She sucked in a breath, feeling unsteady. “I want you, too, Nick. I know sometimes it will be hard, with you traveling for the broadcasting job or needing to go back for previous commitments and I’ll admit, I struggled this week with you extending your stay there, but you’re everything to me and we’ll make it work. I love you.”
He leaned in. “I didn’t take the job, Maisie. It wasn’t the right fit. There will be lots of professional opportunities for me down the line. Somewhere here, closer to home where I don’t have to be away from you for days at a time.”
It seemed too good to be true. But then, so did he. “Are you sure?”
Nick pulled her close and it steadied her completely. “I’m so sure. I’m sure about retiring, being here, loving you. And I’m sure that one day, a bit further down the road, I want to marry you and spend the rest of my life showing you how lucky I feel to have you love me back. I’ll give you anything you want. I’ll always do my best to make you happy and to be the one you turn to when you’re sad. I know you were sad because of me this week and I hated it. But I wanted to do this for you because you spend your life capturing other peoples’ perfect moments, and I want to be the one who creates perfect moments for you.”
Maisie brought one hand to her mouth, tried to settle her heart rate with slow breaths. Nick looked at her, so much love shining in his eyes, she couldfeelit. Like when she knew she had the perfect shot. When that happened, she could see the way the photograph would turn out, the beauty that would unravel once she printed it. And right now, she could see that the future they had laid out in front of them was going to be magic.
“Say something,” he whispered.
Maisie stepped into him. “I fell in love with you the minute I looked at you. I might not have realized it until a couple of weeks ago, but now I know. I took a photo of you that first night. You were standing by the bar, nursing a drink. You were watching Hailey and Wes dance and there was something in your gaze, in the set of your jaw, that drew me and I couldn’t look away. I knew then that I could look at you for the rest of my life and never get tired of the view.”
Nick pulled her close, kissed her. “Bet I realized I was in love before you admitted it to yourself.”
Maisie tipped her head back with a laugh. “You know it doesn’t bode well for us that we’re both so competitive, right?”
Nick locked his arms around her waist. “I disagree. It means we’ll always push to be the best version of ourselves, to be what the other person needs. It means we won’t give up when it’s tough because we know the other person won’t.”
She nodded, resting her hands on his shoulders. “Good points. But you have no proof that you admitted to falling first so it’s a moot point.”
Nick dropped his hands and stepped away, making Maisie’s brow furrow. “I knew you’d say that,” he said as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his phone. He touched the screen, moved his finger, and then turned it so she could see the screen.
“What is this?” She kept looking at him, not the screen.
“It’s the promise I wrote after you left my sister’s. Colt said he’d never seen me like that and tried to calm me down. He suggested I write my feelings on a piece of paper, so I did and I gave it to him.”
A smile hovered on her lips. Maisie leaned in to see the screen. It was a scrap of paper with quickly written words. She squinted; the writing was slanted and sloppy.
I’ve never felt this way. I’m in love with Maisie and I don’t know what to do with all of these feelings. I was an idiot to walk away from her the first time and I won’t make that mistake again. I’ve never believed there was someone for everyone but Maisie is it for me. I’m completely in love with her.
Nick
Tears blurred her vision as she looked up at Nick. “You wrote this before you came to see me?”
Nick tucked his phone away, reaching out to bring Maisie back into his arms. “Yeah. He was right. It helped to write it out. Once I did, I knew that whatever other choices I made, retiring or not retiring, getting traded or bought out, you were part of it. You’re part of me.”
Nick swiped his thumb over her cheek gently, trying to stop the tears. “I love you. If that’s all I’m certain of right this minute, that and the fact that you’re it for me, is that enough?”
Maisie went up on her tiptoes. “I love you. And as to whether or not it’s enough? It’s more than enough.You’remore than enough. So much more. You’re everything.”
Nick scooped her up so she was pressed against him, her feet off the ground, as they kissed each other. The candles flickered around them and their dinner grew cold but neither of them cared. They had everything they wanted in their grasp and neither of them would let go.
Epilogue
SUMMER INSEATTLEWASMaisie’s favorite, no matter how much she enjoyed Christmas. Looking around, taking in the huge crowd of people milling about, laughing, and talking on the Side Tap Brewery lawn, she was still in awe at how much had changed in the last six months.
A news crew rolled into the parking lot and Maisie scanned the crowd for Nick, who would be giving an interview about today’s event. Like her gaze was drawn automatically to him, she saw he was walking toward her, a sexy smile on his face, his eyes locked on her.
“News crew is here,” she said, moving directly into his arms and burrowing herself against him.
She’d had no idea when she fell in love that there was more. So much more. More love, more growth, laughter, moments. It wasn’t all perfect but that just made it better. They could be themselves with each other—no smoke screens.
“You want to come say hi?” he asked, pressing a kiss to her hair.
Tipping her head back, she squinted and he laughed, nudging her sunglasses from the top of her head to the bridge of her nose.
“Better?”
