“No.”
“You don’t feel like I hid it from you?”
He shakes his head once.
“It makes sense,” he says quietly.
“What does?”
“The first time I saw you at the bar,” he continues, “I couldn’t explain it. You felt familiar. Like I’d met you somewhere before.”
His thumb brushes along my cheek.
“I think I would’ve found you anyway,” he says softly. “Even if it hadn’t started with us playing together.”
“You’d heard my voice before,” I say lightly.
He smiles.
“Yeah,” he says. “Guess I had.”
He rests his forehead against mine.
“I kept thinking it was chemistry,” he murmurs. “But it’s more than that.”
I don’t say anything. I just hold him, letting the truth settle between us.
“You beat me alone,” he adds after a second.
I can’t help it this time. I laugh. “Yeah, I have.”
He shakes his head, amused.
“I can’t believe it’s you.”
I look at him, taking in the smile on his face and this feeling of contentment in my chest.
“I think I spent a long time chasing that feeling again,” I say quietly. “Somewhere I could disappear into something and leave everything else behind.”
My fingers curl into his shirt.
“And somehow I found it here,” I say softly. “Just… in a person instead.”
He kisses me again. And for once, it doesn’t feel like I’m running from something.
It feels like I finally ended up where I’m meant to be.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Cooper
Brinley is curled against my side when I wake up the next morning. Her hair is a mess across her pillow, and her hand rests over my ribs, like she’s holding me and never plans to let go.
I smile at the freckles that cover the apple of her cheeks.
Last night plays through my mind again, coming back in pieces. How she reclined against me with the controller in her hands. The way she wiped out every opponent as she cleared each level. When she admitted she’s the girl I’ve been gaming with for years now.
Killa.
