Page 113 of On His Mind

“Are you going to stay?” she asks.

I hold her face in my hands, staring into her eyes. “I have a game tomorrow, so I can’t.”

She stares right back, still flushed. “Do you ever play?”

I shake my head. “No, I’m a bench warmer.”

She laughs at that, and my stomach drops at the smile on her face. I think I did that. I watch her cheeks rise, her eyes go smaller, and her mouth widen.

“You’re beautiful, Penelope.”

Her smile widens. “So are you, Percy.”

I drop my head and shake it.

“What?” she laughs quietly. “You are.”

I close my eyes.

“Alright,” she says. “Fine. You’re handsome.”

I lift my head and look her in the eyes.

“Better?”

I almost smile.

“You’re hot,” she says, rolling her eyes. “Is that better?”

I shake my head. “The last one was just fine.”

She pulls herself closer to me and kisses me. Then she hums, “I like kissing you.”

I kiss her again. Slower this time.

“I have to go,” I say, and I don’t move.

“Right now?”

“Yeah, sometimes the guys wake up extra early for travel days. I should get back before they see me sneaking in.”

“Okay,” she says, but she doesn’t let go of my wrists.

Neither of us moves for a while. I kiss her again because I don’t want to stop, and the fact that I can now is new to me.

The second I step out of her warm room into the hall, the cold comes back, and I want so badly to walk back in her room and never leave it.

“Text me when you’re home,” she whispers when we reach her front door.

I nod.

I go down the back way, past the mailroom, out into the cold, and I walk home with my hands in my pockets and my whole chest full of something I don’t know how to carry.

My whole life, I’ve known how to lose things. I’ve come to terms with that. I could lose something in my sleep and still be okay. What I’ve never once had in my life was something to keep.

And I’ve got one now.

A big something.