Page 53 of Sneaking Around with the Player
“I love you.”
My gaze lifts and a slow smile raises the corner of my lips as her words sink in.
“I love you too.”
A chorus of cheers come from inside.
“Happy New Year!” she says.
“Happy New Year, baby.”
I take her mouth and we bring in the new year the same way I hope to end it. I don’t know how I’ll manage not seeing her and kissing her for weeks or months at a time, but that’s a problem to figure out later. Tonight, tomorrow, I’m just going to enjoy this.
When we break apart, Holly is standing a few feet away, smiling at us.
“Happy New Year,” she says to her sister and then they embrace, Stella holding the sparkler away from her body.
I give Teddy a nod, and he surprises me by reciprocating.
“Sparklers?” I ask and offer them a couple.
“Yes, please.” Holly gives me a big smile.
“You saved me, man,” Teddy says. “Thanks.”
“Yeah, of course.”
Inside, they’re singing “Auld Lang Syne” and Holly and Stella sing along, waving their sparklers around and making sparks fly, both of them smiling.
Someone in the neighborhood shoots off fireworks and our heads lift to watch the colors explode in the sky.
Stella comes back to me and wraps her arms around my middle. She tips her head up to look at me. “Best night ever.”
“Definitely,” I agree.
“Ready to get out of here.” A new kind of excitement lights up her features, and she presses her boobs into me. “My dorm is in walking distance.”
“Walking?” I scoop her up. “How long will it take us if I run?”
She laughs.
“Good to see you both,” I say to Teddy and Holly.
Holly lets out a quiet laugh. “Good to see you, Beau.”
“Bye. Love you,” Stella calls to her sister.
“Let’s get breakfast tomorrow,” Holly calls, as I start for the gate with my girl.
“I’d like that,” I say at the same time Stella says, “We’ll see.”
For the next seventy-two hours, Stella doesn’t leave my side. I introduce her to my family, we hang with Scottie and his friends, we go to the Cardinals game with my dad and uncles, and every second I get her alone, well, that’s between me and her.
The morning I have to leave, she drives me to the airport and walks with me to the security gate. We linger next to the line, holding on to one another.
“I don’t want you to go.”
“Me neither.” I tip her chin up and look into her watery, brown eyes. “Five weeks and I’ll see you at the diving championships.”
