Page 83 of Confessions of a Former Puck Bunny

Megan sighed. “Clearly our boyfriends need to be women’s-libbed.”

Dane nudged her with his elbow and shot her an over-the-top grin. “If that’s what we did last night, I’m in.”

Beck growled, and Dane held up his hands. “Sorry. In my defense, I kind of forgot you were here for a second.”

Beck shook his head and Lyla stepped in front of him and distracted him with a kiss. Whitney and Hudson were seated on the cooler, grinning and making eyes at each other, and Dane was buttering up Megan with how she was an amazing cook and he just wanted to do the grilling today so she could relax and enjoy herself.

My smile stretched wide enough to make my cheeks hurt, but I couldn’t stop. I snuggled closer to Ryder and ran my finger across the stubble forming along his jaw. “Have I mentioned how happy I am that you kept pursuing me even when I gave you plenty of reasons not to?”

“Once or twice. I won’t stop you from saying it again, though.” He twisted his head and kissed the center of my palm. “Have I mentioned that you look super sexy today? Those shorts are dangerous.” He smoothed his hands across my bare thighs.

“I wore them just for you. And because it was hot. But mostly for you.” My lips found their way to his, the way they instinctually did, and I gave a happy sigh. I couldn’t help it. Lately my life felt like the swoony ending of not just a novel, but a romance novel.

I glanced around the yard at our friends again. We were a mishmash group full of unlikely combinations who’d become family along the way. More of a functional family than most of us had been born into, and I couldn’t imagine leaving our family. The thought of it was the only thing that occasionally dampened my mood. Leaving for New Jersey without Ryder was the only thought worse, but I’d spent countless sleepless hours worrying he was doing something for me that would end up being bad for him. I hadn’t asked him to, but he’d chosen me, and because of that, I was choosing him.

With everyone distracted and the food not quite ready—or perhaps burning if Megan was right—I decided now was as good a time as any to talk about our future. “I need to talk to you,” I whispered, and Ryder sat up, immediately alert.

“Is everything okay?”

“I think so? I hope so?” I didn’t expect the nerves tangling themselves in knots in my gut. “I did something…”

“Okay, now I’m worried,” Ryder said.

“It’s just that I know you don’t want to go to New Jersey—you belong here with your team.”

He took my hand. “We talked about this. I’ve been told the odds are very high that I’ll get to play for Princeton. All the paperwork just has to go through and be approved, and even if it doesn’t work out—”

“But you might sit the bench there just because you haven’t already played for them, and that’s bullshit. You’re too good for that. And then it’ll be that much harder to get drafted.”

“I’ve got my backup option in place, remember? Princeton has a great teaching program.”

“Babe.” I locked eyes with him. “I love how willing you are to make it work, but look around.” I swung my arm for emphasis. “Look at your teammates and what you have here. This is where you belong.”

“I belong with you,” he said, tightening his grip on my hand.

“And I belong here, too. With our friends—our family, really—with you.” I gave him a quick kiss, pouring as much assurance as I could into it. “I applied for another internship. With a publisher.”

“And? That means New York, right? So we can still make Princeton work. I say go for it. It’s what you want to do, and I want you to be happy. I know you have issues about me supporting us, even for a little while, and I know you get all testy when I offer to help with money, but whatever you need, we’ll make it happen.”

“I want to get upset about your use of testy—”

“Okay, you get all fun-adverse. Is that better?”

I shot him a dirty look and he tried to combat it with his best puppy dog impression—which was way more effective than I wanted it to be.

“I’m just excited,” he said. “This is huge. When will you know if you get it?”

“They offered it to me today. But”—I placed my hand over his mouth because he had a tendency to kiss me before I could get out my buts, and while I was a fan of the method and the kissing, I needed to get this out before the news exploded out of me—“I can work from home. It’s all virtual. I’ll have to get a side job since it’s an unpaid internship, but there’s opportunity to move up.”

“All virtual…” Ryder’s eyebrows drew low over his eyes.

“It means I work from my computer, send a crap-ton of emails, and occasionally travel to New York for meetings. Most importantly, it means we can stay in Boston. You, me, the rest of our crazy crew.” I made a wide sweep, as if otherwise he wouldn’t know who I was talking about, even though I’d gestured to them a minute or so ago. “What do you think?”

He glanced around and then his gaze slowly moved back to me. “You’re serious? This isn’t a test to see how badly I want to stay?”

“Not a test. I wouldn’t do that to you, even though you make me study old math tests, which is cruel and unusual punishment to say the least.” The joke fell flat, or maybe he was too distracted to find it funny. “We can stay. Is it too late to undo the paperwork? Did your coach already give away your spot?”

Vaguely I noticed that everyone else was moving around and talking, and I heard Megan say, “Come get your instinctually burnt meat,” which made it hard not to laugh. But I kept my attention on Ryder, waiting for a reaction.

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