Page 201 of While You Were Trending

He pulls me through the other curve, letting his legs slide wider and putting his face at my level. “You okay?”

I nod and blink quickly, then shake my head.

“What’s up?” he murmurs.

“I don’t want you to leave,” I blurt.

He crushes me to his chest, holding me tight, his heartbeat thumping against my ear. “I can stay.”

“You have?—”

“Nothing important to get to.”

“Your sponsorships?—”

“Two or three days here and there. Road trips.”

“Where—where’s home?”

He squeezes me tighter and presses a kiss to my hair. “Right here.”

This.

This is love.

This is the Mabel kind of love, steady and unwavering.

The Olivia and Samantha kind of love, enduring and supportive.

The Heath kind of love, patient and protective.

The Cricket kind of love, brave and optimistic.

It’s the kind of love my friends have shown me is real and true and authentic. The kind of love I always knew existed in the world but never believed I deserved.

My knees wobble and my breath isn’t steady, but my heart—my heart is glowing.

“I love you,” I say, the words catching on the lump in my throat.

“Ginny,” he murmurs, kissing my hair, my ear, my jaw, twisting us to press me against the boards and hold me safe and secure, his feet blocking mine from sliding on the ice. His Adam’s apple bobs as he searches my eyes, his taking on a shine. “I’ve loved you for years. And every day I get to spend with you—I fall harder and harder. I don’t want to be anywhere else when I could be with you.”

I sniffle. “I’m so mad at you right now.”

His eyes crease as a smile spreads over his lips, his thumb brushing away the moisture on my cheek. “Why?”

“You were a dick foryears, and now you’ve made me fall in love with you in like amonth.”

“I will happily spend the next many years of my life atoning for my sins.”

“I don’twantyou to make it up to me. I want—I want us to be on even ground.”

He slides a glance at the ice, then quirks a brow at me. “Seems pretty even to me right here.”

I poke him in the gut. “Don’t be an ass.”

“Your feet sliding. My heart sliding. It’s even.”

“My heart’s sliding too, you jerk.”