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“You’re a great player, August.” She tips up on her toes until her lips are at my ear. “But I think you’ll be an even greater man.”
“A man like you should never have to settle, August.” “Same goes for a woman like you, Iris.”
“I’d take care of you, if that’s what you wanted.” I force myself to stand, though I’d be content to sit at her feet all night. “But the girl I met in that bar didn’t want to be taken care of. I’d do everything in my power to help you follow your dreams so you could take care of yourself. And then we’d both know you were with me because you wanted to be, not because you had no other choice.”
Can you miss someone you’ve never had?
Hope is the gap between what if and what is, but you have to fill that gap with a lot of hard work.
The look he gives me alternates between affection and indulgence. “You can be on my team.” “Oh.” I lob a smile up at him, much too close to flirting. “And what position will I play on your team?” His smile melts a little around the edges, and his eyes lose some of their humor. “At the five-spot,” he says softly.
“Center,” he says, linking our fingers and toying with the hair hanging on my shoulder. “If you were mine, Iris, there would be no doubt what position you’d hold in my life. You’d be center. I’d play you at the five.”
“You feel that, Iris.” I bend to float my words over her ear, rustling the fine strands of hair escaping around her neck. “Please tell me you feel this, too. Tell me I’m not fooling myself that we’ll be good together.”
“You’re not fooling yourself,” she admits, her voice shaking.
“She remembered who she was and the game changed.”
“Lies don’t give up easily. You’ll have to remind yourself and heal yourself over and over, every time they come.”
“A long shot?” I ask, pausing at the door to give him a cocky grin. “Last I heard, I’m pretty good at those.”
“Your dreams and ambitions got swallowed up when you had to follow Caleb,” I say, holding her eyes with mine. “I want you to know there’s someone who will follow you.”
“Going to Houston is my best shot at winning a ring.” “Then why would you—” “But staying here,” I cut in, caressing the fullness of her bottom lip with my thumb. “Staying is my best shot at winning you.”
She is singular, obliterating every kiss that came before her, eliminating the possibility of anyone else ever tasting this good.
He sets me on my feet and tucks my hair behind my ear, settling a kiss between my eyebrows. I didn’t flinch! He tucked my hair behind my ear and I didn’t flinch.
“You make me feel so good,” he says huskily. “There’s never been anyone like you, Iris. There never will be.”
Time is not a line. It’s a circle, and we, August and Iris, we stand at the center.
During the day, when things are brightest, we don’t see the stars, but they are there. It’s only in the contrast of night, when things are darkest, that the stars shine.
We love with the urgency of never again, even though we have the rest of our lives. The wasted years, the ones we missed, have made us appreciate the gift of a life together.
