Page 113 of Risky Play

“Me neither.”

“I don’t want to hide you, Maddie. I never did. I love you so much, it hurt being away from you. I didn’t want this to be the way we had this talk.”

I nodded. “I know, baby. And I’m sorry about your season. Maybe you’ll heal before the end. I believe in you.”

“You’re my girl again, right?”

“No, I’m your sweet pea,” I told him with a grin.

He didn’t respond. Instead he pulled my face toward his and kissed me again, and it was like everything was right in the world again.

Epilogue

MADDIE

JUNE THE FOLLOWING YEAR

* * *

I was trying to be as quiet as possible as I packed up the boxes in the basement of my brother’s house while Matt was asleep behind the closed bedroom door.

Last year, rather than go home after my school year was over, I moved in with my brother. At first, I was sleeping upstairs in one of the guest rooms, but gradually, I made my way back into Matt’s bed and never left.

Did I love commuting to campus from Old City? Nope, but it wasn’t so bad. When Matt and I started looking for our own place, we settled on a low-maintenance condo a couple of blocks away. Besides, with the two other rookies my brother ‘adopted’ it was getting crowded here.

Matt’s alarm blared, forcing him up from his pregame nap so he could get ready for the game tonight. Tensions had been high, and that’s why I was working on the packing. We weren’t set to move until next week, but there was still a lot to do.

I finished packing my current box as quietly as I could as I heard the sounds of Matt waking up behind the bedroom door. He’d need a few minutes to fully wake up and get dressed before walking out here, and I wanted to give him that space.

I shut the box I was packing and tapped it up. I pushed it to the side with the others and padded across the room for a new box. I opened up a new one and taped it together, then assessed my piles. I might have too many books. Matt joked our second bedroom at the condo would be filled with them, and he might not be wrong. It was his own damn fault. That man loved buying me all the books I wanted.

I grabbed another pile and spent the next couple of minutes loading up more books. It felt like the piles were only getting smaller by a fraction. Moving was no joke.

I was taping up the second box when the bedroom door opened, and Matt walked in wearing the blue pin-striped suit that I loved. He gave me a big smile, and my insides still got mushy at that.

“Hey, baby. You ready for tonight?” I asked.

He scowled. “I told you I’d help.”

I waved him off. “You worry about bringing home the Cup tonight. I got this. We’re a team, remember?”

He crossed over to me, and I yelped when he lifted me in his arms, but then I melted into him when he kissed me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and clung to him through the kiss. I made a face when he pulled away.

“What’s wrong?”

I ran the back of my hand across his bushy playoff beard. “I can’t wait for you to win and get rid of this thing.”

He waggled his eyebrows at me. “I thought you loved the way it felt between your thighs.”

“Um, no, that’s you, babe.”

“So you don’t love my head being between your legs?”

I laughed. “Well, I didn’t say that.”

He set me back down, and he cocked his head as he spied the application I had lying on the couch. “What’s that?”

“Nothing!”