Page 102 of Shutout
“Fine.” The determination is back in his eyes after he drops his hands. “So what I’m getting is you like me, and I love you. We can make this work.”
“You’re wrong.”
His eyebrows scrunch up in a mix of confusion and sadness. “You don’t like me anymore?”
“No.” I reach for his hand before he crumbles, and hastily add, “I mean, you got it wrong. It’s not that I like you. Iloveyou. I’ve always loved you.”
“Oh.” Air comes out of his lungs, so relieved that his entire frame sags against the door. His thumb runs against my hand. “Why do I sense a but?”
“Butyou’re leaving.”
Brooke nods slowly, his hair so messy that two strands arc over his eyebrow and almost into his eyes. “I am. But…” He leans down to grab my other hand. “That doesn’t mean it has to be the end of our story.”
“Brooklyn. You’re going to be clear across the country.”
“I know.”
“And it’s not like I can transfer to a nearby college so easily. I have a partial scholarship and in-state tuition here.”
“I also know that.”
“And I’m not going to let you pay for me, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
His eyebrows squeeze. “Shit, I hadn’t thought of that. Why not?”
“Because that’d be weird.”
“But I love you,” he says, as easy as talking about the weather. As if it didn’t have the power to stop my heart from beating. He restarts it by lifting my hands, pressing his warm lips against one, then against the other. Green eyes set on me the entire time. “And I would do anything for you.”
“Not that. It’s not fair.” My voice may shake, but my spine doesn’t. “I won’t strain your finances.”
“Fine. Long distance it is.”
“Brooke—”
“No, hear me out.” He has his game face on, the one he uses for a faceoff. It’s enough to make me clamp my mouth shut. “We just spent like a year and a half apart—fully apart, not talking to each other at all. And I came from the other side so besotted, I can objectively say I’ve never been in love before.”
My heart soars—it’s a balloon in the sky now.
I shake my head hard, trying to focus. “But?—”
“No.” He shakes his head hard. “You know I had girlfriends, but I never felt one percent of what I feel for you for any of them. I may have been slow and clueless, but I’m feral over you, Liv. We’re talking raccoon in a trashcan at the back of a McDonald’s type of feral.”
I bark a sudden laugh, and it also brings a change in him. Brooke’s face softens into a shy little smile.
“My point is,” he continues saying, “Physical distance won’t be enough to tear us apart. We’re entwined where it matters.” He brings one of my hands against his rock-solid chest, laying my palm flat against it so I can feel the fast drum of his heart. “Right here.”
I rake my teeth across my lip. “This isn’t so simple. We’re talking at least a year and a half. You’ll be so busy with training and games, you’ll barely have time to come visit. You’ve seen what Max’s and Aran’s schedules look like. We barely managedto see them for Thanksgiving. And I’m going to be busy with school too. But even during breaks, I don’t know if I’ll have the money to buy plane tickets to see you. I’ll have to get a job for that, which will make me even busier and?—”
Brooke puts a finger against my lips. “We’ll FaceTime every night. And text every day. I’ll have games against teams nearby, and we can sneak out together in between. The team may send me back down, and I might just end up back the next semester?—”
“That’s not going to happen.” I tilt my head to give him an annoyed look. “You’re so damn good, they’ll never send you back down.”
Brooklyn ignores that. “We can do this. I want to do this.” His arms come around me, bringing me against his body. “I’m asking you to want to do this. Please?”
I let out something that sounds like a whine and a moan, dropping my face against his delicious chest—hard, warm, his own natural scent more potent than his fancy cologne. If only we could stay like this forever, wrapped in each other at last.
“There’s nothing I want more,” I admit in a mumble. “Brooklyn Tatum, I’ve wanted you for so long, it hurts like a literal thorn on the side.”
