Page 142 of Collide
Her eyes close, and when they flutter open a smile lights her face. “What are you doing? Make a wish.”
I blink. I can’t think of anything more I would want. Not a single wish populates in my brain.“I don’t have one.”
“Of course you do. Just think of something you really want. Anything. Quick!”
I pause for a long moment, and I realize why my mind is blank. The reason sits in front of me with a special smile and shimmering eyes. There’s nowhere else I’d be than right here with her.
“Summer, I already have you.”
I see the moment my words register, and her eyes start to water again. “You’re such an asshole!” she exclaims, smacking my arm. Only this girl could go from sobbing to angry.
“What the hell?” I take hold of her arms. “What was that for?”
“For—for being so you!” she huffs. “Of course you would say something like that. You just had to be everything I wanted.”
“I’m pretty sure dating a hockey player was last on your list.”
“So was falling in love with one,” she says, freezing. “That—”
I kiss her before she can continue. “I know.” I rest my forehead against hers, cupping her face. “It’s okay. I know.”
“I didn’t—”
“I have you forever, Summer. If those words come tomorrow or ten years from now, I’ll still be here to hear them. I love you enough for the both of us.”
She shakes her head. “No.”
My heart stops. “What?”
“I don’t need years to realize how I feel about you. I already know and I wanted it to be perfect, but then I just kept talking and—” She stops abruptly when she notices my expression, then takes my hands in hers. “I love you, Aiden.”
The words don’t quite click in my head fast enough for me to speak. I know she loves me, but hearing the words feels like so much more. My chest is tight, and a wash of serenity sails through my veins.
She inhales a shaky breath. “You’re the only one I want. It was always going to be you, even if I never thought I would get with a hockey player. I mean, it was quite literally my last option. I probably should have chosen anyone else—”
“You’re not selling this, Preston,” I interrupt.
She clamps her mouth shut, and seems to rearrange her thoughts. “I love your patience and how ridiculously sweet and caring you are. The way you make me feel like what I want matters. I feel lost without you, Aiden.” She smiles wide. “I want to do everything with you, and I want you to do everything with me.”
My smile breaks free. “Sounds possessive.”
“It is.” She lunges to wrap her arms around my neck. I hug her so tight I don’t think I’ll ever let her go. Summer doesn’t say things she doesn’t mean, and knowing she loves me despite everything in her head telling her not to, carves a deeper place for her in my heart. “You and me, Crawford, that’s the only way I want it.”
“Good. Because I love you, and I’m not letting you go.”
My life before Summer revolved solely around hockey. I lived and breathed it with no breaks because it felt like the only part of myself I was okay with. But with her, I want to unravel all the parts of me I’ve hidden. The parts that drifted when my parents died. The parts that became silent when I went from a ten-year-old kid to an adult in one night.
Summer’s presence is luminescent. She’s the last fragment of sunlight in the overwhelming darkness.
***
Summer
OUR BUBBLE BEARDS have dissolved into soapy residue. In the jacuzzi, I sit between Aiden’s legs with bubbles overtaking us. I planted a heap of them on top of his head earlier, but they’ve completely dissolved too.
“You seriously haven’t ever had a girlfriend?” I ask.
Our shower was filled with things that didn’t require much talking, so when Aiden ran a bath, we made up for the lack of conversation. Our game of twenty questions has gone beyond that number, but neither of us seem to mind.
