First-Time Caller (Heartstrings, #1)

by B.K. Borison

“I think I got too used to you in the spot next to me. I’ll be fine. Promise.” I squeeze. “I like the spot next to you.” He gives me a half smile. “Yeah. Me too.”

“You are what I want, Aiden. But for some inconceivable reason, you don’t seem to believe me when I say it.” Aiden blinks at me. “But you said—” He has to take a second to compose himself. “You said you wanted it to be a secret.” I shake my head. “I never said that.” “You said you wanted everything to stay exactly the same.” “I meant seeing you, being with you, talking to you. I meant I didn’t want to talk about what’s going on between us live on the air.” His face collapses. “You said you wanted fun.” “You’re the only person I want to have fun with. You’re the only person I want anything with. Maybe this started as fun, but now it’s different. Isn’t it?”

“I won’t be scared away. I know what this is. I can feel it,” I say. With every touch, every laugh, every glance he shoots in my direction, I feel it. I try to smile, but it falls flat. I’m trying so damn hard not to cry. “I can be brave enough for the both of us. I can make my own magic. You just have to give me a reason to.”

Unsent text messages from Aiden Valen to Lucie Stone Aiden: I keep waiting for you to walk through the door even though I haven’t given you a reason to. Aiden: Have you had the pineapple pizza from the place on Broadway? Aiden: I can’t stop thinking about you. Aiden: Fuck, Lucie. I think I could let myself love you too.

Chocolate mints Daisies Fountain soda Coconut ChapStick Christmas cookies, the shortbread kind Yellow starbursts Pink starbursts The coffee creamer in the orange bottle I read it once and then again. It’s a list of—it’s a list of my favorite things. Things I’ve mentioned on the show and things I haven’t. Things he must have noticed.

“Lots of weird things happening today, huh?” Jackson chokes on nothing and turns farther away. The man is not good under pressure. “You could say that.” “I think there’s something going on with the planetary alignment. Dad was telling me about it in the car this morning.”

“Long-time listener, first-time caller,” he says over the line. There’s a reluctant grin in his voice. It twists his words up at the edges, just like his smile. “I was hoping you could give me some advice.”

“I think about her all the time. I wonder what she’s doing. I’ve got this hair tie on my wrist that I stole from her. She doesn’t know about it,”

“Do you keep a list of her favorite things in your glove compartment?” He makes a short, amused sound. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. So I don’t forget.” “What else?” “She does this thing when she laughs…it’s like she laughs with her whole body. I’ve never seen anything like it. She holds her hands tight together like she’s—like she’s holding on to her happiness. Like she’s not afraid to grab it.”

“I want to be the kind of man who deserves that laugh. Who earns it.” “It’s not about deserving,” I say, my throat tight. “If someone gives you something, you have it. You don’t have to earn it.”

I want—I want to kiss her when other people are around. I want to hold her hand. I want to have pancakes at her house on Sunday mornings and I want to help with Indiana Jones costumes. I want her people to be my people too.”

“I know what falling in love feels like because I’ve been falling in love with you.”

I never thought I’d be wanted the way Aiden wants me. Never thought I’d be seen and appreciated and adored. But he does. He sees me. He wants me. He loves me.

“I’ll be right here with you.” “I know,” he whispers. I slip my hands beneath his sweatshirt, let myself feel the shape of him, and he sighs, dropping his cheek against the top of my head. “I’m gonna love you so good, Lucie.”

She turns to me and I drop a kiss on the corner of her mouth. Because I want to. Because I can. I spent so long being afraid of this, I never realized how much I was missing.

“Where are you going?” I ask. She blinks up at me. “To get our stuff.” “You’re not Brooks Robinson.” Her cheeks pinken. “Oh. Well, no. But he is the best third basemen to ever play the game. I like to pay my respects.” She presses a quick kiss to my mouth. “Be right back.”

All those months ago, I was sitting on the other side of this café and I heard Patty call for Brooks Robinson. Was Lucie here? Did we drift past one another and not even realize? The woman who changed my life—who carefully and quietly patched all my holes and rough spots—she was within reach and I didn’t even know it.

How long have Lucie and I been orbiting each other? How many chances did I miss before I picked up that phone call in the middle of the night? She said she wanted magic and I thought we found something better. Something real. But apparently there was a little magic, after all. A bunch of breadcrumbs dropped like pennies in a fountain, leading me right to her.

I’m thinking about the way her hand fits in mine, and the way my heart drums out a beat that matches her name. Lu-cie. Lu-cie. Lu-cie. The almosts and the maybes and the what-ifs. The universe lining up for one perfect moment and handing me her. I got so fucking lucky. I drag her mouth to mine and press a hard kiss against her lips. “I’m thinking about you.”