Page 93 of Absolutely Not in Love
“Stop it,” she whispers. “Your letter was perfect. There’s no reason to say more than that.”
“Even better than Darcy?”
She smiles. “You saw the poster. I’ll take Felix Jamison over Fitzwilliam Darcy any day of the week.”
I kiss her again, losing myself in the taste of her, the feel of her mouth, the way her body yields to my touch and so easily molds against mine, until a few of my teammates start catcalling from across the room.
Gracie pulls away, her cheeks flushing pink as she tucks herself into my side and turns to face them.
“I’m hurt, Gracie,” Eli calls, his smile wide and his tone teasing. “You told me hockey players were off-limits.”
She shrugs. “They were. But…well, watch this.” She looks up at me. “Hey, Felix, can you name three classical compositions for cello? And make them each from a different century.”
My amusement over whatever Gracie is trying to prove is quickly eclipsed by my need to actually answer the question. Fortunately, it isn’t ahardquestion, so it doesn’t take long. “Bach’s Cello Suites, which…that feels like too easy of an answer, but it’s solidly eighteenth-century, so let’s start there. Then any of Brahms’s cello sonatas—those were all nineteenth-century. And…twentieth-century could be Prokofiev’sCello Sonata in C Major?”
Gracie smiles and pats my chest. “Excellent work.” She looks back at Eli and smiles sweetly. “Do you want to try the same question?”
Eli laughs and shakes his head. “Man, you let your nerd flag fly that high and it actually made her like youmore?” Despite his joking, he walks over and pulls us both into a crushing group hug. “I’m really happy for you both,” he says, his tone genuine. “Your music sucks, but I’m still happy for you.”
Soon, he and everyone else slowly trickle out of the room until Gracie and I are the only ones left. Even Summer disappears, and I get the sense from the exaggerated wink she tosses my way, that she isn’t coming back any time soon.
Gracie and I move over to a sofa that’s pushed up against the back wall, and I sit down, pulling her down beside me.
I lean over and press a kiss to her temple, and she looks up at me, the overhead light catching in her deep brown eyes. “Did I tell you how much I loved watching you play hockey?” she says, her voice low and soft.
I grin. “That’s good to know because you look incredibly sexy in that Appies jersey.”
“InyourAppies jersey,” she says, her expression turning coy. “Number thirty-one.”
A sharp bolt of longing pushes through me, and I lean down, catching her lips with mine. “You don’t know what you’re doing to me,” I whisper against her lips.
“Probably exactly what you did to me when I found Bach tattooed on your arm.”
I chuckle in between kisses. “Should I make it a whole symphony?” I tease. “Cover my entire back?”
“Definitely not. Your back is perfect exactly the way it is. But I do have some ideas about how you could use music notes to decorate the creative center.”
“You’d help me with that?” I say, meeting her gaze.
“Of course I would. I would love to. I mean, I’m no designer. You’re better off asking your sister to do the heavy lifting when it comes to that. But I saw these hammered metal music notes on Etsy the other day and immediately thought they would look great in a bigger space like the creative center.”
“That sounds amazing. You’ll have to show me,” I say.
I love that she’s thinking about it, that we’re talking about my life like it’s her life, too.
The reality is a relationship isn’t going to be easy—not so long as I’m still playing for the Appies. Or any other team, for that matter.
I’ll be on the road a lot, and with Gracie’s teaching and symphony schedules, I doubt she’ll be traveling with me very often.
But I’ve never been so certain I want to do whatever it takes to make it work. It still feels like something miraculous that she’s in love with me in the first place.
Whatever it takes, whatever she needs, I’m all in.
I don’t have a single doubt in my mind.
She’s worth it.
Epilogue
