Little Lies(106)

“I won’t be in Vancouver.” He sweeps a thumb across the hollow under my eye, wiping away a tear.

My heart stutters. “Where will you be?”

“Close.” A massive grin breaks across his face, popping the dimple that makes him look so boyish. “I signed with Philly.”

“Philadelphia? That’s really close.”

“Drivably close,” he agrees and lowers his voice to a whisper. “We’re gonna be okay, Lavender. We can make this work.”

I break down in tears, the relief overwhelming. “I was so scared you were going to be on the other side of the country.”

He wraps his arms around me and carries me over to the couch, arranging me so I’m settled in his lap. “I was fucking terrified.” He brushes my hair away from my face. “I didn’t want to be that far away from you.”

“Me either, but I couldn’t let you walk away from your dream.”

He nods, eyes soft and warm. He wraps me in his safe, strong embrace, dips his head and kisses me breathless. “Thank you for making sure I didn’t mess this up for us.”

“I love you too much to let something like distance break us, but I’ll admit, I’m so glad you won’t be far away.”

“Well, I’m always right here.” He draws a figure eight over my heart. “But I prefer when I can feel it beat for me.”





Epilogue


Keeper of My Heart

Kodiak

Eighteen months later

IT’S AFTER MIDNIGHT when I get home. And home isn’t Philly anymore. The planets aligned, and I was traded at the end of last season. But home isn’t a spot on a map for me anyway. It isn’t the two-story brownstone with a garden full of purple flowers in the summer and a door the color of my girlfriend’s name.

Home is the feeling I get when the plane touches down in New York City. It’s the spike of anxiety mixed with anticipation as I slide into the back seat of the cab, knowing with every passing mile, I’m that much closer to the one person who makes me feel whole.

Home is wherever Lavender happens to be.

And currently, she’s curled up on the couch, having fallen asleep while crocheting. Her brother Robbie’s girlfriend is due any day, and Lavender decided before I left for my away series that she was going to teach herself to crochet because so many cute things!

One of her favorite albums is playing, probably on repeat. She does that sometimes, plays the same album on an endless loop when she’s trying to concentrate. She says she stops hearing it, and it drowns out the noise in her head.

Based on the rainbow of bunnies populating the arm of the couch at her feet, the mission was a resounding success—either that or the crocheted bunnies have learned how to multiply on their own.

I take a moment to appreciate that Lavender is willing to deal with the insanity that is my life, and sometimes me. I love her so fiercely, it can be overwhelming at times—for both of us. But we’ve learned how to find our own version of balance. It isn’t always easy, and the long stretches during my away series test me more than they test Lavender, but we manage. She’s proven to be the stronger and more resilient of the two of us in that regard.

I pad back to the kitchen to gather the items I left on the counter, and I arrange them carefully on the end table before I kneel on the floor beside her.

Her lips are parted slightly, the scar from her childhood forever a reminder of the night that cemented our souls together. No matter how far away I am, I feel that connection, like a tripping switch, an invisible energy that only seems to grow stronger the longer we’re together.

I brush my thumb across her bottom lip, and she sighs, head turning in my direction. She swipes at her face with an uncoordinated hand, and when it connects with mine, she finds my pinkie and curls hers around it.

“Baby, you wakin’ up?” I kiss her temple and down her cheek.

She hums softly, and her palm comes to rest against the side of my neck. “Kodiak.”

“You talking to me in your sleep?” I hover over her mouth.

Her lips turn up. “I tried to stay awake.”

“You and the bunnies?”

“Mmm. Me and the bunnies.” She licks her lips. “I need a mint before you kiss me hello.”

“No, you don’t.” I slant my mouth over hers and part her lips with my tongue.

She makes a slight noise of protest that turns into a sweet moan. She tastes like watermelon Jolly Rancher, so she must not have been asleep all that long. We kiss until it’s clear Lavender wants it to become more. She kicks off the blanket and tries to shove my hand down the front of her sleep shorts.

“Not yet.” I smile against her lips. “I have something for you.”

“I’d rather have an orgasm than whatever it is.”

I chuckle. Lavender is always a little surly when she’s woken unexpectedly, and now is a perfect example of that.

“I promise you’ll get what you want after, but I have something special for you since it happens to be your birthday.” I pull back and tilt my head toward the end of the couch where helium balloons and a bottle of champagne are set up. “No more underage drinking for you. Gonna be hard to give up your badass, deviant ways.”

“If we lived in Canada, I’d have been legal for two years already.” She grabs the front of my shirt and tries to pull my mouth back to hers. “Thank you for the balloons and champagne. Let’s drink that after you’ve been inside me.”