“I’m texting my agent the minute I let you go to tell him I won’t do it,” he murmurs into my hair. “God, I missed you. I can’t believe you’re here. You smell amazing. It’s okay. It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
“I have to fire my aunt.”
“Aw, Waverly.”
“She’s getting worse. And worse. And the past—hic!—few weeks—and I thought it was all in my head—and then—hic!—she keeps putting things on my schedule and—hic!—Kiva says—Kiva says she made them say—hic!—made them say my—hic!—nail polish—hic!—was ugly.”
He’s stroking my hair and peppering my head with kisses and letting me sob all over his shoulder and tightening his arms around me with every word I utter, andthis is what I want.
God, I missed him.
I missed his touch. I missed his strength. I missed his hugs and the way he smells like a warm mountain pine tree and the way he doesn’t hold anything back. I miss his kisses. I miss making love to him, and I miss justbeingwith him.
“What can I do?” he asks. “What else can I do?”
“Take me away,” I whisper. “Just take me away.”
His grip tightens even harder, and I know what it means.
I can’t, Waverly.
You can’t either, Waverly.
But what if we could?
What if we could?
He shifts, slipping one arm under my knees and the other around my back, and then he’s lifting me and carrying me to the stairs. The costume is crumpled on the floor. All of the lights are still on. I have no idea where Hashtag is.
But everything’s okay.
I’m safe.
Even though neither of us has said the words, I know I’m loved.
And tomorrow, I’m fixing what’s broken in my life.
No matter how hard it is.
33
Cooper
My life has finally caughtup with me.
“Three reasons I shouldn’t kill you right now.” Levi Wilson drops into the seat Waverly has just vacated inside Crusty Nut, my dad’s restaurant in Shipwreck, and glares at me. “Go.”
“I love her.”
The glare coming from one of my oldest famous buddies goes darker than a cloudy moonless midnight. “Do not make me murder you. I havewaybigger things to live for, but I swear—”
I shoot a look at the bathroom, where Giselle, Levi’s lead protection agent, is standing and waiting for Waverly to come back out, then lean across the table and say the one thing that I can’t say to anyone else. “What thefuckis in this for me if I don’t?”
Levi makes ago ongesture.
So I do. “She’s gone more than you used to be. I’m never home. I’m bored on the road. Pranks aren’t fun when all I want is to be with her. I spent six hours hanging with the team after we clinched the fuckingdivisionlast night and couldn’t stop counting the minutes until I could be done and call her. Food tastes like shit when we’re apart.Torreszinged me in the locker room with the easiest crack about pirates I’ve ever had aimed at me. Management’s pissed at the optics of me taking two days off right after we secured a spot in the play-offs togo play with my girlfriend, and I’d play like shit if I hadn’t, andI hate playing like shit.”
“So you say you love her because you don’t want to play like shit.”
