Page 62 of Hard to Break

“Your coffee. My parents have a perfectly good Nespresso, but it's not the same.” It really isn't. Nothing at home compares to mornings in his kitchen.

“Snob.”

I shrug and reach for my drink, letting more truth spill out. “I miss Waffles.”

“He misses you.”

“I miss your bathtub. I had the best bubble baths in there.” The memory warms my cheeks.

“Mmm. Including the one where you took that picture and sent it to me on the road.” He shakes his head.

I laugh, remembering. “Oh my God. I forgot that.”

“It wasn't an accident,” he says with certainty.

“It was completely an accident.”

We're both grinning now.

My breath catches as he brushes a piece of hair from my face.

“Ninety-four,” he murmurs.

“Ninety-four what?”

“That's how many nights I was on the road last year. I had to spend that many nights without you. I don't want to spend any more.”

My smile fades as I search his face, my heart picking up speed.

He moves closer, and his next words make my chest tight. “I know you're used to being attacked, to people not having your back, but I've got you. The pressure on me is new, but I can take it because I've seen what you deal with. If life is hard right now, I'd still rather go through it with you.”

My throat constricts as he continues. “If people think you're making my life worse, they can fuck off. All the way off. Because they don't know me, and if they did, they'd know my life has only been better with you in it. You make me a better basketball player. A better teammate. A better man.”

The intensity in his eyes makes my heart race.

“I miss you as my friend,” he goes on. “I miss you next to me. I miss hearing you laugh. I miss you as a person, but most of all, I miss you as the person who makes me feel like I'm so damn lucky to be me.”

Everything in me aches to believe him as he whispers, “I can't promise every minute will be perfect, but it'll be more perfect because we'll have each other. We're better together, Brooke. I know you see it. I want to give us another chance, and I don't want to wait until the end of the season to do it.”

I can’t speak. His phone is peeking out of his pocket and the screen lights up, showing a photo of us from before the sorority retreat—on of the ones Nova took on the rooftop when we were pretending.

I look up at him. “You still have that as your home screen?”

His lips twitch. “It was the first time I got to look at you like you were mine.”

The last of my resistance crumbles. I rise up onto my knees and kiss him.

16

BROOKE

Miles’s hands are already on me.

The urgency in his touch sends a thrill through me. I wrap my arms around his neck, pulling him closer as our kiss deepens. I feel as if I've been waiting for this moment for years—to be in Miles's arms again, to feel his lips on mine, to know that he's here and he's not going anywhere.

The light spills in the front windows, and I tug him toward the office in the back to block us from view. We stumble our way there, our lips never breaking contact, and I can't help but feel a sense of rightness.

This is where I belong, in Miles's arms. No matter what happens with our lives, I know that I can always come back to this.

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