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I square my shoulders. “I know what I read.”
He leans into me, seeming fatherly. “What about what you didn’t read?” I stare at him not understanding. “The ending, you didn’t read that,” he explains.
“It wasn’t written.”
“If you had to write the ending, what would you write?” I open my mouth and close it as he grabs a napkin and slides it across the table to me. I stare at it, as he calls the server over and borrows a pen. “Write it,” he suggests. “Put it down on paper.”
As my heart thumps, I shake my head. “I’m not a writer, and…” As I protest, I grab the pen and quickly scribble my version of the ending on the napkin. I set the pen down and my phone pings. I grab it, and my heart jumps into my throat as I read “Honeybee.”
“It’s her.”
Kalen gestures toward the door. “You’d better go.”
I quickly text back, asking where she is, and the second she answers, I’m on my feet. I reach her room in record time and she answers on the first knock. The mere sight of her standing before me in a silk robe nearly makes me sob. I love her so fucking much and can’t imagine another three years, let alone a lifetime, without her.
“Ember,” I murmur, my voice low, tortured and breathless. “Are you okay?
“Not really. Are you?” I shake my head and she begins, “I know you don’t want to see me, and you might never want to talk to me again.” She hands me a couple of sheets of paper. “But you need to read this. I spent the evening writing it.”
“What is it?”
“The ending I want for us.” She opens the door wider and gestures to the desk chair. I step inside and she touches my arm. I turn to her. “I’m sorry about the championship, Josh.” I nod and drop into a chair.
“Ember,” I whisper as I read her happily ever after, and a few jokes in there about her being the consolation prize to the series playoffs.
Really, she thinks she’s a consolation prize?
I stand, and shake my head hard as my heart pounds. “This is wrong. You have it all wrong, Ember.”
Her face pales, and she backs up an inch, dropping onto the corner of the bed. “I thought it was a great ending. I thought you could see that I’m not…that I wasn’t…”
“I know what you are and what you’re not.” She stares at me in confusion as I take my phone from my pocket, search my contacts and hit dial. The phone rings, and my eyes are locked on Ember’s as she stares at me, her expression perplexed. The phone rings three times, and I try to quiet my racing heart as Liam picks up.
“Hey,” he says quietly that one word so steeped in pain and loss I know he’s been hurting as much as I have for the last three years.
“Liam,” I say, and Ember’s eyes go wide.
“Josh,” she whispers, and puts her hand on my leg. “What are you doing?”
I cover the phone. “What I should have done three years ago.”
“Liam,” I begin. “I’m in love with Ember. I’ve been in love with her for as long as I can remember. I shouldn’t have slept with her that night without telling you how I felt first. I knew she was off limits, but what you need to know is what happened between us wasn’t a random hook-up. I’d never do that to her or to you. I handled it all badly, and what we did wasn’t a mistake. I never, ever should have said that. The mistake part was not telling you how I felt about her. I love her and want to spend the rest of my life with her.” Silence lasts for so long, I begin to worry that he hung up on me. “Liam?”
“I’m the one who made the mistake,” he says quietly, and I exhale loudly as a sob catches in my throat. “I’m sorry, Josh. I reacted. I mean just seeing you two…”
“I get it, bud. Believe me I do. None of it went down right and I’m so fucking sorry.”
“I’m fucking sorry, too.”
I hold Ember’s gaze. “Ember is with me now. We ran into each other in Houston.”
“What’s she doing in Houston?”
“I’ll let her explain that to you when she sees you. I just need you to know I love her and I’m going to spend the rest of my life being everything she needs. If that’s what she wants.”
I wipe away a tear from her face, and my heart pounds with everything I feel for her.
Liam’s voice is shaky when he says, “I’ve had three long years to think about this, Josh, and there isn’t any other guy I’d want her with.”
