I reached for her without thinking, instinct pulling her into me like I could shield us both from the roar still crashing around the court. She folded against my chest as if she’d been waiting for that exact place, where she belonged, her hands fisting in my shirt like she needed something solid to hold onto. Like she was the one who’d just gone five sets, not me.
I buried my face in her hair, still warm from the sun-bathed stands, and breathed her in. Sweat, summer,her. Every nerve in me settled at once, because this, her in my arms, was everything I needed at that moment.
When she finally tilted her face up to me, her cheeks were streaked and damp, her smile trembling at the edges. But her eyes…God, her eyes were so full, so unguarded, it nearly undid me right there on Centre Court.
“Go,” she said softly, wiping her eyes. “Go soak it in. Every second. You deserve it all.” She smiled, holding my shoulders tight.
“I want you with me,” I said, wrapping my hands around her waist.
Her smile wobbled. “You’ll see me later. At home, tonight.”
We both froze.
She hadn’t meant to say it. I could see the panic in her eyes, like the word had escaped before she’d thought it through.Home. God, I wanted it to be true.
She opened her mouth. “I…I didn’t mean…”
“Don’t take it back,” I cut in, brushing her cheek. “Please don’t.”
She laughed, a wet, shaky little sound, and dropped her forehead to my shoulder.
“It just…felt good to say. Sorry.”
“No,” I whispered. “It felt perfect.”
I looked at her, really looked, finding myself struggling to catch up with what I was feeling.
She felt like home.
She blinked, still crying, still smiling, like she couldn’t believe I had words left in me. But she didn’t run from them. She didn’t run at all.
She just leaned in and kissed me. The kind of kiss that anchoredyou in the middle of chaos. The kind that saidyou’re mine, and I’m yours. Whatever happens next.
Then she pressed her hands to my chest and gave me a little shove. “Go, Jordan. Go be a bloody champion.”
I grinned like a total idiot as I stepped back, still laced in her fingers. I gave her one last look and finally let go.
As I turned toward the tunnel, my heart scrambled and ached in the best possible way, because she’d called it, our space, our beginning,home.
And I knew, in that moment, that no matter what happened after this…
I would spend the rest of my life trying to be that for her.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Kate
I must’ve dozedoff waiting for him, the telly still on mute, replaying his match for the hundredth time.
My cheeks ached from smiling so much. We’d parted ways in the tunnel hours ago. I told him to go soak it all in, be a bloody champion. Of course, I wanted to be there with him, living every second of it. God, I so did. But in that moment, I think we both knew even that might’ve been too much for the world, too soon.
Still, the second I heard his key in the door, my body came alive.
He stepped in looking completely wrecked. Shirt half untucked, hair a mess, bag slung from one hand, velvet trophy box in the other. His eyes found me on the couch, and something in his shoulders seemed to let go.
“Hey, champ,” I said with a grin. “Late evening?”
He didn’t answer. Just let out a breath as his shoulders sagged with relief. He dropped everything to the floor.
