Page 3 of Reckless With You

Why my mother would even think to give me tuna fish, I didn’t know. But Tobey had loved it, and we had shared.

After that, we shared lunches until college. I always got one thing, he got another, and we split them.

I never wanted for anything. Never had to wonder what the other side was like because Tobey was there, and I knew he would always share with me.

If I needed help at work, he was there. If I needed help with my math or science homework when we were younger, he was there. I’d helped him with his English and history. And we just learned together.

We were never the type of friends that did things for each other in terms of me doing his homework for him.

Mostly because we wanted to be able to do it ourselves, but it was still nice to know that we always had someone to rely on.

And considering that I had three big brothers who I could also rely on, I knew I was pretty lucky.

No, my parents hadn’t been the best, what with all the drinking, cheating, fighting, and yelling.

But it hadn’t mattered. Not really.

Because I had my brothers—all three of them in their big, bearded ways. And I had Tobey.

He was sweet, caring, and sometimes a little aloof. Occasionally, he got distracted by things and forgot important details, but he always came through in the end.

I loved him.

We were always thewill they, won’t theycouple.

I had dated others in high school and college, of course. And he had dated, as well.

It’d always given me a little clutch of jealousy when he did, but in the end, I realized that it didn’t really matter. We could go through life and find our own paths, but in the end, I knew we would end up together.

Because that was fate.

Apparently, Ididbelieve in fate. Who knew?

My brothers thought Tobey and I were already dating. After all, we were constantly together. Always touching each other, holding one another, and sometimes even kissing. But only in that quick way, a peck on the cheek, the forehead. Maybe a brush on the lips. As if we had always been together.

Sometimes, we acted like we were an old married couple, and that was fine by me. Because I loved him. But I was also kind of through waiting. Waiting for him to make a move, to tell me that we were ready to take that next step. He’d told me that he loved me. Like I’d said it to him.

Sometimes, a small part of me worried that that love was just friendship—not that there was anythingjustabout friendship.

What we had couldn’t be altered, not in any irrevocable way. But it could be built upon. And I knew we were ready.

So this wasn’t going to be one of those mistakes of my past. It couldn’t be. Not when it came to Tobey and me.

But waiting for Tobey to do anything was sort of a lose-lose situation. Because the man worked on his own timetable. He had spent an extra year in college, mostly because it had taken him a while to figure out his major. And then it’d taken him another six months to really figure out what job he wanted once we graduated.

Tobey took forever for most things. I even usually picked out our meals, and he just agreed with it, because if not, it would take forever to decide what we were going to eat. If we wanted to go out for a movie, he usually said, “you pick, Amelia.”

Yes, Tobey was a little slow off the start. But that was fine.

I had plenty of decisions inside for both of us. And I was quick at making them.

Maybe that’s why I made so many mistakes in the past. But it was fine, because Tobey would be there for me, even if I made more.

Tonight was the night. I was finally going to tell him that I truly loved him. Convince him that we were meant to be together. I was finally ready to do this thing. Waiting for Tobey to actually start this thing between us and take it to the next level? Yeah, no. I wasn’t really keen on waiting any longer.

As it was, everyone already considered us a couple. Part of me did, as well. Not the parts that actually had sex, but every other part of me.

We had dinner together most nights, we talked to each other or texted with each other every day.