Page 134 of Only Between Us

Chapter46Siena

Sara places a stack of soft throw blankets at the foot of the bed in the room where Brooks and I are staying.

Unnecessary, considering it’s the middle of summer, there’s already a thick comforter there, and her son turns into a furnace at night. But as she fusses around the room, I sense this isn’t about hostess duties. It’s the same fussing my mom does while building the nerve to say something.

So I wait her out, seated in suspense on the edge of the bed. There’s already a fifty-pound weight sitting on my chest. What’s another ten?

Brooks is in the kitchen taking a call from Josh, and my hands haven’t stopped shaking since he showed me the caller ID nearly half an hour ago.

I know it in my gut. He’s received an offer from the Rebels, and this is it. The moment I’ve been dreading since I realized he was a man I could truly fall for.

“What plans do you have around Thanksgiving?”

I blink at Sara, who’s stopped fussing and now looks at me with a cautious smile, hugging herself into the soft cardigan she’s wearing over her pajamas.

“Oh. Well, it’s just me and my mom at home. We typically spend it with some family friends.”

“The ones who play cribbage? We’d love to meet them all. Would they consider joining us for the holiday?”

The holiday that’s not for four months. Brooks and I might not survive the weekend.

But he loves me.

A sob bubbles up my chest, settling at the base of my throat. “Maybe. I could ask them.”

I glance at the door, hoping for Brooks. Not because I need saving from this conversation, but because I can’t fucking stand this.

I can’t stand not knowing for sure.

“I never thought we’d see him happy in a relationship again after the way things ended with that—” Sara halts, forcing a slow breath through her nose, clearly resisting the urge to say something unforgiving about Naomi. “Thatperson. But it’s been so lovely to see him like this today. There’s all this business with football, and I know that’s part of it. But he’s been there before, at the top of his career, and still, he never…glowedlike he has today. That part is all you, Siena.”

Are the walls closing in? They feel like they’re closing in.

“He does it to me, too. He makes me glow,” I admit. Might as well douse my own heart in kerosene. It’s about to blow up regardless.

Sara beams and moves across the room to scoop me off the bed into a warm hug. “It’s such a pleasure to meet you, Siena. Truly.”

Just light the fucking match, already. Put me out of my misery.

If today was part of Brooks’s plan to show me how well we fit, how meant for each other we are, he’s done it.

He’s won.

Finally—finally—Brooks appears in the doorway just as Sara releases me. He gives me a half smile and that’s all the answer I need.

“Our bedroom is upstairs,” Sara tells me, oblivious to the tension. “You knock on our door if you need anything.”

She kisses Brooks on the cheek before leaving, shutting the door behind her.

Brooks hovers across the bedroom. “I have an offer from the Rebels.”

This is what it must feel like to be a helium-filled balloon, trying its hardest to float euphorically into the sky while firmly chained to the ground. His words bring me such simultaneous joy and dread that my body doesn’t know which way to go.

Do I want to jump up on this bed or crawl underneath it?

I force myself to go to him, sink into his arms. “I’m so happy for you. Is it a good offer?”

“A lot more than we expected, given my age. Including a no-trade clause and a generous relocation budget for you and me.”