All My Heart (Count On Me Book 4) Read Free Page B

when we first started hanging out.
    Texting has always been her comfort zone and with everything she’s having to face on her own, I was more than willing to give it to her.  Even if hearing her voice is still one of my favorite things. Second only to her smile.
    There was a time not all that long ago when going home used to screw with me. It wasn’t a home then. It was a torture chamber. A place filled with so much hate and sickness that staying out all night, screwing around with Dillon and the other guys was preferable.
    It’s all different now. Isabelle and her mom made it that way. My house, the place of horrors that I used to hate, it’s not just a house anymore. It’s a home and it’s all because of her and the gift she gave me right after graduation.
     
    ~*~*~
     
    Making it through the ceremony, meeting up with Grace and being congratulated, not only for graduating but also for the scholarship I earned, I see my chance to get some time alone with Belle and taking her hand in mine, pull her away fr om the group of adults surrounding us.
    When I’ve finally gotten her outside under the tree that somehow over the last few months became ours, I can see that me pulling her away from everyone has confused her.
    As much as we enjoy our time alone together, today was the one day where neither one of us expected to have it. We knew going in that we would be surrounded by adults and accepted it, at least we did until about halfway through the ceremony when the idea came to me.
    Releasing her hand, I push her against the trunk of the tree and move in closer, stroking her face before placing my lips to hers.
    I didn’t think it was possible, but wi th Belle, the more time we spend together, the more we kiss, it always seems to get better. Each kiss, touch and embrace are all better than the one before it and this is no exception. The way her soft lips feel under my dry ones awakens so many different things in me, things I’ll never be able to adequately explain.
    It’s like when we ’re kissing this way, I know how she feels about me, how much she loves me and it makes me never want the kiss to end.
    But end it does. Pulling back, doing what I always do after we kiss, running my fingers across my lips, reveling in the sensation that remains even after we’re apart, I smile.
    “You pulled me away just to kiss me?”
    “Are you complaining?”
    She blushes and my heart soars.
    “No.”
    “Good, because that would suck.” I laugh. “There’s actually another reason I wanted to pull you away. I need to talk to you about something.”
    “Okay.”
    “I don’t leave for Toronto for a couple of months and I want to spend as much time as possible with you before I go.”
    I pause, letting her take in everything I’ve said and seeing how her eyes are brightened, the blue even lighter than they were right before I kissed her, I keep going.
    “Will you move in with me?” Realizing almost instantly how heavy that’s going to sound, I try another route. “I just thought that since I’ve got the two rooms, you could stay with me. I want you closer.”
    I’m still not sure they’re the right words, but considering she hasn’t freaked out or backed away scared, I take a deep breath and wait for her response, hoping that I’m reading her right and it’s not going to be a total rejection.
    “You want us to live together?”
    “Kinda. I want you to stay with me.”
    “Kay—”
    “Belle, I know it’s huge, but it’s not coming out the way I mean it at all. I want you to stay in my room and I’ll stay in Dean’s old room. No pressure. I’m not asking you to move in with me forever. I just want to have you as close as I can for the next few weeks.”
    “Yes.”
    “What?”
    “I said yes, Kayden.”
    I can’t believe what I’m hearing. I thought with the way she said my name before I cut her off that what I was asking was too much and here she is proving me wrong. The way she always does.
    “You’re