“What if everything changes while I’m gone?” Her bottom lip tucks between her teeth.
She’s talking about us.
I don’t know what else could change.
Maybe she thinks I’ll take the time that she’s gone to remove myself from the equation. That I won’t be there for her when she gets back.
But the truth is, she couldn’t get rid of me if she tried. No matter what happens, we’ll always be connected. She’ll always have a piece of my heart, and I’ll always have a piece of hers.
“It won’t.” My hands rest on her shoulders. I tilt my head down just far enough for our eyes to lock so she knows what I’m telling her is the truth. “All that’s going to change is that we’ll have to get you a security guard for senior year because you’re going to be all famous and shit.”
She laughs, the tears that were already in her eyes falling with her laughter instead of her sadness.
“I think I know a few hockey players who could help me with that.” She grins.
“Hell, yeah, you do.”
“Are we going to be okay?” Her words are shaky. “I want us to be okay.”
“We’re okay,” I promise. “It’ll hurt for a while, but it won’t feel like this forever. We’ll just take it one day at a time.”
She nods aggressively, taking in my words.
“When I told you I’d always love you,” my tongue runs along my bottom lip, “that didn’t only mean if we were together. I loved you long before we were in a relationship, and I’ll love you long after. And who knows, maybe one day we’ll find our way back to each other, just like you said.”
“And if we don’t?”
“Then we don’t.” I pause. “And that will be okay.”
“Okay.” Her words are soft.
“I’m really proud of you, Tate.”
“Thank you.”
“You do realize Brinley is going to take credit for this, right?”
“Oh, yeah, that was my first thought.” Her smile broadens as I chuckle.
“I thought I heard you out here.” Stella wraps her arms around my shoulder. “Are you two joining us for game night?”
“Reed family game nights always end in disaster,” Tate smirks. “Obviously, I’m in.” Her eyes meet mine, and the smirk fades. “If that’s okay with you.”
“Of course it is.”
Stella squeezes my shoulders before letting me go and wrapping an arm around Tate.
“Have you thought any more about the whole Godmother thing?”
“Oh, um, I guess you don’t know, but—”
Stella shakes her head. “I know. Tate, I told you once that we wanted you to be Theo’s Godmother because we loved you. That didn’t change just because you guys broke up. You’re a very important person to us.”
“Won’t it be weird?”
“Only if you let it,” I interject. My way of letting Tate know that if she wants to take on this role, it’s perfectly fine with me.
She gives Stella a small nod and then looks at me over her shoulder.
