“I just…” I search for air that doesn’t scrape going in. “I don’t want to lose you and my career in the same breath. I can’t.”
Her gaze softens. “Then don’t.”
It’s the simplest thing she’s ever said to me, and somehow it hits harder than every fight and every apology before it.
We sit there for a while, the world holding its breath around us. Her fingers find mine, and somehow, that’s enough. Maybe this isn’t the end of what we broke. Perhaps it’s the beginning of how we learn to fix it.
But her voice breaks the calm, sharp enough to cut through the air between us.
“Promise me something, Clay.”
My stomach knots before she even finishes.
“When you find out about the job,” she says, her eyes locked on mine. “When it’s official… we move forward. Together. No more hiding.” She swallows hard, her voice soft but sure. “I’m fine keeping this private for now, but I won’t be your secret. Not from our families. Not from the people who matter.”
She pauses, her fingers tightening around the edge of the blanket draped across her lap. “You can ask me to wait. You can ask me to trust you. But when that day comes, I need you to mean it. I need to know you’ll stand beside me, not behind closed doors.”
I draw a slow breath, my chest tight. “I can’t promise it won’t get ugly,” I say, voice rough. “The press, they’re waiting for me to screw up. To give them another headline. I don’t know how to protect you from that. Half the time, I can barely protect myself.”
Her eyes soften, but she doesn’t look away.
I lean in, close enough that our foreheads almost touch. “But I don’t want to hide you. Not anymore. Not when the only thing that’s kept me standing since Christmas is you.” My voice drops. “If that costs me everything else… fine. I’ll take it. But I need you to know… it’s not nothing to me. You’re not nothing to me.”
The air vibrates between us. She blinks, fighting tears, then lifts her hand and presses it to my chest, right over my heart.
“I don’t need perfect, Clay,” she whispers. “I don’t even need easy. I just need real. As long as you can give me that, I don’t care about everything else. As long as I have you by my side, we can get through anything.”
It feels like my ribs crack under her touch.
“I promise I’ll be here through it all,” she murmurs. “But only if you mean it. I need you to promise me no more secrets and nomore disappearing. If I’m in this with you, I need you in it the same way.”
My throat closes. I cover her hand with mine, pressing it harder against my chest, like I can anchor her there.
“I’m in.” I pause, searching for the words that don’t sound like promises I’ve broken before. “I’m making that promise because I know you need to hear it, but mark my words, I’m going to earn it too. Every day. Until you never have to question where I stand or what you mean to me.”
Something in her softens then. Not all the way. She’s still guarded, but the wall she’s kept between us cracks just enough to let me see her. Truly see her.
When I lean in, she doesn’t pull away. She meets me halfway, and the second our mouths touch, the noise in my head goes quiet. It’s not the wild, frantic kind of kiss we’ve shared before. The kind of kiss that feels like an apology and a vow all at once.
My hand slides up her neck, my thumb tracing her jaw as she breathes against my lips. She trembles, just barely, and I swear I feel her heartbreak and hope collide right there between us.
When she finally pulls back, her forehead rests against mine, and our breaths mingle in the space that still feels charged and fragile.
In that quiet, I know I’d spend the rest of my life trying to deserve this.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Tessa
“It’s loud enough to make my teeth vibrate,” Summer shouts over the music, grinning as she lifts her phone to snap a photo of the rink.
The arena feels alive before the puck even drops. Every inch hums through the noise of cowbells and drumbeats as fans stomp their feet against the bleachers. It’s pure chaos, echoing through the rafters until you can practically feel it in your chest.
I pull my jacket tighter, breath fogging in the cold air rolling off the ice. The place smells like popcorn, beer, and cold metal, like every rink I’ve ever been in.
You can feel the anticipation and the tension in the air tonight. It makes my stomach twist before the players ever take the ice.
It’s the Kings versus the Hawks.
