Page 141 of Dancing in the Rain

He brushed them away with his thumbs. “Don’t cry. Please don’t cry. It guts me.”

She gave a tiny nod and a shaky smile.

He held her face and met her eyes again. “I would have moved to New York, Peyton. I came over here that day…the day you went to New York. I was going to tell you that. I didn’t want a big battle. Like my mom told me, even though I like to win…we’dalllose.”

More tears welled up.

“If that’s what it would have taken for us all to be together, I was willing to do it. But fuck, you pissed me off with that move.”

“I’m sorry. I was pissed, too. I was…hurt. That you would try to take Chloe away from me, when I love her so much. And when…” Her voice hiccuped. “When I cared about you so much. It really, really hurt.”

“I’m sorry. I was a dick.”

She huffed out a laugh. “You kind of were. But I wasn’t so nice myself.”

“Right after that, I found out that the Blackhawks want me to work with some of their players using my goal-scoring strategy.”

Her eyes flew open wide. “No! Really?”

“Really. We’ve already started. And I have my first paying client outside the team.”

She blinked at him, then slowly smiled. “That’s fantastic, Drew. I’m so proud of you.”

“Yeah. Me, too.”

“I knew it would happen.”

Their gazes held as they shared a warm smile.

“Of course, that was the worst fucking timing,” he continued. “I was afraid you’d taken Chloe to New York and I was going to have to follow you both there, just when they’d agreed to give me a shot. I didn’t know how the hell I was going to bail on them. Christ.” He leaned his forehead against hers. “When Chloe told me you were staying here…I wanted to drop to my knees I was so goddamned relieved.”

He found her mouth with his and kissed her. Their lips clung and her breathing changed. Her arms slid around his neck and their bodies moved closer, her breasts against his chest, their thighs touching. He slid a hand up into her hair and tilted his head to deepen their kisses.

Finally they both drew back, panting a little. Her cheeks glowed and her long eyelashes fluttered.

“Should we go talk to Chloe?” he asked.

“I’m right here.”

They both jerked their heads around to see Chloe standing in the entrance to the living room. She’d obviously been crying, her nose pink and her eyes puffy. But she almost looked like she was…smiling, her eyes alight.

Drew slanted Peyton a curious glance and her eyebrows pulled down.

Well. Drew faced his daughter. “You saw us kissing?”

“Yes.”

He nodded. “Good. Because you’re going to see a lot of it.”

She rolled her eyes. “Eew.”

Peyton sucked her bottom lip in between her teeth as Drew met her dancing eyes. “Okay,” Peyton said. “We’ll try not to do it too much.”

“Did you two make up?” Chloe asked.

Drew sighed inwardly.

“You’ve both been so sad,” Chloe said, twisting one ankle around the back of the other as she stood there. “I hated it.”

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