Page 91 of Your Secret to Keep

“There she is. Miss Lia Stone, employee of the Jersey Jaguars,” I call, and Lia’s face brightens the second she hears me.

She pokes me back. “There he is, Brooks Pittman, man of my dreams and meeting interrupter.”

I laugh, thinking about my completely unnecessary and impulsive barge in. My coach heard about it and couldn’t stop giving me shit at the end of practice.

“I had a nice meeting with HR today, after you met with them.” I kneel by the edge of the hot tub, the steam meeting my face.

Lia stands, braving the icy air against her warm skin to kiss me. She almost loops her arms around me but stops herself. “I don’t want to get you wet,” she pouts.

I shrug my shoulders and step into the hot tub, clothes and all. The water is perfectly warm as the snow still falls gently around us.

“What are you doing?” She laughs through her question.

My nose is almost touching hers. “Kissing my very HR official girlfriend the way she should be kissed.” All I feel is her—her lips, her chest against mine, not holding back.

“Thank you. For today. For this. For believing in me the way you do,” Lia says, her green eyes damn near glowing in the winter night.

I squeeze her and sway us side to side before placing a kiss on her cheek. “You’d do it for me. And then some.”

We stay this way for a moment before I can’t hold back. “Want to know a secret?” I ask.

“Always,” she replies, a shared breath floating between us.

“You are proof that some secrets are worth keeping.”

And before I can say another word, her lips find mine, like they always were meant to. I melt into the kiss, the warmth of the water and her touchmaking everything else fade away. For the first time in a long time, it feels like forever is right here—something I can reach out and grab.

And nevereverlet go.

Epilogue

Brooks

ElevenMonthsLater

“This campus is gorgeous,” Lia admires while we walk hand in hand.

It’s November in Michigan, so naturally, it’s freezing. The courtyard is covered in snow but that doesn’t mean there aren’t enthusiastic college kids with their bodies painted, running to get to the first home basketball game of the season.

“Are you nervous?” I ask, looking over at Lia.

She turns, smiling at me with full brightness—my favorite kind. “Yes, I could throw up, but I won’t. I just want Wes to play like I know he can. I love that we can be here for his first college home game.”

I pull her gloved hand into mine, putting a kiss to the outside. “He’s going to be great. Don’t even sweat it,” I reassure her.

After I watched Wes play for the first time, I knew he was something special. I called my old college coach about a kid in Jersey that was worth seeing, and he couldn’t come to scout him fast enough. He had an offer for Wes a few weeks later, but it wasn’t for The University of Alabama. It was for his new school: Great Lakes University. Typically known for hockey, the basketball program was making some moves and found themselves a hell of a coach to build a legacy.

Tonight, we get to cheer Wes on as he takes the court, starting as a highly touted freshman. I can’t fucking wait.

Lia shakes her free hand, the way she does when they’re sore.

“How are the wrists?” I ask gently.

She looks at me with a hesitant smile. “I’m sore. Maybe from the cold? Or the travel? But I feel like the injections are helping.”

It’s been a long road over this last year with figuring out what was going on with Lia. We saw a few different specialists, did more tests than I thought were possible, and it seems like we’ve finally got enough information to try and help her. She was formally diagnosed with severe plaque psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis—both autoimmune conditions that have been wreaking havoc on her body for much longer than she probably noticed.

Everything is a delicate balance. She has days where she seems completely fine, followed by a string of days where she can barely hold herself up because of the pain. The thing we’ve both been trying to get better at is resting. Lia is learning how important it is to regularly take naps during her flares, and I do my best to make it feel like she isn’t missing out on anything.

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