Page 78 of Score Her Heart

“This is a nice place,” I commented.

He nodded. “ I know you love your sushi, and Mia, Hallsy’s girlfriend, recommended it.”

“I like Mia; she’s sweet.”

“She’s good people. Her and Hallsy, it’s wild to me that they’ve been together since high school.”

“Hmm.”

He eyed me. “What?”

I shook my head. “Nothing.”

“It’s not nothing,” he urged. “Spit it out.”

I sighed. “Aaron, have you really been in love with me since high school?”

He smiled. “Definitely.”

“What?” I shook my head. “No way.”

He gave me a hard look. “What does that mean?”

“You were the star hockey player. You didn’t belong with little old me, the nerd in the corner writing poetry.”

“Very bad poetry,” he joked.

I laughed. “You’re not wrong about that one.”

He caressed my hand and looked deep into my eyes. “Why do you say it like that? Say that we didn’t belong together?”

I shrugged. “It was high school; we were from different cliques. I was pretty sure I was your dirty little secret.”

He glared at me. “Because you asked me to keep it a secret. Do you know how many of my teammates I had to ward off with my stick to keep away from you? Is this why you pushed me to date Stacey?”

I bit my lip and drank more of my wine, so I didn’t have to answer.

Luckily our food came, so we got preoccupied with that. I speared a California roll with my chopsticks and shoved it into my mouth. I could tell that Riley was still bothered by what I had told him, though.

I chewed slowly before saying, “Baby, it’s in the past. That was high school. We’re together now and happy, right?”

“Yeah,” he agreed and then smiled at me. “Why did you bring it up again?”

“Oh!” I exclaimed. “I never imagined loving someone for that long. It’s a long time. But you loved me all that time and never said a word. Did Finnegan know all this time?”

He shook his head. “Fuck no. I didn’t reveal it until the day after our wedding when he asked me what the fuck I was thinking.”

I snorted. “Sounds about right. It’s been a weird time since then.”

“I wouldn’t trade it for the world, though.”

I smiled at him. “Me either.”

“So when did it become real for you? When did you figure out you felt the same way?”

I chewed some more of my food and thought about it for a moment. “I think it was slow at first. Like, when I first moved in with you, it was chaotic, but the next day when you were on the road, I hated being in your bed alone. We spent a couple days in Vegas together, and somehow I had gotten really used to you being there. When you weren’t there, I realized how much I missed you. It kind of scared me. I don’t think it really set in until yesterday when I couldn’t find my wedding ring.”

He nodded in understanding. “So when Finnegan let the cat out of the bag, were you just scared?”