I sat up straighter and gestured to myself like I was a gold medal winner.
His eyes crinkled as he laughed, and my body filled with warmth at the sound.
“But it’s more than that.” I pushed on before the weight of the moment got away from me. “You helped me discover a part of me that I didn’t think existed.”
He shrugged. “Any coach would’ve done the same. You find barriers in your athletes and knock ’em down.”
I shook my head. “No, that wasyou. And that’s why your book is so important.”
“You’re relentless.” He sighed as he dropped his head back against the couch, our joined hands a bridge between us.
“Andright.”
He rolled his head to look at me, and when our gazes snagged, I felt the back of my nose prickle.
Because the answers were all there in the depth of his dark eyes.
Still, I needed to hear it from him. To find out what was going to come next in our story.
I felt lightheaded, like I hadn’t eaten all day. Shaky. Desperate for some sort of resolution.
“You have my heart, Brooke,” Owen finally said as he ran his thumb over the back of my hand. “It’s been yours since the veryfirst moment I saw you. My very ownbam. But it went deeper than that. It wasn’t just physical attraction. I liked everything about you.”
Heat rushed to my face at him accidentally shining a light on the shallowness of my ownbammoment. I didn’t even know Kai. He was nothing more than a character I’d created.
“I tried to fight it,” Owen continued. “Hell, I tried to help you get the guy, because I just wanted you to be happy.” His brow pinched at the memory. “Even if it hurt me.”
I sniffled back my welling tears.
“I loved working with you,” he said, his tense expression breaking into a smile. “Howfierceyou were when it came to mastering a skill. Your determination to get it right. Your ability to laugh at yourself when you couldn’t. I thought I could learn to be okay with just being your coach and friend. That watching you grow as a player was enough, because that was all you needed from me. All you wanted from me.”
His voice went a little hoarse at the admission, and a tiny fissure splintered through my heart at the thought of causing him so much pain.
“But I felt a shift happen,” he continued, his gaze finding mine again. “And I started to believe that we could actually...be. That you felt the same way about me. Then I got that text, the morning after. All of the old worries flooded back. The mistrust and second-guessing every conversation. I guess I snapped.”
He brought our joined hands to his lips and pressed a kiss to the inside of my wrist. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I let my history get in the way of our future.”
He moved my hand to press it to his chest, covering it with his protectively. I could feel the heavy thump of his heart, which nearly matched my own.
“And whatisour future?” I asked tentatively.
Owen leaned over and pulled me onto his lap in one smooth movement so that I was straddling him, and gripped his hands on my thighs. Heat pooled between us, and despite the relationship-defining conversation we were in the middle of, all I could think about was ripping off his clothes so I could feel his skin against mine.
“Our future is however we decide to fill the pages,” he whispered, looking up at me with tenderness that made me catch my breath. “Together.”
Owen reached up to thread his fingers into my hair. He slid his hand to the nape of my neck and drew me closer to him, pausing when our lips were just inches apart, our eyes locked. My breath went shallow as his gaze skimmed my face, a small smile playing on his mouth. I was desperate for him but mesmerized by the tension of the right now.
He gently tucked a strand behind my ear.
“There’s more,” he murmured. “I need you to understand that it’s the beginning of a love story.”
There were no more words necessary. Tears pooled in my eyes as our mouths finally crashed together in a kiss that confirmed what we both felt in our hearts.
It was more than a crush, or an obsession, or abam.
It was love.
And I couldn’t wait to write our next chapter.
