He smirked. “I’m not that athletic anymore.”
“Oh, please.” I nudged his leg with my blanket-clad food and gave him an exaggerated eye roll. “You know what’s not athletic? Sliding down the side of a mountain and your limp body ricocheting between tree trunks. You probably could’ve done that run in your sleep.”
“Itisa pretty easy Black.”
My mouth hung open. “Hey, I was kidding!” I threw the pillow behind me at his head.
He chuckled. “In your defense, it was ungroomed and there was about three feet of fresh snow.”
“In my defense, I’ve gone snowboardingthree timesin my entire life. You’re literally a professional.”
“Retired professional,” he clarified, setting his empty plate down on the coffee table.
I polished off my last egg roll and leaned forward to set my plate on top of his. “Still, that’s so impressive to be that good at something. You went to the Olympics.”
“It was a great life,” he admitted.
“Did you always know you wanted to move back to Key Ridge?”
He glanced over at me, considering my question. The movie kept playing, forgotten in the background. “I think so, yeah. I mean, there was a time in my life when all I wanted to do was get as far away from this town as physically possible. But I think something I realized when I was traveling and moving around so much is that nowhere ever felt like home the way this place does.” He fiddled with his hands in his lap. “I just wished I realized that a little earlier.”
The sadness in his voice crushed my heart. It must be so hard for him to be back in this town without his parents. He must be reminded of them everywhere he looked.
“What about you?” he asked me. “You’ve lived in the same place your whole life. How come you never left?”
I bit my lip. “I’m not sure. I guess I’ve never really been anywhere else. I feel like we have the opposite problem. You were dying to get out, and I was always too scared to. It was comforting being close to things I’d known my whole life. I never even really thought about leaving until my life imploded.”
“And now that you have?” he looked at me expectantly.
“Now that I have left, I’m really happy I did. I think I’ve had more fun, met more people, and tried more things these past few weeks than I have in the past few years.”
A smile played on his lips as he pretended to watch the movie. “I’m glad to hear that.”
“You are?” I challenged him to say more, but he simply nodded and said, “Yeah.”
“You know what I’m glad about?” I asked, deciding to be bold.
He glanced at me, his brown eyes darkening slightly. “What?”
“That you gave me a chance.”
He turned his body so that he was facing me and put his arm across the back of the couch, propping his head up against that hand. “I’m glad you didn’t write me off as an asshole.”
I laughed. “Well, I did at first, but I decided you deserved another chance.”
He smirked and his gaze remained locked on mine.
“Would you mind if…” His voice trailed off.
“What?”
“Can I hold you?”
Butterflies exploded in my stomach. “Okay.”
I carefully shifted on the couch until my back was next to him. He gently grabbed my waist and pulled me back toward him so that I was resting against his firm chest. He brought his mouth to the top of my head and kissed me.
“You really scared the shit out of me today, Florida.”
