“But I’m tired of doing it alone.” So, so tired of doing it by herself.
That seemed to get his attention. He stilled.
“I want to keep giving us a try. I was ready to give up, but I don’t want to,” she said with absolute certainty.
“Em, that’s…” His expression broke. “The only thing that’s made me more scared than the girls runnin’ off was thinking I’d lost you for good.”
“I’m not going to do your new show, though. I’ve had time to think on it, and I just don’t want that. Part of figuring out who I am, and what I want to be, means I can’t do your show. I want you to do it. Do it with Annie. But…. I… I have my own dreams now.” She breathed a massive sigh of relief from speaking the words out loud.
“I’m proud of you for sayin’ what you want and what you don’t want. Good on you for makin’ your stand and holding that ground.” He nodded, holding her gaze with his.
“It’s just that’s yours. The show is aboutyou. The things you love and who you want to be. It’s not mine. It’s not me.”
“I’ll always support you, Em. Just tell me what you need and it’s yours.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“So what happens next?” he asked. “With us?”
Another deep breath. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot since I’ve been in here.”
“What’d you come up with?”
That was the thing, right? “I was hoping we’d feel that out together.”
“That’s what you want?”
“I figure that if we both do what we love to do, give each other space and room to grow, then as long as we meet back together at the end of the day, the rest of it won’t matter.” She paused, took a breath.
“I’d like to kiss you right now,” he said with that low bedroom note in his voice. “You know that?”
Emotion clogged her throat because she had this with him, and it wasn’t a ruse.
“I’m all in this with you,” he said, his fingertip against her lips.
She liked that. Really liked that.
“Me, too.”Yes. All the yeses.
Visions of a future with the two of them came to her mind’s eye. Visions that didn’t freak her the hell out.
“Em?” he asked.
“Uh-huh?” she asked, breathy.
He touched the tip of her nose. Who knew that a touch like that could turn her on like that while stuck in a playground tube?
“Make me the happiest bloke and be my girlfriend,” he said with more seriousness than she expected. “For real.”
“For real.” She agreed with a short laugh. “Okay.”
He reached for her hand and wrapped a friendship bracelet there, tying it on in a knot and for the first time in a long time, she wasn’t afraid because whatever came next, it would be filled with color and flavor and all the brushstrokes anyone could dream up.
“I guess we gotta get you out of this tube. I’ll make us all some dinner. Then we curl up on a couch with the girls and watch a movie. Then we do it again tomorrow. And again the next day.”
“And again,” she agreed.
Honestly? It didn’t matter if they were in the bedroom or holding hands walking around the cul-de-sac. All that mattered was that they were together.
