Page 125 of Never To Be Mine

“What moment?” she asked quietly.

I turned back to the TV and picked up the remote. “This one.”

The screen lit up.

And there we were. Almost a year younger, standing off to the side of Sound Stage Twelve, thinking the whole world was looking at Jack Montana. The footage played exactly as I remembered it. Me handing Juno a smoothie bottle Her, rolling her eyes at me with that look that was all sass and spice. The laugh. The toast. The way she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and challenged me with her eyes.

And the way I looked at her.

The room had gone completely quiet.

On screen, I leaned in toward her, and there it was—captured forever in soft light and high definition—the expression I hadn’t even known I was capable of. Like the massive sound stage had shrunk down to one woman in a pink blouse telling me to fuck off in the sexiest way possible.

I heard Mom make a small sound. Victoria’s hand went to her mouth.

I looked at Juno.

She was watching the screen with her lips slightly parted. I watched her eyes fill. A tear slipped down her cheek, and she didn’t bother wiping it away.

The screen faded to black.

“That’s beautiful,” Kensey breathed.

“I’m so jealous,” Cleo murmured. “That is the sweetest thing ever.”

“Oh, my hormones,” Victoria groaned. Callum was up in a flash and grabbed a box of tissues for his wife.

“Micah thought this was the right choice for the commercial,” I said. “And he was right. As a piece of marketing, it would have worked. People had already fallen in love with us in that makeup video. This would have been even bigger.”

“So why didn’t you use it?” she whispered.

I glanced at Micah, who gave me the smallest nod.

“Because when I watched it, I realized two things. The first was that you’d already been through hell online because of me. You’d told me you never wanted to open your mouth on camera again. This was a private moment between two people who didn’t know they were being watched. I wasn’t going to take that from you and hand it to the internet to chew on. Some things shouldn’t be content.”

“Even though it would have sold a million smoothies,” Drew said, and there was no teasing in his voice at all. It sounded like respect.

“Even though.”

Juno was crying in earnest now, silent tears, not even trying to hide them. Mom was openly dabbing her eyes with a napkin. Victoria had her face pressed into Callum’s shoulder. My father had his arm around my mother and was looking at me with an expression of pride.

“What’s the second thing?” Juno asked.

I smiled at her.

“The second thing I realized when I watched this footage was that I was looking at the rest of my life.” I squeezed her hands. “I didn’t have the words for it yet. We weren’t even together. We were dancing around each other and pretending it was all professional. But the camera caught it before either of us could say it. When I saw myself looking at you like that, I knew. You were special. You were different. You were the one.”

Beau let out a whistle. “Damn, Hollis.”

Kensey had both hands over her heart.

Micah was filming again but with my permission this time.

I let go of one of her hands and reached into my pocket. I watched the exact moment understanding hit her. Her breath caught. Her free hand flew to her mouth.

I dropped to one knee.

The room erupted. Cleo squealed. Kensey grabbed Drew’s arm. My mother inhaled sharply.