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It’s almost nine when he walks in the door, looking exhausted. He drops his bag on the floor and opens his arms. I’m wearing socks, so I skid across the slippery hardwood into his hard chest.
He folds me into his embrace. “I missed you so goddamn much.”
“Same.” I breathe him in—his cologne, the scent of his laundry detergent, stale airplane, and possibly some kind of pizza. His heart thunders, and mine matches the frantic rhythm.
He cups my face between his palms, tips my head back, and covers my mouth with his. I sink into the kiss for a few minutes, allowing myself the fantasy that this isn’t going to come to an end in a month, that every day he’s going to walk through that door and kiss me like this for the rest of our lives, that I won’t have to go weeks at a time without him.
Eventually I pull away. “You signed with a team.”
He nods. “For three years.”
My heart skips a few beats. That will feel like an eternity. “We’ll make it work.”
“We’ll have the off-season, and the flight to Chicago isn’t that long. We’ll be able—”
“I won’t be in Chicago.”
“Wait. What?” His brow furrows.
I swallow my fears. “While you were away, I got an offer from the production company. They want to keep me on.”
“Here? In New York?”
I nod. “I really love it, Kodiak. I love what I’m doing, and if you’re already going to be all the way across the country, it makes sense.” I run my hands over his chest, working to find some calm when my nerves are going haywire. “New York and Chicago are pretty close to the same distance from Vancouver.”
“I won’t be in Vancouver.” He sweeps a thumb across the hollow under my eye, wiping away a tear.
My heart stutters. “Where will you be?”
“Close.” A massive grin breaks across his face, popping the dimple that makes him look so boyish. “I signed with Philly.”
“Philadelphia? That’s really close.”
“Drivably close,” he agrees and lowers his voice to a whisper. “We’re gonna be okay, Lavender. We can make this work.”
I break down in tears, the relief overwhelming. “I was so scared you were going to be on the other side of the country.”
He wraps his arms around me and carries me over to the couch, arranging me so I’m settled in his lap. “I was fucking terrified.” He brushes my hair away from my face. “I didn’t want to be that far away from you.”
“Me either, but I couldn’t let you walk away from your dream.”
He nods, eyes soft and warm. He wraps me in his safe, strong embrace, dips his head and kisses me breathless. “Thank you for making sure I didn’t mess this up for us.”
“I love you too much to let something like distance break us, but I’ll admit, I’m so glad you won’t be far away.”
“Well, I’m always right here.” He draws a figure eight over my heart. “But I prefer when I can feel it beat for me.”
Epilogue
Keeper of My Heart
Kodiak
Eighteen months later
IT’S AFTER MIDNIGHTwhen I get home. And home isn’t Philly anymore. The planets aligned, and I was traded at the end of last season. But home isn’t a spot on a map for me anyway. It isn’t the two-story brownstone with a garden full of purple flowers in the summer and a door the color of my girlfriend’s name.
Home is the feeling I get when the plane touches down in New York City. It’s the spike of anxiety mixed with anticipation as I slide into the back seat of the cab, knowing with every passing mile, I’m that much closer to the one person who makes me feel whole.
