Free Breathless 3 (Breathless #3) by Claire Adams

a playful
nudge. Johnny shook his head, still smiling.
    “Nope. Ever since you ran into me, right when that
happened and I saw your beautiful face, I thought to myself ‘God, I love this
girl.’” I blushed, smiling like an idiot.
    “Before you even knew my name?” I laughed, delighted
and more pleased than I could ever remember being. “What if my name was
like—Gretchen, or something?” Johnny laughed.
    “I don’t love you for your name, dummy,” he told me,
kissing my forehead. “I love you because you’re sweet and beautiful and funny
and smart.” Johnny kissed my lips once more. “I never want to be without you
again. I want to just keep making you happy, making you smile exactly like this.”
I blushed a deeper red, not quite able to meet his gaze for a moment.
    “I love you, too,” I said finally, looking up into his
bright eyes. We kissed one final time and then Johnny broke away, giving me a
nudge towards the dorms. I watched him climb up into the truck and walked
towards the entrance of the dorm building, still smiling like an idiot.

 
    Chapter
Ten
    A few days later, I was once more happy, comfortable,
and content with my life the way it stood. I was confident about Johnny and how
he felt about me, I was glad that I hadn’t broached what was probably a
needlessly painful subject just to satisfy stupid paranoia that I was feeling.
Whoever had commented anonymously on Claire White’s memorial page obviously had
a grudge against Johnny and the stupid girl from the dining hall had obviously
just wanted me out of the way so that she could go after him herself.
Everything was the way that it should be.
    I had told Georgia the next morning after my parents’
anniversary party about what Johnny had said and she had beamed. “See? I told
you you should give him the benefit of the doubt.” I
felt a little guilty over the fact that I had let her linger in the belief that
Johnny and I had talked about the situation even though we hadn’t, but I
couldn’t bring myself to correct her. But everything was all good in my life,
so it wasn’t like there was much to worry about on that score.
    Just like we had before, Johnny and I texted each
other constantly through the rest of the weekend, chatting about silly things —
stupid class assignments and group projects, things going on in the Phi Kappa
house, and upcoming games. There was an away game coming up, which made me a
little sad. After taking a few days away from him, I wanted to make up for lost
time. But I knew that I didn’t really have much grounds to complain. After all,
if Johnny wasn’t the hotshot hockey player that he had always been, he might
not have had those particular qualities that made me love him. I didn’t want to
change anything about him at all.
    I went to class and managed to focus on the things the
professors were saying; it was definitely better for everyone when Johnny and I
were together — at least from my perspective. I could daydream about him and
still manage to get my notes down, still manage to somehow absorb whatever was
going on around me. It was a really good compromise and I indulged myself as
much as I could stand, especially when it came to telling Johnny about the
little fantasies I entertained or hearing about the ones he had thought up involving
me.
    We
could go out to the woods again, make a whole night of it, Johnny suggested. Not just have s’mores,
but actually cook a meal, and then I’ve got this really comfy tent we could
sleep in…or not sleep, haha . I countered that he
would have to find a way to deal with the mosquitoes and he suggested that
keeping me in the tent through the night was good enough to prevent getting
bitten.
    Well,
we could take a trip to my parents’ house, I suggested. I mean, yeah, they won’t let us sleep in the
same room, but what’s to stop us from sneaking out to the hot tub after they’ve
gone to bed? I’ve never had sex in a hot tub before.
    Back and forth the