Excitement.
The realization caught me off guard. For so long, fear had been the loudest voice in the room. Maybe it didn't have to be anymore. My gaze drifted toward my phone on the coffee table. I stared at it for a moment. Eventually, I reached for it. There was one conversation thread I needed to open.
Janelle. The name sat there on the screen.
Familiar.
Complicated.
For years, we'd existed in this strange space between strangers and family. Birthday messages. Christmas texts. Occasional check-ins to make sure the other person was still doing okay.
Enough to stay connected.
Never enough to move forward.
My thumb hovered over the screen. I thought about everything that had happened over the last twenty-four hours. About finally telling the truth. About Thane refusing to let fear make my decisions for me. About saying yes to Saturday.
Maybe it was time to stop saying no to other things, too. Before I could talk myself out of it, I opened the message thread. My fingers hesitated only once. Then I typed:
Me: Hey. Do you have time for coffee sometime?
I read the message twice. Then I hit send. The screen went still. There was no taking it back now.
For a moment, I sat there staring at the text.
My pulse was moving a little faster than normal. Not because I knew what would happen next. Because I didn't. And for once, I wasn't letting uncertainty stop me.
I wasn't waiting for somebody else to choose me.
I was choosing too.
THIRTY-ONE
THANE
Kieran had been quiet for the last ten minutes.
Every so often, he'd ask a question about the arena, the schedule, or where he'd be sitting during the game. Then he'd nod at the answer and fall silent again. I recognized the pattern. He was nervous. The realization made me smile.
When he caught me looking, one eyebrow lifted. "What?"
"Nothing."
His eyes narrowed immediately. "You're smiling at me."
"Maybe."
"That's annoying."
I laughed and pulled into the players' parking area.
The arena rose above us, familiar enough that I normally stopped noticing it. Today it felt different because Kieran was here. He was stepping into a part of my life that had existed long before we met. I parked and reached for the door handle.
Beside me, Kieran stilled.
"You ready?"
He looked through the windshield toward the building. Then he looked back at me and nodded. "Yeah."
