Page 130 of Try Hard

“Yeah, maybe.” She frowned. “Still. I could have had another decade or so with you. What a waste.”

“You’ll have plenty of them with me. And we can make the most of every single one.”

She leaned in to press a kiss to the back of my hand, like the hero in a medieval piece. “Is that a promise?”

I nodded, feeling like my insides were glowing. I wasn’t above swooning when it came to her. “Absolutely. And I’m not running scared of whatever tonight brings.”

She looked bafflingly overwhelmed, like she didn’t believe she was worth the trade of whatever her fans and the media would bring. She absolutely was. Always had been, always would be.

“You are magnificent,” she said, leaning in for a quick kiss.

“So are you. And you willalwaysbe worth whatever comes our way, my Eve.”

She hummed contentedly and I couldn’t get enough of Eve Archer happy. She deserved to spend every day of her life being the happiest person on the planet. Of course, she made me the happiest person on the planet, so the competition was fierce. I’d do what I could to get her the title, though.

I glanced out the window. “So, ready to face the public?”

“With you by my side? Always.” She hesitated, her hand over the door handle. “If we win tonight, I want to celebrate with you…”

“Yes, Archer. Celebrate like we’re the only two people on the pitch.”

She laughed as we got out of the car. “I don’t think you really want me to forget everyone else is around.”

I snorted, feeling my skin prickling intriguingly. “Okay. Fair point. Save that part for when we get home.”

“Mm. We’ll see if I can last that long.”

I was shaking my head as we heard someone calling our names, and, even through Eve’s distracting comments, it registered how nice it was to have her friends calling out to both of us, as if I’d always been there.

We looked across the car park to where Hurley and Brooke were waiting for us.

“Figured you’d be along any minute now,” Hurley said, grinning widely. “And, you know, Brooke thought you might not want to walk out there alone given… everything.”

Eve laughed as she laced her fingers through mine, setting my pulse racing. “Glad to see you’re as unbothered by it all as ever.”

“Mate, if I’d ever treated you like EvefuckingArcher, global sporting superstar, you’d have kicked my arse and quit the team.”

“You know, good point. No ass kicking, though. Not my style.”

“Yeah, because you say itassthese days, like you’ve forgotten where you come from.”

I looked up at Eve. “No, she remembers exactly where she came from. Every second of the life that built us both. She’s just lived a little more now.”

Eve looked like she was melting, even as Hurley choked on a laugh.

“God, you two are sickeningly cute,” they said, wrapping an arm around Brooke.

“Let’s just be glad they didn’t draw the whole thing out forever and just got together,” Brooke said, beaming at us.

I frowned as Eve pointed out, “Wehaveknown each other since we were eleven years old. We might have drawn it out a little…”

“Yeah, okay. I’m glad I wasn’t there to watch every tortuous second of that.”

“But,” Hurley continued seamlessly, “we absolutely want to hear every second of it, so definitely come over to our place for dinner and tell us the whole sordid tale.”

I laughed, leaning into Eve’s side. “That sounds nice.”

“It really does,” she agreed, pressing a kiss to the top of my head.