Page 226 of Dream On, Liar

“Because I’ve achieved everything I’ve wanted in it. If I was in the position two years ago, I wouldn’t have made the same choices.”

“Still. I feel like I’ll need to grovel.”

“You’re here, chaos. That’s all that matters to me. You’ll never have to grovel for me, especially not for choosing your career.”

“Yeah, but if I hadn’t given into my fear. We would’ve worked this out before. How can I even make that up to you?”

“I’m not worried about the timing, and neither should you be. We can’t change how we acted in the past. But Maeve,” I whispered. “I don’t need you to be brave. I just need you to talk to me so we can make decisions together. And, for you to be mine.”

“I already am.” She whispered, and I felt those perfect words against my mouth before I kissed her.

The first touch was almost hesitant, a question.

She answered by gripping the front of my jacket and pulling me closer.

Everything else disappeared.

The rain.

The empty stadium.

The future.

The past.

My father’s voice.

Her rules.

Every reason we’d been terrified of this.

Her mouth softened against mine, and my hand moved to the back of her neck as she rose slightly onto her toes.

The rain soaked through my shirt.

She laughed against my lips.

I smiled. “Still want to ban cricketers?”

She pulled back enough to glare at me. “Don’t ruin this.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, chaos.”

She kissed me again.

And this time, I didn’t think about what happened next.

I just held her.

For once, that was enough.

The stadium lights glowed behind us.

The rain kept falling.

And somewhere between the pitch where I’d spent more than half my life proving myself and the woman I’d spent months trying not to love, I realised I didn’t need another trophy.

I had already won the most important thing.