He has me there in three seconds.
My release rips through every muscle. I feel it in my belly, my fingertips, the base of my neck, everywhere. I cry out, and his left palm clamps over my face, burying the noise, and he crushes me to his chest, holding me together while I shatter.
‘That’s my girl.’ He’s working me through it. ‘You’re so beautiful when you come for me.’
I slump into him. His chin rests on the top of my head, and I listen to his soothing heartbeat.
‘I’m taking you home, Ava. Right fucking now. I’m bursting here. I want a door that locks, and I want all night. Every night.’
I turn my head as far back as I can. ‘Take me to yours.’
His smile comes slow, spreading all the way to his eyes, and it is, without exaggeration, the most beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed.
On the screen, someone’s restoring a crumbling castle. I can’t say I’m too heartbroken to miss the ending. But I need one more minute to come down.
‘When did you know?’ I snuggle into his muscular chest. ‘I mean, that we’re more than friends?’
‘Oban. That first morning in Katie’s bed. You were asleep, and I couldn’t move my arm, and I…knew. What about you?’
‘AxeVenture. You got the call, and your whole world caved in. And I thought: I’m in love with this man, and I’ve destroyed him.’
‘Naw. You didn’t.’ His thumb traces a circle on my arm, and his gaze drifts across the empty auditorium. ‘I used to come here to be invisible. Every Tuesday.’
I understand that so wholeheartedly it hurts.
‘And then you sat there,’ he continues. ‘Trying so hard not to let anyone see you falling apart. And I thought: she’s doing the same thing. She’s trying to disappear, too.’
I twist my body and drag my knee across his jeans, so I’m straddling him. I cage his hips between mine and can capture his face in my hands. ‘You saw me.’
‘I couldn’t stop seeing you. I tried. God, I tried.’
The backs of my lids sting. ‘Everyone who’s ever known me has eventually decided I’m exhausting. I’m a lot, Scottie.’
‘No. You’re just right. Perfect.’ He tightens his strong arms around me. ‘So perfect I still don’t think I deserve you.’
‘Shhh.’ I flatten my index finger against his bottom lip. ‘That’s for me to decide. We should go, don’t you think?’
‘Agreed.’
Scottie spans my waist, hoists me off his lap to my feet. Then he rises to his full height and adjusts himself with a wince. ‘We’ve desecrated a Category B listed building.’
‘A hundred years of screenings in this room – I guarantee you, we’re not the first.’
A laugh breaks from him, and my heart does a slow roll in my chest. I brush stray popcorn off his hoodie. My tights are torn and twisted, the nylon sticking to damp skin, and I have to hop on one foot in an attempt to tug them into place.
‘Having trouble standing?’
And then he scoops me up. One arm under my knees, the other around my back. I yelp and grab his collar.
‘Scottie! Put me down. I thought the whole point was no more carrying!’
‘It’s a temporary relapse.’ He starts walking down the aisle. All mine. ‘I like holding you.’
I grin into his neck because I can’t help it. ‘Then I’ll allow it this once.’
Scottie pushes through the double doors, and we burst out into the night. He sets me down on the pavement, but he keeps his arms wrapped around me.
‘Leave your Volvo. We’ll get it in the morning. You’re coming with me. My place. My bed. And I’m making breakfast.’
