Page 133 of In It to Win It

“Do you?”

“I’ve been working hard. Trying to be better. I’m going to screw up sometimes and I know that’s okay.”

I touch his face. “We all screw up.”

I go onto my toes to touch my lips to his. This is met with a round of applause.

“It’s nearly midnight!” Lacey calls. “Let’s count it down!”

I set the flowers on a table and move into JP’s embrace. We watch each other as the others shout, “ . . . five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one! Happy New Year!”

“Happy New Year, Sunshine.”

“Happy New Year.”

He pulls me up against him, holding me tight, kissing me ravenously, deeply . . . melting me.

Everyone else at the party is moving around to kiss others. They ignore us, making out in the corner of the room, leaving us in our own little bubble. Eventually I pick up my champagne glass and take a sip, then hand it to him. He does the same, holding my gaze.

I look down at my dog.

“What is he wearing?” I ask again.

“I made it for him.”

I blink and roll my bottom lip between my teeth briefly. “It’s . . . amazing.”

“It was a hell of a lot of work.” He passes a hand over his forehead and back over his hair. “Why couldn’t you have a Chihuahua? I started it a while ago, but then I had to finish it before tonight. Everly came and helped me.”

“Oh.” My heart expands, so full of love for him I could burst from it. I’m full of helium, light enough to soar.

“Byron gave me a gift,” he says, as if I don’t know. “So I thought I should give him something.”

“It’s perfect.” That hockey puck has materialized in my throat again.

“I loved his present,” he tells me.

My smile is shaky. “Good.”

“And Iamgoing to miss him. A lot.”

“I know.”

I soak in the love and worship I see in JP’s eyes and let myself revel in the fact that I can be honest with him, and love and worship him right back.

This is a moment. We’ve already had challenging moments, and if I’ve learned anything from my parents and what’s happened with them, it’s not that forever love doesn’t exist . . . it’s to appreciate the good moments. To take them and cherish them and keep them . . . and they, and maybe love, will last forever.

28

JP

I’m so goddamn relieved,I’m guzzling champagne like I’m Hugh Hefner at a Playboy Mansion party. I’m happily buzzed. I refuse to let go of Taylor, and we mingle with everyone else with my arm firmly around her waist.

“When did you take up knitting?” Harrison asks me with a smirk.

I don’t even care. “A month or so ago. It’s good stress relief. You should try it.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so.”

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