Page 34 of Unlucky in Love
Ryan sat beside her, close enough that their shoulders brushed. He plucked a penny from the jar and held it up. “And what did you wish for?”
She smiled faintly. “That Emma would pass her math class. That I’d get a dog. That my mom would…you know, get better.” Her voice trailed off.
Ryan’s jaw flexed. “I remember. You always tossed your penny in so fast no one could see what you wished for.”
Taylor looked at him, surprised. “You noticed that?”
He dropped the penny into her hand. “I noticed everything, Taylor.”
Her chest tightened so painfully she almost couldn’t breathe. She turned the penny over in her palm, then flicked it into the fountain’s dry basin. It clinked against the stone and rolled into the corner.
Ryan took another penny and studied it. His voice was softer now, vulnerable in a way she’d never heard before. “You want to know what I wished for?”
Taylor’s throat went dry. “What?”
He tossed the coin, watched it spin into the basin. “That I’d figure out how to stop wanting what I couldn’t have.”
The air between them pulsed, heavy and alive.
Taylor gripped the jar tighter, her heart pounding. “Did it work?”
Ryan turned to her, eyes dark, voice low. “Not even close.”
The silence stretched between them, filled only by the winter wind rattling the bare branches above. Taylor’s breath cameshallow, her pulse thudding like the echo of every wish she had ever whispered into this fountain.
Ryan’s words hung heavy in the air. Not even close.
Her fingers trembled against the glass jar. She wanted to say something witty, something to cut through the gravity of the moment, but all she could do was look at him. The hard lines of his face softened in the lamplight, his jaw taut with restraint, his eyes locked on hers with an intensity that stole the air from her lungs.
Her voice came out barely above a whisper. “Ryan…”
And then his hand was at her cheek, warm and sure, tilting her face toward his. She had a split second to see the decision in his eyes, the way his walls cracked open, before his mouth was on hers.
The kiss was fierce, nothing tentative about it. Years of frustration, denial, and unspoken longing poured out in the press of his lips. Taylor gasped against him, her hands clutching his jacket, pulling him closer even as her heart spun out of control.
The cold night vanished. The cracked fountain, the empty park, the jar of pennies — all of it faded until there was nothing but the heat of him, the steady strength of his arms around her, the wild rush of finally having what she had once only wished for.
When he pulled back, they were both breathless, their foreheads resting together, neither ready to let go.
“For the record, I also made a second wish over and over again.”
“What was that?” she asked.
“That someday I’d be able to come back here and kiss you like this. Hold you like this.”
Taylor pulled back just far enough to look at him, her breath mingling with his in the cold night air. Her fingers tightened inthe fabric of his jacket, grounding herself, because what she was about to ask had lived in her chest for years.
“Did you know?” she whispered.
Ryan’s brow furrowed. “Know what?”
“How much I cared for you. Back then. In high school.” She swallowed, her voice trembling. “You had to know. I was terrible at hiding it.”
His jaw tightened, eyes shadowed in the glow of the lamppost. He didn’t answer right away, and that told her more than words could.
Taylor’s throat ached. “So if you knew…why did you act like I was invisible? Why did you brush me off like I was nothing? Why did you—” her voice cracked “—why did you leave me?”
Ryan closed his eyes, exhaling a long, rough breath. His hands stayed firm on her, one at her cheek, the other resting on her waist, as if he was afraid she’d slip away if he let go.
