“Oh my god,” Paige rushed out, smearing the words together. “Wait, so you just randomly called, wanting to find him? Okay, this is seriously too perfect. Hold on, lemme check my app and see where he is.”
Aubrey’s head swam.
Paige squealed again, some distance from the phone. Then the line crackled and her voice erupted in Aubrey’s ear again. “Okay, just walk outside. Right now, okay? Go quick.”
“What? Why?”
“Just do it! And please... don’t say no, okay? It’ll make him so happy. And call me back! OhmygodI’msoexcited! Bye!”
The line went dead. The moment collapsed on itself, then spun into the next, bringing with it a tremulous hope that started in Aubrey’s marrow and seeped into her limbs. Go outside. Well, she could do that.
She took a step, then another. By the time she reached the revolving doors, she’d gathered enough inertia to burst through, then had to stumble to a stop on the sidewalk.
Because there was the most beautiful man in the world, wearing a tuxedo, staring up at the portico and steeling himself with an indrawn breath.
38.
Nick wondered if he was going to throw up. Or chicken out and drive all the way back to Henderson without even going inside. The brightly lit sign over the door of the Manhattan Center dared him to do it.
Sweat slicked his palms, everything in him screaming to run away, that this would only amount to another fall with a painful end. That painful endings were all he could ever hope for.
But he steeled his jaw, because fuck that. He’d doubted himself all his life, and where had that gotten him, except lost and heartbroken and alone? For once, he would go to war. For himself, just like Jackson had said.
If that meant going out in a blaze of glory, so be it.
Nick lowered his eyes. And immediately encountered a pair of jade ones that nearly knocked him off his feet.
Aubrey. Fuck, she looked stunning. Stunned, too, but still every bit as beautiful as the day he’d first sat down beside her in English class and tried to ignore her siren call.
Holy shit, how he’d failed in that endeavor.
“Hi.” His voice came out rough, but the sight of her smoothed the emotional riot inside him. Yes, he would do this. His wholelife had only ever been leading him here, to this moment. He suddenly had no idea why he’d ever fought it.
“Hi.” She took a step. “I was just, uh, coming to see you. In Indiana.”
He blinked. “You what?”
“Yeah.” She pointed behind him. He turned as a silver sedan with a lit Uber icon pulled up to the curb. The driver rolled the window down.
“Sorry,” Aubrey called to him. “It looks like I don’t need you after all.”
The driver made a rude gesture and zoomed off. When Nick turned back, her face had melted in a smile.
“You were going to take an Uber to Indiana?” he said, disbelieving.
“More or less.”
“And... then what?”
Another step. Her eyes shimmered a shade of green he swore he hadn’t glimpsed in seventeen years. “I was going to grovel. Tell you I love you. That I always have, and I’ll do whatever I have to if you’ll just be with me. I’ll work remotely from Henderson, if that’s what it takes, or... whatever. We can figure it out. But I want you now, not in two years. And I’m so sorry I didn’t say so sooner. You deserved so much more than what I’ve given you, but I’m going to do better. And I hope it’s not too late.”
Every word crackled lightning down his spine, then sank into him, a molten glow. This had to be what heaven felt like.
“I... had a whole speech,” he said, and didn’t recognize his own voice. The distance between them became unbearable, so he closed it. Aubrey tipped her face up, allowing him to count each beloved freckle.
“And?” A smile infused her voice. “What was it?”
“I forgot.” His fingers found her cheeks. Pure wonder flowed through him. Amazement that he could ever even hope to call a woman like this his.
