Behind the Net: Chapter 68

I WAKE up the next morning in a huge, comfy bed, tucked against Jamie’s chest. Sunlight streams in through the windows, and my body feels both relaxed and deliciously sore from what we did last night… and again in the middle of the night.

“Morning,” Jamie murmurs into my hair, and I smile against his skin, tracing my fingers down the trail of chest hair leading into his boxers.

“Good morning.” My voice is soft and a little shy after last night.

He said he loved me.

I said it back.

I peek up at him. He’s looking down at me with his own smile, and my heart flutters. I hope that thrill will never go away. I brush my fingers around the bruise on his eye, studying the shades of green in his eyes as he gazes back at me.

“How are you feeling?” he asks, and his hand slides over my hip.

The way he asks it, and because it’s Jamie, who turned out to be relentlessly caring, I know he’s asking about everything—Zach, the sex, the I love yous.

“A little sore,” I admit, “but I don’t regret a thing.”

“Good.” He studies my face like no one else has, and I realize he’s been doing this since the day I stepped into his apartment all those months ago.

My fingers wander up his chest, and goosebumps break out over his muscles. “You?”

His Adam’s apple bobs, and there’s a flash of vulnerability across his face. “Just one regret.”

I freeze.

“I wanted to ask you to grad,” he says before I can let myself deflate. “Back in high school.”

My brows snap together and I can feel the shock all over my face. “No.”

Grad is the big dinner and dance for all the graduating students, the Canadian version of prom. The grade twelve students are allowed to bring dates.

“Yes,” he emphasizes, and the way he blinks and looks away makes me think he’s a little flustered. “I’d look for you at parties, Pippa. I went to all the band concerts just to watch you sing and play. I asked around about whether you and Zach were together, but no one knew. I thought there was a chance you were single, and I mustered up the courage to ask you to grad, and then I saw him holding your hand.”

In my mind, I’m back there in the high school cafeteria as Zach slips my hand into his out of the blue, and my heart twists.

Jamie makes a frustrated noise in his throat, and his brow furrows. Cute. So freaking cute.

“I let it go, but I thought about you for years after that.” His mouth tips up. “When you showed up as my new assistant, I thought I was hallucinating.”

This all sinks in, and a surprised laugh falls from my lips. “You were going to ask me to grad?”

A flush spreads over his cheekbones like he’s embarrassed, and I love him. I love this guy so much. A broad smile pulls at my mouth, and my chest is about to explode with happiness.

“I had the biggest crush on you in high school,” I tell him.

He frowns. “No.”

“Yes.” I shake my head at him, smiling. “Jamie, you have no idea what you look like, do you?”

He laughs, a sharp, bright, joyful laugh of relief and amusement that goes straight to my heart. “Come here.” He pulls me on top of him, and my legs fall on either side of his hips, straddling him.

We look at each other for a moment, his hand in my hair and mine in his, brushing it off his forehead.

“Do you remember when I spilled the Slurpee on myself?” I ask him.

He chuckles. “Yes. I was about to go get napkins to try to help you, but you ran off.”

If I had stayed a few seconds longer, maybe everything would have been different. But then I wouldn’t have learned some tough but important lessons with Zach.

I lean down to kiss Jamie, and I feel his smile against my lips.

“Songbird?”

“Mmm?” My lips skate over his stubble, and the sensation makes me sigh.

“I love you so much.”

When I open my eyes, I can see the truth of it in his gaze. My heart squeezes for the guy I never thought I’d get.

“I love you, too.” I drop a kiss on his mouth. “Handsome,” I add, and in a split second, he flips me onto my back as I yelp with laughter.