Page 43 of Pick Me

I somehow managed to stay present during dinner with my parents as we covered everything from my Archer writing process to their latest aches and pains to Wes and Claudia’s wedding planning. It was a perfect celebration and catch-up,

and while I loved spending the evening with them, it was almost impossible to focus.

“I’ll wait for you as long as it takes.”

Owen’s final words to me were seared into my brain.

After we’d spooned up the last of our crème br?lée—so cliché but so delicious—they hopped in a cab for Penn Station for the

three-hour train ride back to Chevy Chase.

I was free to find out what “waiting for me” meant.

I texted Owen, because I was too nervous to call.

Still good to talk tonight?

Yes. Can you come over or should I meet you somewhere?

His house somehow already felt familiar and comfortable, despite the negative energy I’d brought to it. Plus, I wanted us

to be alone for the conversation to come.

Yup OMW

He was sitting on his front step with Marti when I arrived a short time later. My heart sped up at the sight of him, hanging

out with the world’s cutest dog in his lap. She barked a hello as I climbed the steps.

“Hey there. Sit,” he said. He scanned me quickly. “You look nice.”

“Thanks.” I glanced down at the navy T-shirt dress I’d thrown on before dinner with my parents. “Liar.”

The lights flanking his front door were lantern scones that looked like they had real candles inside, casting an atmospheric

glow on us. It was the perfect night to sit outside since the heat wave had broken, and every so often, a breeze flitted past

to remind us that cooler days were coming.

I scanned Owen as I sat down a safe distance away from him, but his face didn’t betray what was going on inside. As usual.

Marti jumped off his lap and wiggled her way over to me.

“Careful, friend.” I laughed as she nearly rolled herself down the steps trying to get me to pet her belly.

“Your parents get off okay?” Owen asked.

“They did. I can’t believe they came all this way for the day.”

“I guess everyone agrees that today was a big deal,” he said softly.

A goal achieved, thanks to him, but also to me. I could’ve pulled out when everything went to shit, but I pushed myself all

the way to third place.

“Thanks again for being there,” I replied, my heart warming again at the memory of him appearing on the courts.

“Hey, it makes sense from a business perspective, right? Lots of exposure for the club.” Owen paused. “But like I told you, it wasn’t the only reason I was there.”

I felt like I couldn’t get a full inhale as I waited for him to keep talking. The silence between us stretched on while we

watched cars glide past on the street below.

“I read your suggestions for my book,” he finally said, the last topic I expected to cover during what was basically a peace

summit. “Thank you. They were perfect.”

I was relieved that after everything I’d put him through, at the very least I’d provided some helpful feedback.

“Obviously, I know nothing about coaching,” I replied. “I was coming at it from an editing perspective, and I tried to think

about how to make it sellable, but I wasn’t sure—”

“Brooke,” he interrupted gently. “ Stop. Everything you suggested was dead-on. Stuff I hadn’t even considered.” He paused a beat, focused on petting Marti. “Maybe

I could use your help after all?”

Owen said it tentatively, like he wasn’t sure if my offer was still good.

And while I was happy that he was open to my support, I suddenly felt like I needed to recalibrate exactly what was going

on between us. My stomach dropped, because maybe all he wanted was for us to find our way back to a semblance of friendship?

To be writing buddies?

“Yeah.” I managed to sound upbeat, like the possibility of it wasn’t incinerating me from the inside out. “Of course, anytime.”

Marti inched closer to me, dragging her belly on the stair. I scratched behind her ears absentmindedly, because all I could

focus on was a single thought:

I don’t want to be your friend.

He’d said as much to me, and now I understood the sentiment. I couldn’t tamp down the feelings that had taken over me. Friendship would be too painful, too impossible after knowing what was possible.

There were moments in the city when everything seemed to pause at the same time, when all the traffic and airplanes and pedestrians

went silent in unison for a single millisecond, and then resumed the cacophony quickly enough to make you wonder if it actually

happened. Now, waiting for Owen to keep talking, it felt like that millisecond wouldn’t end.

He leaned forward and balanced his elbows on his knees. “Do you remember what you asked me at our first lesson?”

I hunched, preemptively embarrassed. “I’m sure I asked you a lot of stupid questions, so take your pick.”

Owen cleared his throat. “You asked me if I’d ever had an immediate reaction to a person. A ‘bam’ connection, I think you

called it.”

Apparently, the specter of Kai would never leave us.

“Owen, please don’t go there now,” I begged in a thin voice. “Okay? I don’t know how many ways I can tell you that—”

“Brooke...” he interrupted. “I need you to know that I had that reaction when I saw you .”

I felt like my heart stopped beating while Owen’s eyes searched my face.

“You were playing with Meredith, Colton, and that finance douche,” he continued. “Or should I say, you were attempting to play. But I couldn’t take my eyes off of you.” He paused to glance down at his laced fingers. “You were holding the paddle

like a goddamn flyswatter and doing that skip-run thing, but to me, you were... flawless.”

He breathed out the final word, sounding almost awestruck.

“Owen...”

“Hold on, let me keep going.” He shook his head, his expression pained. “When I heard that you wanted to learn to play, I

figured that was how I could connect with you. Give you a couple of lessons, impress you with my pickleball prowess, then cut to the good

stuff. But when you told me about Kai...”

“I’m such a fuckup,” I whispered as I hugged my knees and bowed my head. “Why did you keep me on as a client?”

“How childish would I look if I voided your lesson package because you had a crush on someone else? I had a job to do; I did

it.”

“But you kept helping me.”

He let out a short bark of a laugh, like he was embarrassed.

“True. That was me basically powerless to stop hanging out with you. I talked myself into believing that training with you

was professional development for me. I haven’t worked with a newbie in a long time. Turns out, I liked the challenge you presented.

And...” He let out a long, pained sigh. “I liked you .”

Hope sparked inside of me once again, wild and bright, but I forced myself to remain calm until I’d heard him out. There was

a chance he’d come to his senses and was breaking it to me gently that he’d moved past whatever he’d once felt for me.

“I told you how badly the Sophie era fucked with my head. There was absolutely no way I was going to put myself in that position

again. Of wanting someone who didn’t really want me.”

It took all my strength to keep from reaching for his hand so I could squeeze it tightly while I told him how wrong he was,

but I still didn’t know how his side of the story was going to end.

“You know that’s not the case,” I said in a quiet voice. “Or at least I hope you do.”

Marti perked up as a guy strode past with a gray French bulldog that was stopping to pee on every vertical surface. She let

out a warning rumble, then launched into a full-throated freak-out.

“Hey, hey,” Owen tutted as he picked her up. “What the hell is that ?”

Marti tried to parkour herself out of his arms after the dog.

“I’m not sure what that dude did to her, but she’s clearly got a grudge. Let’s go inside,” he said over the barking.

I followed him in, trying not to fixate on where he’d left off.

Him wanting me.

Owen placed a still-agitated Marti on the floor in the foyer. She immediately trotted upstairs. “Neighborhood watch, reporting

for duty,” he said as he watched her run up. “Want to go sit out back?”

I glanced into the world’s most perfect room wistfully. “Can we hang out in your library?”

On the couch where we made love?

“You make it sound so fancy.” He chuckled as he walked in and switched on a lamp. “It’s a room with books.”

I followed him and felt the tense bands in the back of my neck loosen.

“It’s an endless wall of books with a sliding ladder ,” I added. “So library.”

We settled on opposite ends of the couch facing each other. There was static between us, just like last time, only now it

was tinged with worry, not heat. I realized that I was staring at him, trying to analyze every eyebrow flick and frown as

he settled on what he was going to say next.

Meanwhile, my heart was careening around in my chest, waiting for my turn to plead my case again.

Owen scrubbed his hand over his face. “Where were we?”

A moment of quiet while I gathered my courage.

“You said you liked me. Past tense.”

The corner of his mouth kicked up as he nodded. “That’s right.”

“I need you to know that I like you too,” I said tentatively. “Present tense. A lot.”

His face softened into a full smile. “You’ve been trying to tell me that for a while, huh?”

“I have.” I grinned back at him as tiny blossoms of happiness started to burst open inside of me.

“I’m sorry I made it so hard on you. It’s just...” Owen gestured in front of himself, then sighed. “There’s no point for

me to keep repeating myself. I’m sort of a broken record.” He went quiet, and his expression turned a little sheepish. “You’ll

never guess who finally convinced me.”

I shook my head and shrugged a shoulder.

“The man himself. Said he asked you out to dinner and you said no. That, plus the millions of texts from you made me realize

that I was being...”

“Obstinate?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Fancy word.”

I tapped my temple. “Writer.”

“I was thinking ‘asshole,’ but we can go with ‘obstinate.’”

Owen leaned over to take my hand, and when he slid his palm against mine and closed me in his grip, I felt like I could finally

exhale.

“My turn,” I said.

I’d already told him much of what I was about to say, but not in person, so that I could watch his expressions as I confessed how much I’d grown to care for him.

To need him.

“You make me really happy, Owen. Being with you was the best part of my week, even if I had to wake up so early it made my

eyes bleed. You pushed me, and at first I hated you for it. But look at me now. Third place, baby!”

I sat up straighter and gestured to myself like I was a gold medal winner.

His eyes crinkled as he laughed, and my body filled with warmth at the sound.

“But it’s more than that.” I pushed on before the weight of the moment got away from me. “You helped me discover a part of

me that I didn’t think existed.”

He shrugged. “Any coach would’ve done the same. You find barriers in your athletes and knock ’em down.”

I shook my head. “No, that was you . And that’s why your book is so important.”

“You’re relentless.” He sighed as he dropped his head back against the couch, our joined hands a bridge between us.

“And right .”

He rolled his head to look at me, and when our gazes snagged, I felt the back of my nose prickle.

Because the answers were all there in the depth of his dark eyes.

Still, I needed to hear it from him. To find out what was going to come next in our story.

I felt lightheaded, like I hadn’t eaten all day. Shaky. Desperate for some sort of resolution.

“You have my heart, Brooke,” Owen finally said as he ran his thumb over the back of my hand. “It’s been yours since the very first moment I saw you. My very own bam . But it went deeper than that. It wasn’t just physical attraction. I liked everything about you.”

Heat rushed to my face at him accidentally shining a light on the shallowness of my own bam moment. I didn’t even know Kai. He was nothing more than a character I’d created.

“I tried to fight it,” Owen continued. “Hell, I tried to help you get the guy, because I just wanted you to be happy.” His

brow pinched at the memory. “Even if it hurt me.”

I sniffled back my welling tears.

“I loved working with you,” he said, his tense expression breaking into a smile. “How fierce you were when it came to mastering a skill. Your determination to get it right. Your ability to laugh at yourself when you

couldn’t. I thought I could learn to be okay with just being your coach and friend. That watching you grow as a player was

enough, because that was all you needed from me. All you wanted from me.”

His voice went a little hoarse at the admission, and a tiny fissure splintered through my heart at the thought of causing

him so much pain.

“But I felt a shift happen,” he continued, his gaze finding mine again. “And I started to believe that we could actually...

be . That you felt the same way about me. Then I got that text, the morning after. All of the old worries flooded back. The mistrust

and second-guessing every conversation. I guess I snapped.”

He brought our joined hands to his lips and pressed a kiss to the inside of my wrist. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I let my

history get in the way of our future.”

He moved my hand to press it to his chest, covering it with his protectively. I could feel the heavy thump of his heart, which

nearly matched my own.

“And what is our future?” I asked tentatively.

Owen leaned over and pulled me onto his lap in one smooth movement so that I was straddling him, and gripped his hands on

my thighs. Heat pooled between us, and despite the relationship-defining conversation we were in the middle of, all I could

think about was ripping off his clothes so I could feel his skin against mine.

“Our future is however we decide to fill the pages,” he whispered, looking up at me with tenderness that made me catch my

breath. “Together.”

Owen reached up to thread his fingers into my hair. He slid his hand to the nape of my neck and drew me closer to him, pausing

when our lips were just inches apart, our eyes locked. My breath went shallow as his gaze skimmed my face, a small smile playing

on his mouth. I was desperate for him but mesmerized by the tension of the right now.

He gently tucked a strand behind my ear.

“There’s more,” he murmured. “I need you to understand that it’s the beginning of a love story.”

There were no more words necessary. Tears pooled in my eyes as our mouths finally crashed together in a kiss that confirmed

what we both felt in our hearts.

It was more than a crush, or an obsession, or a bam .

It was love.

And I couldn’t wait to write our next chapter.