33. Lacie
LACIE
I was drawing a blank.
What was the best way to show him my intentions? I’d told him I’d step aside if that was what he wanted, but it couldn’t be as cut and dried as that.
The biggest risk I could foresee was the possibility of making him feel like he was backed into a corner the way Tia had. Which I so didn’t want to do.
Ultimately, after thinking it over—while eating a pint of ice cream and outlining some possible approaches—I settled on a plan.
My play in the battle for Jared’s heart would be to let him know I was still here. Still approachable. Plain and simple.
Now, to send him the message.
I clicked my pen several times, tapped it against the page full of my notes on the subject, and then scooped another spoonful of huckleberry ice cream. Playful was best when it came to Jared Kingston. It was what we did.
First, I considered sending him a bra to imply support. But that could be misconstrued in so many ways it wasn’t funny, especially if he was still dating someone else.
Except maybe it would’ve been a little funny, just to see the confusion that was bound to take over his expression.
I snorted and then scratched that one off the list with fat, scribbled lines. What else?
Stalk him everywhere he went so he bumped into me at the grocery store, the gym, at his sales office?
Too predictable. Plus, he might get annoyed.
More so than he may already be.
What if I appealed to the many memories we shared? I could somehow hold up a poster that said, “There’s More Where This Came From,” like Napoleon Dynamite.
Or I could give him a camera. That indicated memories, didn’t it?
I scratched out that thought, too. Like everyone else, he took pictures on his phone.
Tapping the pen against my chin again, I stared at the top of the faucet at the edge of my counter.
“What about sticking with something he loves?” I said to myself.
He already had a weight-lifting belt and supportive braces for his shins, though he didn’t wear them all the time. I did know that he had been eyeing a new pair of weight-lifting shoes for a while now.
That was it.
“Shoes,” I said in this one-woman consultation. “Shoes imply support too, don’t they?”
Not only were they practical and functional and something he could get good use out of, but they also stood for the message I wanted to give. He would think of me every time he wore them.
Feeling better about things, I set my spoon in the sink, set what was left of my ice cream back in the freezer, and bumbled off to bed.
I swung by the shoe store and picked up a ridiculously expensive pair on my way home from work the day after New Year’s. This made for the longest time we’d had apart while being in the same town.
Eight days. Eight long days away from him.
The shoes’ expense was worth it. I’d pay a thousand dollars for shoes if it meant I could have him back.
I pulled up in front of his apartment complex. The evening was cool but not chilled, and I welcomed the tepid air, wishing it were enough to cool the jittering, nervous heat building inside of me.
My fingers drummed on the box as I stepped out of my car and held it to my chest, staring up at Jared’s blue apartment building. I hadn’t been this antsy about anything since I’d planned a party for Willa Carson, the famous actress.
My preparations had been featured in several magazines and had boosted my reputation big time.
A car inched slowly past. Tim rolled down the window. His bleach-blonde hair was shaved close to his scalp, and the small, familiar scar beneath his left eye winked at me.
“Sup,” he said, letting his wrist hang on the wheel. “You looking for Jared?”
Did he have to ask? “Is he home?”
“We tried to convince him to come with us,” Miguel said, leaning to speak across Tim’s lap from the passenger seat. “But he said he had other stuff going on. I assume he meant with you.”
I shook my head. “If he did, you’re the first to know about it,” she said. “See you guys later.”
“See ya.” Moving on, Tim rolled down to the intersection and turned.
I gripped the shoebox and pivoted to face the complex again. Jared staying home was a good sign. Were his other plans with Tia, though?
My stomach soured. That meant I had to act quickly.
“No more hesitation,” I said to myself.
I took a steadying breath that didn’t do its job and marched to his door. Chin high.
I could do this. I could tell him how I felt.
Give the battle one last tactic before I surrendered and accepted his decision.
If he wanted to be with Tia, I would let him. But he had to know—I was here for him if he needed me.
Every step only cranked my pulse higher so that by the time I reached his door, my entire body was shaking.
I couldn’t back down now. One more message.
Not goodbye. Just—I didn’t know what.
With my purse strung on my shoulder, I lifted a hand. Knocking my fist sent prickles down my arm.
There. I knocked.
I made it this far.
Footsteps sounded, banding my chest tighter. My breathing was growing ridiculous.
It’s just Jared, I told myself.
Just my life. Just the only man I would ever want.
The door swung open, and the sight of him was a breath and a gasp and a burst of light. Him. Tall and muscular and dark-haired and handsome.
He was there, standing at the door, and his brown eyes lit up.
“Hey, there,” he said.
He didn’t seem upset that I was here. If anything, judging by the gleam in his eyes, he was happy to see me.
That was a good sign.
“Hey. I know it’s been a few days and things are a little weird between us now because you’re trying to keep your word to Tia, but I just…I wanted to see you.”
“What’ve you got there?” he asked.
No response to the Tia thing. All right, then. He wanted to avoid the topic?
I swallowed the gallon of saliva in my nervous mouth and offered him the box. “This is for you.”
He considered the shoebox for a moment before stepping back. “You want to come in?”
“Are you sure?”
He quirked a grin. “Positive.”
“Tia won’t mind?”
Another glint in his eyes. A laugh, though his lips didn’t move. “Not at all.”
Okay, then. Nerves spiraling, I entered the familiar apartment where I’d spent countless hours lounging, reading books, watching movies, or watching him play video games with his friends.
Everything was where it always had been, which was a comforting thought. Nothing else had changed—even though it felt like everything between us had.
Couch by the window, TV mounted to the wall. Two squashy bean bags in place of other seating.
I stayed standing.
Jared closed the door behind him and turned. I offered him the box again before he could say another word.
“This is for you.”
“You already said that. Any explanation why you decided to get me shoes?”
“These aren’t just any shoes.”
He turned the box and took in the brand logo. The amusement dancing in his gaze quickly eclipsed into shock.
“You didn’t. Lifting shoes?”
Now I grinned. This was a good sign. Maybe we could go back to how we always were.
“I know you’ve wanted a new pair, and you’ve been eyeing these for a while.”
“Lace, these are amazing. You already gave me that chess set, though. Late Christmas present?” He lifted a shoe and examined the markings on the side.
I wasn’t sure exactly what made these so expensive or specified only for weightlifting, but he knew, and that was all that mattered.
Tucking a hair behind my ear, I was unsure of what to do with my hands now that I no longer held the box. I fidgeted with my purse strap.
“Consider it a best friend present.”
He lowered the shoe. The light dimmed from his eyes. “Best friend present?”
Was there something wrong with that? I bolstered my courage.
“Yeah. I wanted a way to show you I can be like these shoes. Supportive and helpful and there when you need me—holy cow, that sounded so much stupider saying it out loud.”
He laughed nervously and scraped his hand behind his neck. “You want to support me like shoes?”
I clapped my hands to my burning cheeks. I never felt this embarrassed around him. What was my problem?
“Yeah, I—” Regretting this whole thing, I reached for the box.
I never should have come. I’d slaughtered this so completely there was no salvaging the situation.
“You know what? Forget I came.”
“Lacie.” There was my full name again.
His hand found mine.
The gesture was nothing new, but now, it meant everything to me. He was touching me.
He’d reached for me. He hadn’t let me go.
I stared at our connected hands. “Shoes seemed friendly, you know? Friendly. Since you’re with Tia and everything, I thought maybe…”
My words trailed off. A frog built in my throat, and I worked to clear it. “So how are things going with Tia anyway?”
Jared’s lips maintained that infuriating smirk, as though he found everything I said amusing.
“I talked some sense into her.”
“Sense? Meaning…” My heart picked up speed. “She’s okay with what happened? She’s okay with you and me still being friends?”
Maybe the shoes weren’t such a fluke after all. Tia couldn’t be offended by shoes.
Except I spent half of my paycheck on them.
Friends bought each other expensive gifts, didn’t they?
“Friends. Yes, that’s it. So come on, friend.” He held our clasped hands to his chest, freezing my blood in my veins.
I was thunderstruck. Motionless.
His eyes kept up that smile, the one that glittered.
I loved that look.
“Let’s hit the town,” he said. “I’m going to take you to Tinney, but we need to buy tickets online.”
I nearly snorted. Tinney Amusement Park was a fun place if you were twelve.
Still, I wasn’t going to complain. It was as though the past eight days had never happened. We could play up memories of times we’d spent on the bumper cars or the laser tag course. He’d always beaten me at laser tag.
Maybe now that we were older, I stood a chance.
As for Harper’s Inn and our fake marriage, he’d either completely forgotten about it or was intent on pretending it had never happened. I could do that, too.
I would stay by his side like he’d always done for me.
Maybe someday there would be a future for us, even if it didn’t happen now. I didn’t care at this point. I would do anything to keep him in whatever future we had.
Maybe I’d been delusional after Wyatt’s breakup, and the experience had been my own random rabbit hole after all.
“Okay, then. Online it is.”
Smiling at my ready agreement, Jared turned to one of the three desktop computers sitting on the desks across from the door. Jared, Tim, and Miguel each had their own set up.
After Jared slid another chair close and wiggled his mouse to awaken the screen, he clicked a few times and then paused, rubbing his chin.
“Hmm.”
I scooted forward on the seat next to his. “What? What’s the matter?”
“It looks like this requires ID.”
“It does?” I leaned in to see the form that appeared on the screen. Along the top was Tinney Park’s logo, and the form for purchasing tickets was below.
Sure enough, there was a place showing where a scanned ID would display.
He pointed. “Yeah, see? They want you to scan it in. Hurry, grab your license. We’ll be late, and I know how much you hate that.
“It takes thirty-two minutes to drive there, and we’re cutting it pretty close as it is if we want to grab a bite to eat beforehand.”
Uncertainty crawled over me. Scan my ID online?
No site I knew of required anything like that.
“This seems iffy, Jare. Where did you even hear about this, anyway? Why don’t we just buy tickets when we get there?”
“I hate standing in lines.”
“Since when?”
“Come on.” He reached for the purse now situated on my lap and dug through it.
“Hey,” I said.
“What? It’s not like I’ve never dug through your purse before. Here.” After a second too long, he retrieved my wallet and thrust it in my direction.
Confused but willing, I pulled at the snap to open my wallet. Something slipped from inside of it. Exasperated, I bent for my driver’s license, which had come loose.
Anything that required scanning in my ID was a scam in my opinion. Why go through all of this? Why not just get tickets when we?—
My entire body stilled.
The wallet fell to the floor face up, and my heartbeat went from regular to frantic.
Lacie Kingston .
The ID had the Texas state watermark, my address and information, a terrible picture of me to the left-hand side, and my weight reading at its usual hundred and thirty pounds. But it wasn’t my driver’s license.
And it said the name I’d been fantasizing about for the last week.
Lacie Kingston.
I should have known he was up to something. Jared was the master of pulling my leg.
Chewing my lip, I peered at him, ready to smack his shoulder and call him out for getting me. Only he wasn’t in the chair.
He was kneeling in front of me.
Kneeling. As in, on one knee.
My heart leapt into my throat and pounded all at once. I pressed a hand to my chest.
“What the what?”
He took my trembling hand in his. “Junie said the magic made people fall in love with each other?—”
Chills prickled along my arms, and I gasped while the edges of my vision blurred.
“You do remember.”
His lips tugged. “I remember. I didn’t know what to do,” he admitted. “So I played it off and tried to pretend things were back to normal in every way. Back to normal meant I was still with Tia—which I was at the time.
“I felt like I had to keep my focus on her long enough to end things with her. It was the right thing to do.”
Long enough to end things with her.
“Jare. You broke up with Tia? How did she take it?”
He lifted a single shoulder. “She was surprisingly accepting. She said she already knew what I was going to say, and that I was a good man. That it was time I started being good to myself, too.”
“That was kind of her. But that still doesn’t explain why you kept your distance for eight days. Eight freaking days.”
He rested his arm on his bent leg. “It was torture for me, too, believe me. I wanted nothing more than to barge over to your place and tell you everything, but I had a few things I had to take care of first.”
“Like what?” What could possibly have taken him so long to do?
His fingers stroked mine, making me shudder. “Back to the magic. It made people fall in love with each other, but nothing really changed between us.
“I didn’t feel any differently for you than I always had. I was just as crazy about you as always, made more evident by trying to keep my distance from you while we were forced to share a room.”
Inadvertently, I remembered him pulling me into the bed with him, and I laughed and dipped my chin to hide a blush. “Yeah.”
His fingers tightened. “The magic didn’t have to change that about us because we were already crazy in love with each other.”
My eyes locked with his. I drank him in, pounding, thumping, thundering, grasping, determined not to miss a beat of his expression or a chime in his tone.
He inched forward. Carefully, deliberately, he brushed my hair away from my shoulders and took my face in his hands. The earth quaked beneath me at the impact, shaking me in my chair.
“You’re my whole world,” he said. “I want pictures of you and me all over my social media feed. I want to share a room with you, Lace. I want to kiss you and to tell everyone who thinks we’re together that we really are.
“I want to tell everyone that we’ve left the status of just friends in the dust.”
Tears blurred my vision. My smile broke free at almost the same time, and he went on.
“You’re the first thing I think about the instant I wake up, you’re the first person I want to call whenever I have news, and you’re the last person I want to see before I sleep at night.
“And you’re the person I want to do that all over again with every single day. I want to tell them you’re the most important person in my life, my best friend, my lover, and the love of my life.”
It was a good thing this chair was holding me up because inside, I was capsizing.
I flared my fake license at him. “And the ID?”
Resting his hands on my knees, he stroked the ID with his thumb. “I liked the look of your name with mine. Took me a few days to find someone who could replicate it. That’s why I kept away for so long. I tried to do it on my own, but it came out looking like my second-grade art project.”
Another laugh burst from my chest. He always made me laugh.
“I remember that project. It would have made Picasso proud.”
I could hardly believe what I was hearing. He’d been breaking up with Tia. He’d been planning to propose to me .
Lifting the ID between us, I trailed the name with my finger. “I like it. I didn’t want that part to change.”
“Now, it doesn’t have to.” He brought my palm to his lips and kissed it. The brush of his lips sent tingles up my arm, and my eyes feathered closed.
Though I didn’t see him edge nearer, his voice moved in.
It dropped in pitch and pricked the edges of my skin.
“I have a question I want to ask you,” he said. “Something I’ve wanted to ask for years.”
Trembling, I couldn’t bring myself to open my eyes. “So get to it already.”
He threaded his fingers through mine.
Seconds passed, and I opened my eyes. I didn’t want to miss a moment of this.
The sweetest sincerity burnished like a blaze in his chocolate brown eyes. “Lacie Lou Sorensen, will you do me the enormous honor of being my wife? Be my best friend for the rest of our lives. Marry me. Please.”
All the air left my lungs in a whoosh. I thought about teasing him, but nothing came to mind except, “Yes. Are you going to kiss me? It’s all I’ve wanted to do since?—”
He didn’t let me finish. He captured my face in his hands and crushed his mouth to mine.
My mind blanked. Awareness tingled from every point our bodies met, and yet it wasn’t enough. I wanted him to know how completely joyful this moment was.
Staying in my seat just wasn’t going to do it.
I lurched forward, thrusting my hands around him and knocking him backward. Jared reared, one hand shooting behind to keep his balance, the other clasping me to his chest, keeping me as close to him as possible.
“Knock me over, why don’t you,” he said against my lips.
“I intend to.” I kissed him again and again, with no intention of letting him go.