Page 100 of The Replay

"Princesa. Mi reina. Duquesa. I'd do better keeping to the theme. Got it."

"Ugh, don't ruin the evening."

I chuckle. "Fine. I won't. It's such a nice, surprising evening we're having."

My arms find a resting position around her, and I graze at the skin of her belly with my fingertips. Despite the simplicity, it's a tender moment, and I smile. It feels right to have her against me like this. So close to me our breathing is in sync. Perhaps even our heartbeats are.

"Can you believe it?" She rests her head back on the crook of my neck. "After everything, and how angry we were when we met again… here we are."

Against all odds, Mariana and I are together once more, within a strict agreement. It's the only reason this works. Without it, moments like this would override my pride, and I'd try to hold on. But I refuse to put myself back through hell again. I'll do much better if I can let go in peace this time.

Maybe I can be proud of how we're dealing with everything. This all proves I'm a better man than I was when we broke up, when I called her, and when she came back to my life. Now I can be pleased with that, as much as I am for the way I'm protecting my heart.

"Here we are." I kiss the crown of her head. "But looking back, I think there's one thing I need to admit. I'm not sure how angry you would have been, if I hadn't fought with you at that welcome party."

"I wanted to be cold." She sighs.

"I wanted to be unaffected. But then I saw you and you were not cold."

"And you were not unaffected."

"So I was angry." I gather her tighter in my arms. "It didn't last long."

My decisions may have been different, knowing I'd see her again, if I had accepted life would push me to her side again. Of all the predictions I had, I somehow didn't consider this. That we might end up in each other's arms again.

Now we're here, and I don't see how it could have happened any other way.

"It didn't last long." She sighs. "We always had a way to understand each other I never found anywhere else."

"And that's why we're here. Now I want every single moment I can get with you."

"Until we're done."

"And only because we won't fall in love again."

I say it for both of us to remember. Fine— because I need to remember. It's the key to fulfilling this arrangement and doing right by our past.

She takes a deep breath and speaks in the same soft tone. "No. We won't fall in love again. We can't."

"Then maybe, to each other, we'll just be someone we used to love, someone we're fond of, that we hear about sometimes because we share friends."

"Or maybe…"

She takes my hands and wraps herself in my arms. Tighter. I smile against her temple and breathe her in. Again.

"Maybe we could be friends," she says. "Casually checking in once in a while. 'Hey, how are you doing? How's life in Seattle? I'll be visiting Cora soon so maybe we can have dinner together and catch up.'"

"That would be nice."

"Yeah. That would be nice."

She leaves for her bedroom an hour later, and we're still smiling when I close the door behind her. Acceptance lightens my limbs, and I'm grounded, even thankful. This feeling— it's real affection. I can feel it again, now that I know it's chained deep into the soil and straight on the hard, rocky mantle.

I grin when I enter the field the next day. I get cocky, because she's up in a box with the other front office staff. I'll show off, because she's watching me play.

All the bliss disappears in a single second, sliced into a million pieces by the pain that shoots through me when I catch the ball and three guys tackle me at the same time. Something is very wrong.

Chapter 32