Chapter 30

CHAPTER 30

AVA

I pace back and forth across my kitchen, the TV on in the background on a sports news program. I mentally calculate how long before Jett will be home tonight. Do I text him or call? Will he want to see me, or is it going to take more time, more games, more showing up to prove to him that I'm done running away, that no matter what comes at us next, we figure it out together? We had a clear moment before the game, but I keep doubting that it meant to him what it did to me.

My phone rings, which makes me jump and my heart spike with anticipation, but it's Kristen. I've missed several calls from her today. I obviously wasn't going to answer her during the football game, but even now I want to silence it. I don't need the stress that will come with another check-in about Gabriella's wedding and how my plans are either helping or hurting Kristen's ability to get Rutledge to commit to our firm.

This past week was busy with wedding planning with Gabriella, but there was plenty of time to ponder the things my conversation with Dalton had made me reconsider. I've been looking at my options for telling Gabriella I'll work on her staff. After deciding that, not giving up on me and Jett was a no-brainer. I don't want to come down from that empowered high and have to tell my boss that I'm doing the best I can and she needs to chill.

But Kristen's not going to stop calling, and I don't know how long I have to wait until Jett gets back to Kemah. I might as well answer Kristen and distract myself.

"Hey, Kristen."

"Rutledge committed to our firm yesterday," she says.

I grip the phone, stunned. "What? They did?"

"Yes!" she almost shouts into the phone. This is the most excited I have ever heard her be. "Why have you been ignoring me?"

I'm still having a hard time processing this. We did it. Well, probably Kristen did it, and maybe me being able to handle the stuff that's been flung at me about planning Gabriella's wedding helped. I hope all my hard work accounts for something, at least.

"I haven't been ignoring you," I finally say. "I was at a Pumas game." I bounce on my toes. "They hired us? They really want us to plan their fundraiser?"

"They said our firm has what it takes to handle a highly visible event like theirs."

I smile. Whether Rutledge realizes it or not, I'm part of that. "Congratulations, Kristen. This is awesome."

"I want you to lead the team."

I almost drop the phone. "What?"

"Ava, you've had to handle more than the usual amount of scrutiny in planning the Diaz-Duncan wedding, and you took everything in stride. You're ready to do something like this, something huge. I think you're the best choice to make Rutledge's event the most memorable they've ever had."

"I … I don't know what to say, Kristen. I never thought…" How do I finish that? That I thought her constant checking in on me was showing that she actually thought the opposite of what I thought, that I needed babysitting? But now it feels like she was proving to herself that I could handle all the extra stuff that came with Gabriella's wedding—that I can do the same with the Rutledge event. "I don't know," I finally finish.

My fingers tingle with excitement. This is huge. Fundraisers are where my strength is, where my heart is. I've accepted my fear this week and determined not to let it hold me back. I should be elated that Kristen's offering me what should be my dream job. But something else entirely is stopping me from saying yes.

"Something going on in your personal life that I should know about? Something that might keep you in Houston?"

Subtle, Kristen. She's obviously seen the pictures of me and Jett, and since they're still floating around social media, my Atlanta colleagues were bound to see something I was tagged in. There's so much that I'm tagged in.

I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but yeah. I'm counting on something in Houston—on someone in Houston—wanting me around forever.

"It's just a lot," I hedge.

"Ava…" Kristen sighs out my name, a hint of desperation in her tone. "Don't answer right now. Take some time to consider. Let me at least run a couple of ideas past you to whet your appetite."

Jett's name on the sports program pulls my attention from the conversation, and the screen flips to the postgame interviews. The way Jett holds his fist to his heart as he starts answering a question pulls a startled gasp from me. That can't be a coincidence.

"Ava?"

I move closer to the TV and turn up the volume, murmuring, "Mmm-hmmm" to something Kristen says about The Four Seasons Atlanta.

I hold my breath while I listen to Jett's answer to the reporter about coming back from last week's mistakes. The reporters in the room are looking at each other in confusion when he clearly veers away from football to his personal life .

My heart has stopped.

I don't know how long ago these interviews took place. The game's been over for a couple of hours. I'm surprised I haven't heard from Gabriella. Colby would have told her what Jett said since it's unlikely Gabriella watched the interviews in real time.

"Ava?"

I watch as Jett pushes away from the table amid the clamor of the reporters, everyone shouting over each other. Colby grins widely, and after everything, that pulls a laugh from me.

"Jett McCombs is going to steal you away from me, isn't he?"

Maybe it's hearing his name that drags my attention back to my conversation with Kristen.

"Um, what?"

She sighs. "You need time to think. Call me in a couple of days."

"Yeah. Sounds good," I respond, still distracted. I hang up on her before she even says goodbye.

My phone buzzes, startling me again. My hands shake as I look at the screen, lit up with a text from Jett.

Jett: Where are you?

Ava: Home. Where are you?

Jett: On my way to you.

I'm waiting on the deck, staring at the road, bouncing up and down with anticipation when Jett pulls up. He rushes up the steps, and as soon as he reaches me, I throw my arms around him. He pulls me so close to him I almost can't breathe. I bury my face in his neck.

"Did you mean it?" I ask.

"Every word." He sets me down to look at me. "I didn't realize it until last week, but I've been planning for a life with you. All these years. I came to all that stuff you planned for Gabriella just for you, Ave. My heart is as much yours as it was seven years ago, when I let you go."

I put my hands on his face, lifting myself up on tiptoe. "I'm sorry. I'm so desperately sorry that I left. I was dumb, Jett. I didn't even stop to think about all the other options we had. You said you might quit football, and I just panicked."

He leans his head against mine. "I shouldn't have let you go that easily. I let hurt blind me to the idea that it could work out for us, to seeing that you thought my happiness depended on football. I'm desperately sorry too." His voice is soft, breaking with emotion.

I answer by kissing him. He wraps his arms back around my waist, pulling me up and to him. I feel it instantly, how different this kiss is than last week's. It's not desperation moving his lips over mine—it's lost time. It's hope instead of longing.

It's forever.

It takes us a long time to make up for seven years of missed kisses like this. I pull him into my house. I have to lean against the wall just inside the door to hold myself up. I'm weak and useless, boneless in his arms and in the face of his renewed love.

I had forgotten the full force of the electricity between us. I've felt it in bits and pieces since coming to Houston, but the familiar taste of him, the comforting feel of his strong arms, the way they could always make me feel safe and protected and loved, is so potent it's overwhelming.

He's breathless when he pulls away from me, and I melt further underneath the warmth and love in his gaze as he stares at me.

"I felt like I was a different guy playing today," he says, leaning his forehead against mine. "Like you gave me superpowers or something. I always told you I needed you with me in this."

I smile and lean in to kiss him again. "It's all in your head," I whisper.

"Even if it is, I'm always going to need you." He runs his fingers through my low ponytail, then gently pulls the band out so that my hair falls loose on my back. He sweeps it over my shoulder and runs his fingers through it. "I was so jealous of Ruby that day." He laughs and then leans forward to kiss my neck. He pulls back again, taking my hand and leading me farther into the house. He sits on the couch, and I sit next to him, resting my head and hand against his chest, unable to look away from him.

"I never want you to ever think I can live a minute without you," he says. "That anything is more important than what I have with you." He puts his hand to the back of my neck and leans over me. "I love you, Ava. More than football. More than anything I can think of."

I shift up to kiss him again. "I know," I say. "I love you even more than I did when I left you that day, thinking I was doing what was best for you."

"What's best for me is you," he murmurs.

"My only sacrifices from now on will be so I can keep you forever." I rest my head against his chest again but keep my face toward him. I want to spend the rest of the night staring at him.

He smiles at me. "Speaking of sacrifices…"

I lean closer. Something about his tone is familiar. "Yeah?"

"It's selfish, I know, but I don't want you to go back to Atlanta." That's when it hits me. He has the same eager, enthusiastic expression from the night he asked me to follow him to Reno. And my chest dances with the same excitement as it did then, imagining the beginning of the rest of my life with him.

"You're in luck," I say, gripping his T-shirt. "I'm thinking about taking a job in Houston that won't really pay me much, for a friend who says she needs my help." I love Jett, and I never want to be separated from him again, but that's not the only thing that has me hesitating on taking what should be a dream job with Rutledge.

His eyes dance with amusement, and I think maybe…pride. He doesn't know the whole story, but I sense that he un derstands the importance of what it means to me to consider working with Gabriella. "Yeah?"

"I might need help with my rent." I arch an eyebrow at him. "Maybe you could find me some place with a bunch of women who want to split a cheap apartment."

He scoops me closer to him, his lips stopping inches from mine. "I think I can do a lot better than that."

I put my hands on either side of his face again, the light scruff of his jaw rough under my fingers. "Oh, like maybe I could find a sugar daddy or something?"

He laughs, a deep, satisfying sound that sends a shiver of pleasure up my spine. "I bought the house next door to mine, hoping I could convince Jenna and Devin to move into it. Maybe you can take care of it for me while I convince them."

"You just bought a house. Just like that?" I raise an eyebrow at him.

"Isn't that what sugar daddies do?" He gives me a faux innocent expression and then kisses the laugh right off my lips.

After several moments, I straighten and eye him fiercely. "Jett, I'm staying with you forever, okay? I promise."

He wraps his arms around me, holding me to him in a tight embrace before facing me and saying seriously, "I know."