Page 176 of The Puck Stops Here

She blew a kiss down the phone and hung up, pushed up off the bed and combed her fingers through her mop of hair. It was time she tried to get back to business as usual, to shake off the PMDD, Blake,this, and get with the real world again.

She pulled open the door to find no one there. Frowning up and down the empty hallway, she was about to close it again when she saw the bow-adorned box on the ground.Huh. It wasn’t just any box either, it was an Xbox box…

What on earth?

She crouched down to lift it up, plucking the note off the top.

I hope this helps x

‘I owe you a date and a rematch.’

Her heart leaped into her throat as Blake appeared from around the corner, a game in one hand, a shopping bag in the other, and she blinked, blinked again. Was this real?That face, those eyes…

‘I have ice cream, chocolates, sweets, wine… I tried to think of everything you might need for Mr PMDD, but if I’ve forgotten anything, you only have to say the word and I’ll get it.’

Theword?She felt incapable of saying anything. Everything within her had turned to mush. Save for her heart, that was galloping at a million miles an hour and taking great leaps as he started to walk towards her.

‘I also owe you an apology.’

‘An a-apology?’ she stuttered out, tightening her grip on the box when it threatened to slip from her grasp.

His nod was slow, deliberate. ‘You poured your heart out to me, and I refused to listen.’

‘I… I did.’

It was a statement, not a question, and as he paused before her, she felt her heart swell with the same three words:I love you.

‘Can I come in?’

* * *

He feared for a moment she’d say no and tell him to go to hell. It was what he deserved for what he’d done.

And seeing her in her oversized sweats, looking so goddamn cute and vulnerable… all he wanted to do was wrap her up in his arms. Apologise until she forgave him. Start over with his own heart laid bare. But first…

She backed away from the door, her action telling him he was welcome, even if she wasn’t saying it.

He walked inside and she closed the door, her eyes on the games console as she slid it onto the side table.

‘I took a guess at Xbox, but if a PlayStation is more your vibe, I can get one here stat.’

Her mouth quivered into an almost smile, her voice quiet with disbelief. ‘You remembered…?’

‘I remember everything, Astrid. Every second, every word, every feeling.’

Everything they’d done in this hallway too when he’d been none the wiser and…

Her eyes glistened up at him, silencing his head with her pain and her sadness and fuck, he’d done that to her. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘I still don’t understand why you’re sorry.’

‘I didn’t believe you. You said it, but I didn’t believe you.’ He tightened his grip around the items in his hands. ‘I didn’t dare let myself believe you.’

‘I don’t blame you after everything I did.’

‘That’s just it, it wasn’t about your pact with your friends, I could blame it, but it wasn’t. It was about me. I never thought someone could love me in that way. I never thought I was worthy of it. But from the very first day I met you, you tried to convince me otherwise. Youhadconvinced me otherwise. I started to believe… and then when you told me the truth, it gave me an out. A reason to go back to being the man I was. Untouchable. Safe. Because believing the worst about myself, about you, meant I could avoid accepting the cold hard truth.’

‘What truth?’

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