Page 272 of Saving Forever with the Hockey Captain

"Should I be worried?"

"Probably not."

"That's not especially reassuring."

She laughs. "I've spent months wondering what was going on inside your head."

"And now?"

"Now I know."

I smile. "I think you always knew."

"I knew pieces." She turns slightly in her seat. "I didn't know you were carrying all of that by yourself."

"I wasn't trying to."

She gives my hand a gentle squeeze. "You don't have to anymore."

The words settle quietly between us. I don't answer. I simply turn my hand over and lace my fingers through hers.

It feels astonishingly natural.

Chapter thirty-three

Annette

The First Stop

Jamie refuses to tell me where we’re going. He only smiles every time I ask, one hand resting loosely on the steering wheel while the other reaches across the console to hold mine.

Not just for a minute.

Not only when we stop at a light.

He has been holding my hand since we left his cabin, as if he is afraid that if he lets go, I might somehow disappear again.

I don’t blame him. I understand the feeling.

Two months ago, I was driving across the country trying to convince myself I was doing the brave thing by leaving, the responsible thing, the thing that would protect the man I loved from having to choose between me and the life he had worked so hard to reclaim.

Now I’m sitting beside him in his truck, wearing yesterday’s clothes, my hair pulled into a messy knot, and my entire world has shifted back into place, or maybe into place for the first time.

“You know,” I say, watching the familiar streets of Briar Cove pass outside my window, “most people tell someone where they’re taking them.”

“Most people didn’t have their girlfriend show up unexpectedly at their cabin after driving two thousand miles.”

My heart gives a ridiculous little jump at the word.

Girlfriend.

It should not feel so new. We have said I love you. We have made promises. We have spent the better part of the afternoon talking, kissing, and holding on to each other as if neither of us trusts the universe yet.

Still, girlfriend settles somewhere warm inside me. I turn my head toward him. “Is that what I am?”

Jamie glances at me, his expression instantly serious. “You’re a lot more than that.”

The softness in his voice steals every clever reply I might have made. He lifts my hand to his mouth and brushes a kiss across my knuckles. “I just figured girlfriend was a good place to start.”