34. Lilah
LILAH
After a night of dancing and watching Mason be carried around various parties, we collapsed back into bed.
Sore but satisfied, we were tangled up in the sheets with dawn breaking through the hotel curtains. He stared at my shoulder, one finger drawing lazy circles on my skin. “I’m coming with you to Seattle.”
I jerked up to sitting. “What?”
He stared at me with a cautious, guarded expression. “The new coach of Washington wants me to play for him. I signed with him a couple days ago. The campus in Seattle. It’s only thirty minutes from Bellevue.”
My heart galloped in my chest. I smothered my immediate response, which was to scream with excitement and cover him with kisses. “But you’re going to Rhode Island. With your brother.”
“Coach Larson’s come to visit me a couple of times this season. He wants to build a team around me. Seattle offered and I already signed.” He interlocked our fingers.
A roller-coaster-level drop hit my stomach. “Are you serious?”
“Never been more serious in my life.” His stare sent joy spiraling through me before a tug of reality.
Seattle. Mason would be coming to Seattle. He’d be minutes away from me, not hours on a plane. I wanted to be elated, but stretching out our time together only felt like it was prolonging the inevitable.
When it was until the end of the year, I could let myself relax into it a little more.
Having our fun before we both started on the next chapter of our lives.
What happened when things weren’t fun anymore?
When premed swallowed up my whole life and Mason got busy with hockey?
Would this all feel too complicated for him?
Would he think I needed him too much? The thick silence grew heavier and Mason’s look turned from serious to concern.
I threw on a saucy smirk to cover the frayed mess sorting and resorting itself in my head. “Wow, I can’t believe the sex is that good.”
The unexpected bark of his laughter almost made me drop my seductress smile. “The best I’ve ever had.”
Then he lurched forward with a tickle attack. Laughter, squirming and wrestling ended up with me back under Mason.
I sighed, dragged his hand to my face and kissed his open palm.
The scars from breaking his hand and the surgeons putting it back together were barely noticeable.
I traced my lips and fingertips over them.
He shuddered on top of me.
“You don’t have to do this for me.” Staring up into his eyes, I wished I could not worry about this decision.
With his forearms resting on either side of my head, he stared into my eyes. The thread between us was strong, not this ephemeral thing, but a rope twining together our hopes and futures.
“I’m doing it for me.”
“You can’t change your whole life plan because of me. What if you get there and things go wrong? What if this coach sucks?” What if he got there and hated it? What if things went wrong and he blamed me? Hated me?
While hurtling to the end of the year on a high note, I’d planned to preserve all these memories and use them to keep me going when I was on my own in Seattle.
But Mason coming with me—well, not with me, but close to it—meant there would be a possibility of this thing between us breaking and not being a fond memory to push me through the hard times in the future.
He brushed his fingers along my cheekbone and back over my ear. “What if I get there and all my hockey dreams come true, and even better, I get to do it with you in the stands at every game you can get to?”
“I don’t want you to regret this.” Regret me. To have his whole future hanging in the balance because of me. A cold trickle of dread crept up my spine.
Mason dropped his body lower until we were pressed together with both my legs on the outside of his thighs and his chest against mine.
“The only regret I’d ever have is not taking this opportunity.
I know you’re in your head right now with all this bullshit about me changing my mind and switching up on you again.
” He winced like he was replaying those dark days in our relationship and they hit him like bullets.
“But that will never happen.” He locked eyes with me with an openness and vulnerability that sent my heart into triple-time. “There’s nothing I’ve ever been more sure of. If I couldn’t ever play hockey again, I’d still want to do this with you, Doc.”
“You’re sure about this?”
With both hands, he smoothed hair back from my forehead and slid his fingers against my scalp. Tingles of pleasure sparked through my body.
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
I chewed on one side of my lip, trying to hold on to the rational, calm side of myself. The one lobbing worry after worry, scenario after scenario, at me. “If you change your mind, just tell me, okay? I won’t be upset.”
He kissed my forehead and then down my face, uttering words of reassurance with every kiss. “We’re doing this. You’ll become a doctor. And you can patch me up along the way. You and me. Say it.”
“You and me.” A shudder flashed through me. These were depths of emotion that even losing my virginity to Mason couldn’t touch. We were in this together. He loved me enough to upend the careful plans he’d put in place over years of hard work. You and me.
I released a contented sigh. A different type of explosion went off in my chest, all because of Mason. “Whatever happens, I want you to be happy. You deserve it.”
“You make me happy.”
I blinked back the tears clinging to my lashes. “Then I guess we’re going to Seattle.”
“And if I can’t get a single and my roommates are jerks, Mason said we could get an apartment after freshman year.”
Rye seemed to think I was going to get bullied for my lunch money over in Washington.
Ha! Joke would be on them—I’d pack my lunch every day.
And Sensible Lilah had been put on a timeout for now when it came to Mason moving to Washington.
Let me have my dreams of the future. Why couldn’t they include Mason?
Rye stole one of my snack cakes from the jumbo box Mason had bought me a couple days ago.
“Why—how in the hell would that work? He’s going to be clear across the country.
” He balanced on the back two legs of the chair like it was a programmed chair-sitting script guys couldn’t deviate from.
Must risk potentially knocking myself unconscious because I can’t sit still.
“He’s going to Washington. He’ll be at their Seattle campus, which is only thirty minutes away from me. He signed the commitment letter and is excited to play for their new coach. Mason said he’s a great guy.”
“Dane Larson is one of the best players in history, right up there with Lukyan Petrov, but Mason’s going to Rhode Island just like his brother.”
I glanced over at him and laughed. “I know I’m not as plugged into the whole hockey world, but I think I know where my boyfriend’s going to college.”
Rye’s brows knitted together with an intensity I hadn’t seen off the ice. “So he’s following you to Seattle.”
“Not following me. He had a great offer. Why are you being so weird?”
He dropped the chair down on all four legs and folded his arms, not finishing the second chocolate cupcake. “What did you do after the championship game?”
I used my green pen to mark the practice test. “We were just talking about college. What does the championship have to do with that?”
He shrugged. “After the game. What did you and Mason do?”
“Mason and I went to the after-party with the few hundred Hawthorne Prep fans and alumni. One of the big-wigs rented out a whole club, most likely to keep everyone out of trouble. Delicious mocktails.” I kissed my pinched fingertips and tossed them up to the sky.
“Although I have a feeling some of the booze from the alumni area made its way to the student section.”
“And that’s all?”
“Yeah. Paige and I met Mason after the game in the lobby of our hotel. Paige got changed, Mason went back to his room to grab some clothes, and then came back, and we went to the party. She told me she wasn’t coming back until breakfast, so Mason stayed the night.
” A hot flush flamed over my skin at the late-night dedication Mason made to every inch of my body, even though he’d been the champion that night.
“Why?” I reached for Rye’s hand. “Sorry I didn’t get a chance to see you that night.”
“No, you didn’t, but I saw your boyfriend.” A strange, hard look flashed over his face.
I perked up. “You did? Mason didn’t say anything about that.”
“Not sure if he saw me.” Rye’s grim tone set off alarm bells in my head.
I set down my marker and leaned in closer. “Did you two get into a fight?”
He gave me a come on, Lilah look. “If it had come to blows between us off the ice, you think there wouldn’t be signs?”
“Good point. And I’d like to keep it that way. I don’t know why you two can’t get along. The season’s over. Verona got three championships to Hawthorne’s one. You’re both going getting full rides to amazing schools and will be making boatloads of money in almost no time.”
“Lilah—
A knock interrupted the building tension.
“Is that Mason?” Rye shoved out of his chair.
I checked the time. “Crap, no. Rye…” going full warning tone.
He yanked the door open with his chest all puffed up, only to rock back with confusion.
“Sorry, Alena. I wasn’t paying attention to the time. Rye was just heading out.” I grabbed my shoes and held on to Rye with one hand to tug them on.
“Ryker Ferris.” Alena said, giving Rye a head-to-toe scan.
“That’s me.” He looked at me when I straightened, no longer shoeless. “Where are you going with her?”
I grabbed my crossbody bag, looped it over my shoulder and grinned. “To the ballet.”
Rye walked with us to the driveway in full grump mode before trying to lift me off my feet in a hug. Molly called him as he was getting into his car.
Alena drove to the theater for Zoe’s recital and Mason’s big debut. How did she make driving look so effortless and elegant? Was she born that way or were there classes when she was growing up?