’t need to know that I wanted to save him. He only needed to know why.

He nodded, exhaling as his muscles relaxed. “Have you ever wanted something so much, something so out of reach, that once it happened you were almost too afraid to believe it?”

“Yes,” I whispered, kissing his lips. “We are one, now.Nothingwill ever change that.”

“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “A twenty-year prison sentence could change that.”

“How can you think you have no control over what happens to us? You made me fall so hard that I proposed to you at nineteen.”

He laughed once.

I raised an eyebrow. “Have you stopped to think that I asked you to marry me because I’m the one afraid of losing you?”

That surprised him, and then he seemed exasperated. “Where am I gonna go?” he asked, pulling me onto his lap. “You’re my anchor. There’s not a thing out there I would want if it took me away from you.”

The corners of Travis’s mouth curled up, but only for a second. “I’m being investigated by the FBI, Pidge. What if I get arrested? What if I’m gone for a long time?”

I shook my head. “Won’t happen. You weren’t there. We were in Vegas getting married.” I held up my hand, wiggling my fingers so the light reflected off the facets of my diamond.

His expression made my eyes gloss over, and I threw my arms around him, holding him tight, digging my chin in the crook of his neck. I didn’t have to hide that I was afraid. “I won't let them take you from me.”

“Someone’s gotta pay for what happened.”

My eyes danced around our apartment, at the tiny candles I’d bought from the Eakins Strip Mall, and the ash tray Travis kept by the door to grab before he went outside to smoke. I thought about his favorite spatula next to my favorite serving spoon in the kitchen drawer, his shot glasses next to my coffee mugs, his smelly gym socks mixed with my Victoria’s Secret lace.

I thought about Eastern State’s campus and feeling giddy when Travis somehow found me in a sea of students, and the time half the cafeteria broke out into song just because he wanted to help take the attention off me.

I had moved from Kansas to Illinois to escape my past and landed face-first into the last person I’d wanted to get mixed up with—who happened to be the one person who would love me more intensely and unconditionally than anyone ever had.

Travis Maddox made me smile, made me look forward to every day. There was no Abby without Travis.

“Not you,” I said. “You didn't choose the building. You didn’t hang the lanterns. The fire was an accident, Trav. An awful, terrible accident, but if it’s anyone’s fault, it’s not yours.”

“One of these days I’m going to have to come clean, Pidge. How do I explain this to Dad? How do I tell my brothers that I had a part in it? Some of our fraternity brothers are gone forever. Fuck,” he said, running his hand over his short hair. “Trenton almost died in that fire.”

“But he didn’t. Travis?” I shook my head. “You can’t tell them. You can’t tell anyone. Because if you do and they don’t turn you in, they’ll be in trouble, too.”

He thought about that for a moment, and then nodded. “But ... what if they arrest Adam?”

I looked down. “He’s already been arrested.”

“What? Where did you hear that?”

“On the news, while we were in Vegas.”

“And you didn’t tell me? Pidge!”

“I know! I know. But I didn’t want to ruin anything. What could we have done about it? What would it have changed had I told you?”

“If I’d known I was going to jail—”