As soon as Neesha dashes out of the store, I know something’s wrong. She just used the escape clause—the one we agreed on if she ever felt overwhelmed and needed to leave. Over the last few months, I’ve learned to read her body language, the way she gets that deer-in-the-headlights look when her anxiety takes over.
“What just happened?” Mabel asks, looking between the door and me.
Everyone turns to me and I rub the back of my neck. “I’m not sure. Can you give me a few minutes alone with her?”
Emmy approaches me. “I need you to give her something,” she says, then goes to talk to Bailey before returning with an envelope. “Bailey found this in the old general store. It’s a piece of the town’s history and it might help Neesha right now.”
I tuck the envelope in my pocket and search outside for Neesha, but her car is gone. I know exactly where she’d go when she needs to escape.
When I park next to Maple Lake, I find her on the dock—knees drawn up, arms wrapped around them like she’s physically holding herself together. She looks beautiful and vulnerable.More than ever, I want to take her in my arms and chase away all her fears.
She doesn’t know I called my father last night, trying to convince him not to let Nate buy this property and telling him about Neesha. He left me with a disappointing “I’ll think about it” before hanging up. But it was worth trying for her sake.
I sit beside her and stay quiet, just letting her know I’m here. That I willalwaysbe here. The breeze stirs her hair and I can’t help but brush a strand from her cheek.
“Are you okay?” I finally ask.
Her jaw clenches before she shakes her head.
“Is that why you used the escape clause?”
She’s quiet so long I wonder if she heard me. “I needed to think about everything that’s happened. I’m not someone who can just accept good things happening to me. Part of me keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop.” She tucks her hair behind her ear. “This past year has been the hardest of my life and now I’m afraid to have hope. I think that’s why I hesitated so long over the grant application. When I finally decided to finish it, I couldn’t even get that right.”
I take her hand in mine, letting our fingers intertwine. “Actually, there’s something I need to tell you. This morning when Mimi mentioned the food critic, I went to check on you. Mrs. Nelson let me into your apartment—you weren’t there, but I noticed the grant application on your counter. Mrs. Nelson was adamant that you shouldn’t miss the deadline. She volunteered to be a reference and then I dropped it at the mayor’s office before coming to the cafe.” I study her face, unsure how she’s going to take this news. “I was planning to tell you, but then the entire town showed up.”
Her eyes widen. “You submitted my grant application?”
“I couldn’t stand the thought of you missing out on something you deserved because of a deadline.”
Tears well up in her eyes, and I can see something shift. “I can’t believe you did that for me.”
“I’d do anything for you.” I reach for her, gently pulling her onto my lap until she’s curled against me, her body warm and perfect in my arms. I cup her face in both hands, forcing her to meet my eyes.
“You deserve every good thing that comes to you, Neesha Gilmore. I will never stop telling you how amazing you are. And what I said last night holds.Always.My feelings for you won’t change,” I say firmly, my thumbs brushing across her cheekbones. “I want to be the kind of man who makes you feel brave. I want to beyourperson. Your place to land when the world gets too heavy.”
For a moment, she just stares at me. Last night when I told her she was the one, I walked away without kissing her because I needed her to choose this with no pressure from me. I couldn’t push her; she had to want this as much as I did.
Now, seeing the way she’s looking at me, I know she has.
Her hand slides up to cup my face, her thumb tracing my lips slowly. “I knew you were the one for me too,” she whispers.
She leans closer, and that’s when she closes the distance between us, her lips finding mine with an intensity that changes into something all-consuming.
It’s the answer I’ve been waiting forever to hear. I pour everything into kissing her back—one hand tangled in her hair while the other spreads across her lower back, drawing her against me until there’s nothing between us. She kisses me like she’s been starving for this, her fingers fisting into my shirt as if she’s afraid I might disappear. As I find her lips again, the soft murmur she makes against my mouth sends fire racing through my veins.
I’ve kissed her before, but this time it’s different. This is her choosing me, pouring every unspoken feeling into the slide of her lips against mine. When I trail kisses along her jaw to that spot below her ear, shemeltsinto me.
“Lucian,” she breathes, and the way she says it—broken and breathless—nearly undoes me completely. “I want this too. Eventhough I swore I’d never date another athlete—I still want to try.”
I pull back, searching her gaze. “Really? Does this mean you can handle dating a hockey player?”
She pauses, her finger tracing the scar on my cheek leftover from the night I got hurt. “I’ve been thinking about what you said—about seeing all of you, not just the parts I’m comfortable with.” Her finger follows the scar until it ends. “Hockey is part of who you are. Maybe it’s time I stopped pretending it doesn’t exist.”
“So does this mean you are staying?”
She nods slowly. “I want to stay. I want to see where this goes.”
The relief I feel surges through me like a dam that’s broken, and I can’t stop the laugh that bubbles up—the sound of everything I’ve been hoping for finally coming true.
