Page 161 of Glitched Play

I pull her into my lap. “We found our guiding star—together”

"What star are you?" she asks.

I consider the question, way longer than necessary. "I don't know."

"I do."

I wait.

"Polaris,” she says in a matter-of-fact tone.

I glance at her. "The North Star?"

The lips I just kissed curve into a smile.

"You don't ask people to follow you, yet they do. Willingly. Enthusiastically."

I think about my brothers always being the leaders, especially J.D. and Greyson. None of them would ever say I was a leader by nature, but I realize now because of Maci that I am.

"You just stay true to who you are. Do what you love. And everyone follows you and watches in awe. They find their way because of you.”

The words lodge somewhere behind my ribs. No one has ever described me that way.

She points upward. "Which one am I?"

I don't hesitate.

"You're not one star."

She laughs. "That's cheating."

"It isn't."

I turn toward her. "You're the lines."

Her smile falters.

"You’re the connections." My thumb swipes over her palm. “You help people see how everything belongs together. That’s more amazing than one star. Orion is more beautiful than Polaris."

A tear slips down her cheek. She doesn't wipe it away. Instead, she whispers, "I think that's the most beautiful thing anyone's ever said to me."

I lean forward and kiss her forehead.

"It's the truest words I’ve ever spoken except for these.” I swallow hard, my vocal cords trying to catch up with my heart and mind. “I love you, Maci.”

Even in the dark with just stars above and flameless candles behind us, I see the tears welling in her eyes.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have…”

She pushes me onto my back, and one tear drops from her face to mine. “No one’s ever said that to me.”

“I’ve never said it to anyone.”

“Me either.”

She stretches her body over mine, tugging the collar of my t-shirt down. When her lips hit my skin it’s as powerful as the heat from Earth’s star, the sun. Her lips drag agonizingly slow up my neck until she teases the corners of my mouth.

I’m a patient man but it has run out. Maci’s my star and I want to burn with her. Leaning up onto one elbow, I press her head into mine. The kisses are needy and hungry and it quickly turns into nothing but heat.