Page 54 of Don’t Say You’re Sorry (Hawthorne University #2)

EASTON

“ H ow long until we have to be back at the airport?” I ask, dragging Adam up Belvedere Road by his hand.

He checks his watch, quickening his pace to keep up with me. “About an hour and a half.”

“Perfect,” I say, looking up at the London Eye in the near distance.

I’ve only ever seen it in pictures and Adam’s drawings. It’s massive up close.

This is only my second time in London, but unfortunately it’s going to be a short trip.

We don’t have enough time for Adam to show me around the city, so we’re only making one stop.

We landed at the airport a little over an hour ago, and I have to be back in Hawthorne by tonight for a game.

Coach and the guys will kick my ass if I miss it.

I’m already cutting it close as it is, but as the end of the season gets closer, I’m going to be even more busy, and I didn’t want to wait any longer to do this with Adam.

As we pass a popular steakhouse on our left, Adam tells me that’s where Axel used to work. I slow to peek through the windows, impressed.

Just as we start to speed up again, someone calls, “Adam,” and I look over my shoulder to find a tall, blond-haired, boy-next-door-looking waiter jogging out of the restaurant. “I thought that was you.” He hugs my guy, and I grit my teeth, tightening my grip on Adam’s hand.

“Who the fuck are you?”

Adam gives me a look, but I don’t take my eyes off the prick with a death wish who still hasn’t removed his arm from around Adam’s shoulders.

“Oh, hey. You must be the stepbrother.” He laughs, releasing Adam and holding his hand out to me. “Easton, isn’t it? I’m Anthony, Axel’s best friend.”

I glare at his hand before turning to Adam. “How does he know who I am?”

“Axel got hammered one night and told him all about you,” Adam explains. “I wasn’t there to stop him.”

“Speaking of your asshole brother,” Anthony says, not the least bit embarrassed as he drops the hand I didn’t shake. “How is he? He hasn’t called me back in a couple of weeks.”

A knowing smirk touches my lips. “Can’t imagine why,” I mutter.

“He’s…fine, I guess,” Adam says. “I’ll tell him to call you when I get home.”

“How long are you staying in London? I get off at ten tonight. We should go out?—”

“No.”

Adam laughs at me under his breath. “We’re leaving in a couple hours,” he says to Anthony. “Maybe next time.”

“Okay. Good to see you.” He moves as if he’s about to come near Adam again, but wisely decides against it. Instead, he looks down at our joined hands and winks at Adam. “Nice meeting you, Easton,” he calls over his shoulder, giving me a little finger wave.

I wait until he’s back inside the restaurant before I say, “You know he’s in love with your brother, right?”

Adam scrunches his nose. “No way. Why would you think that?”

I shrug. “I sense these things.”

“Based on a sixty-second conversation?” He shakes his head in disbelief. “You’re good, but you’re not that good.”

We’ll see.

We get to the London Eye with a couple minutes to spare and skip the line. I booked us a private pod, so after presenting our ticket at the booth, we get right on.

As we slowly start to ascend, Adam and I move over to the windows overlooking the city. It’s even more beautiful than I thought it would be.

When we’re almost to the top, I slide my fingers through his and say the same thing I say to him every day. “Tell me something you like about yourself.”

“My art,” he says without thinking about it.

He’s getting better at this, and I couldn’t be prouder.

“I like that I can see something in my head and transfer it to the page with a few strokes of a pen. I like that I get to share those glimpses of my mind with you.” He stares at a point in the distance, and I wonder if he can see his old apartment building from up here.

“When I lived here, my art is what kept me going. I missed you so much. It was as if a vital piece of me was missing. I didn’t really have any friends I could talk to—not about the important stuff.

All I had were Axel and art, and when talking to Axel wasn’t enough, I used art to deal with the pain of losing you.

That’s when I started mailing you the drawings,” he confesses.

“I thought you might be able to use them to get through it as well.”

Pulling him in front of me, I wrap my arms around him from behind and rest my chin on his shoulder.

It’s a cold day, but the sun is bright in the midday sky, warming my face.

“Here,” he says, pulling something out of the inner pocket of his leather jacket.

Eager, I move to grab the envelope, frowning when he holds it away from me. “Before you get your hopes up, it’s not the one of you kissing me for the first time again. I skipped a few chapters.”

I pretend to look disappointed as I take the envelope from between his fingers. Keeping my arms around his shoulders, I carefully take the art print out. It’s face down, so the first thing I see are the words written on the back of it.

I swallow, my muscles coiling.

“I want those words to have a new meaning,” he says quietly, leaning back on my chest. “I want you to think of this moment every time you read them.”

I read them again, already feeling better about them.

“Turn it over,” he says, so I do.

In the drawing, he and I are on the London Eye.

The view from the inside of the pod is exactly the same as the one in front of us.

He drew this very moment as if he could see it in his mind, only he got one thing wrong.

I’m standing exactly where I am now, holding his drawing in my hand, but he’s down on one knee in front of me, and there’s a gold ring between his thumb and forefinger.

I’m frozen to the spot as he turns in my arms and lowers himself to his knee.

He doesn’t look nervous at all, whereas my heart feels like it’s about to explode out of my chest, right into his waiting hands.

“Easton,” he says, amused. “Breathe.”

I pull in a lungful of air and almost choke on it.

I don’t take my eyes off his hand as he pulls a gold ring out of his pocket, holding it up to me.

For the second time in just a few weeks, he says five words I never thought I’d hear coming out of his mouth.

“Will you marry me, sunshine?”

It takes everything in me to wait for him to finish before I rush out, “Yes.”

His grin makes my heart pump even faster as I drop to my knees with him. I wrap my arms around him and kiss him.

“You fucker,” I breathe against his mouth.

“Told you I’d surprise you someday,” he teases, pulling back to show me the engraving on the inside of the ring.

Sunshine.

“You got me,” I agree as he slides the ring on my finger. “But I already knew we’d be walking out of here engaged.”

He pulls his head back in outrage. “What? No, you didn’t. I was so careful. I didn’t tell anyone because I thought you might be able to see it on their faces.”

I laugh at his annoyance and reach into the pocket of my jeans, pulling out the gold ring I bought for him right after we booked this trip.

His eyes widen, his mouth parting in shock as he looks down at it.

The word Sunshine is engraved on the inside of his too. Even though it’s my nickname, I love knowing that he’ll be wearing it not just on his chest, but on the ring that will make him mine forever.

Taking his left hand, I slide the ring onto his finger.

“Adam,” I say, looking at him from beneath my lashes. “Breathe.”

He chokes out a laugh and kisses me again, his hands tugging my hair as he climbs onto my lap and straddles me.

“I don’t believe this,” he whispers. “I love you so fucking much.”

“I love you too, baby.”

“I can’t wait to marry you. Can we do it this summer? I want to go to Jamaica.”

I thought he might say that. Jamaica is where we vacationed for the first time as a family not long after our parents got married.

Adam told me it was the best vacation of his life.

Not just because the resort was awesome, which it was, but because I was right there with him.

He found a best friend in me, and ten years later, I unexpectedly found the love of my life in him.

And I’ve never once regretted it. Despite everything it took to get us here, I’ll never be sorry for loving him.

“Anything you want.” I nip his bottom lip.

I slide my hand up his back beneath his clothes, once again glancing down at the words he wrote on the back of the drawing he gave me.

Sunshine,

I’m not sorry.

Love, Adam x

The End