Page 90 of The Game Plan

“Miles…”

“I fucked up,” he says. “I was thinking about me when I should have been thinking about you, about us. I’m sorry, Sam, I’m so sorry. I just… I couldn’t do it. You were trying to support me, and I wouldn’t let you.”

I stand in the protection of the doorway, not letting him enter the house. He must be freezing. I’m freezing.

“You hurt me.”

“I’m not used to needing to care about other people’s feelings,” he says, then winces. “That sounds wrong. I’m not used to letting other people help me. It’ll take some time for me to… accept everything.”

I swallow. “Everything?”

“Like the fact that I’m in love with you. That’s pretty new. And it’s terrifying,” he says.

My heart skips a beat. “You—you love me?”

He nods. “I do. I think I have for a while now.”

“Miles…”

“You don’t have to say it back,” he says immediately. “It’s enough for me that you know. I was an idiot. I was selfish. I want to do better. I’m going to do better.”

“I—I need to go.”

“To the formal. Right.” He pushes the flowers into my hand again. “For you.”

“I have a date,” I say.

And I watch as his heart breaks right in front of me. His eyes shutter first. His easy smile falls. He shuts down. He squares his shoulders and nods, like he’s about to face down a fearsome opponent on the football field.

“I shouldn’t keep you,” he says, turning to go. “Take care.”

“Wait.” The words blurts out of me before I can stop it. “Let me call Jake. He’ll understand.”

He gapes at me. “You—you want to—”

“I never wanted to go with him,” I tell him. “I’ve only ever wanted to go with you.”

He crosses the porch in two giant steps. Before I can so much as blink, he sweeps me into his arms and bestows upon me the lightest, gentlest kiss in the history of the world.

“I love you,” he says. “I don’t deserve you, but I’m going to spend every day trying to be worthy of you.”

I trail my finger across his cleanly shaven cheek. “You already are.”

He kisses me again, his lips hard and demanding. His hand slips down to my hip, and he pulls us flush together.

“I’m crazy about you, Samantha Burke.”

I run my hand through his hair. “I’m pretty taken by you, too, Miles Cavanaugh.”

He coils a finger around one of my curls. “You look amazing, Sam. Like, I can’t even... you...”

Laughing, I kiss him again, and again, and again.

He loves me. He wants to be with me. This was just a blip. We’ll be back on track. He will—

I take a step back. I’m not the type of girl who falls to pieces over a guy. I don’t like that that’s what he turned me into. He can’t magically heal the bruise on my heart with a well timed I love you and some sweet kisses.

“You don’t get to unilaterally decide we’re over again,” I tell him. “You’re supposed to lean on me like I’ve leaned on you. We’re a team. We’re in this together.”

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