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He either doesn’t hear me or he doesn’t care. He just continues to dribble between shots. After a few minutes, he finally slows, but he doesn’t look at me. Elbows bent, ball perched on his hands above his head, he faces the hoop, and yells, “Hey, who am I?” He takes the shot, letting out a high-pitched, feminine grunt when the ball leaves his hand.
He sinks the shot, and I…
I laugh. “Shut up!”
He positions himself in the same spot, then repeats the process, mocking me again.
“I’m going to kick your ass!”
Finally, he faces me, a slight smile tugging on his lips. He waves me over, eyebrows raised. “Come on then. Show me what you got.”
I consider my options. Close the door between us, go to bed, and hopefully get some sleep. Or step out in the rain and do as I threatened.
Water pools around my bare feet as I step out onto the concrete, approaching him with a forced glare. I kick water at him, and he rolls his eyes. “That all you got?” He has the ball in one hand, the other tempting me closer. I playfully kick his thigh. He scoffs. “Weak,” he teases, and so I charge for him. He runs away, chuckling, twisting at the waist and switching directions every time I get near, and then it turns into a game of tag I have absolutely no hope of winning.
For one, I’m barefoot.
Two, I can barely see through the sheets of rain coming down around us.
And three, he’s Jace fricken Rivera.
At some point, he finally lets me tap him, and then he stands to full height, offering a wolfish smile. “My turn,” he deadpans, and I squeal, run away from him. He takes less than two steps to catch me, his arms around my waist as he lifts me off the ground, spinning me in circles. I throw my arms in the air, my face to the night sky as I let drop after drop fall on me. This feeling washes over me, like weightlessness mixed with hope. Too soon, Jace lowers me to the ground, and I immediately turn in his arms.
His eyes meet mine, squinted by the force of the downpour. “You’re okay?” I ask, and his smile fades at my words. A part of me wishes I hadn’t brought us back to reality, but reality is where we stand, and anything else would just be a lie. I reach up, my hand going to his jaw and turning his face so I can scan it for injuries. It’s clear.
“Harlow…” It’s all he says.
And before I can think straight, I’m lifting the hem of his shirt, inspecting his torso. No bruises. No welts.
“You’re okay,” I repeat, but it’s not a question this time. It’s as if I needed to hear the words out loud to confirm the truth, even if the words came from me.
I trail my eyes back to his and force my teeth to stop chattering so I can say, “Where have you been?”
“Why?” he asks. “Did you miss me?”
“Jace,” I say through a sigh, hugging my arms to my chest. I hadn’trealized how cold I was until I stopped running. The rain is thick, the air frigid, and I can’t be standing out here much longer.
Jace finally answers, “I had to take my grandpa to an appointment on Sunday.”
“And you couldn’t have told me?”
Shrugging, he shifts his gaze to anywhere but me. “I didn’t know what to say.” He shrugs. “It’s embarrassing, you seeing that… for both of us…”
I rear back, confused. “For you and me?”
He shakes his head. “For me and my grandpa…” he trails off, then pauses a breath before adding, “He doesn’t know what he’s doing when he’s like that, and I knew him seeing you there would cause him shame, and then he’d try to erase that shame by drinking more. I needed to be home to make sure he didn’t take things too far.”
I play his words over in my mind, on repeat, until I’m forced to make sense of them. “So I made it worse?”
Jace’s shoulders drop. “Yeah, you did.”
My chest tightens at the thought. But… “I’m allowed to worry about you.”
“I know,” he says, his eyes meeting mine again. “But you don’t need to.” Stepping closer, he settles one hand on my waist, the other shifting my hair behind my ear. “By the way, I’ve missed you too.” And then he’s kissing me, his warm tongue stroking against my cold lips as he holds me close, cradling the back of my head in his hand. I return the kiss, arms locked around his neck, and I forget who I am when he treats me like this. When he holds me like this. When he makes me feel like no one else and nothing else matters butthis.
Us.
Together.