“I like Mia; she’s sweet.”
“She’s good people. Her and Hallsy, it’s wild to me that they’ve been together since high school.”
“Hmm.”
He eyed me. “What?”
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
“It’s not nothing,” he urged. “Spit it out.”
I sighed. “Aaron, have you really been in love with me since high school?”
He smiled. “Definitely.”
“What?” I shook my head. “No way.”
He gave me a hard look. “What does that mean?”
“You were the star hockey player. You didn’t belong with little old me, the nerd in the corner writing poetry.”
“Very bad poetry,” he joked.
I laughed. “You’re not wrong about that one.”
He caressed my hand and looked deep into my eyes. “Why do you say it like that? Say that we didn’t belong together?”
I shrugged. “It was high school; we were from different cliques. I was pretty sure I was your dirty little secret.”
He glared at me. “Because you asked me to keep it a secret. Do you know how many of my teammates I had to ward off with my stick to keep away from you? Is this why you pushed me to date Stacey?”
I bit my lip and drank more of my wine, so I didn’t have to answer.
Luckily our food came, so we got preoccupied with that. I speared a California roll with my chopsticks and shoved it into my mouth. I could tell that Riley was still bothered by what I had told him, though.
I chewed slowly before saying, “Baby, it’s in the past. That was high school. We’re together now and happy, right?”
“Yeah,” he agreed and then smiled at me. “Why did you bring it up again?”
“Oh!” I exclaimed. “I never imagined loving someone for that long. It’s a long time. But you loved me all that time and never said a word. Did Finnegan know all this time?”
He shook his head. “Fuck no. I didn’t reveal it until the day after our wedding when he asked me what the fuck I was thinking.”
I snorted. “Sounds about right. It’s been a weird time since then.”
“I wouldn’t trade it for the world, though.”
I smiled at him. “Me either.”
“So when did it become real for you? When did you figure out you felt the same way?”
I chewed some more of my food and thought about it for a moment. “I think it was slow at first. Like, when I first moved in with you, it was chaotic, but the next day when you were on the road, I hated being in your bed alone. We spent a couple days in Vegas together, and somehow I had gotten really used to you being there. When you weren’t there, I realized how much I missed you. It kind of scared me. I don’t think it really set in until yesterday when I couldn’t find my wedding ring.”
He nodded in understanding. “So when Finnegan let the cat out of the bag, were you just scared?”
“I was afraid that you would come to your senses. I mean, can you blame me? I dated someone else for half a decade, and they left me at the altar. I guess I have a lot of baggage about it.”
“Listen to me,” he urged and grabbed both my hands in his. They looked so petite and small in his big manly hands. “That’s not gonna happen with us. I love you with all my heart and have pretty much felt like that since I was seventeen years old. No woman has ever compared to Fiona Gallagher, and no woman will ever complete me like you do. I fucking love you.”
“I love you too.”
He pulled his hands away from me to take another drink. “Tell me where you are with your book so far?” he asked, abruptly changing the subject.
I made a face and downed the rest of my wine. “I think it’s almost done. I just turned in the final edits.”
His face lit up with a smile, his blue eyes beaming with pride. “Really? That’s awesome!”
“I guess?”
He frowned. “It’s not awesome?”
“I’m not sure yet. ARCs will go out, and then we’ll see if we need to make any changes, and we’ll get pass pages soon.”
“What’s an ARC?” he asked.
I laughed. Sometimes I forgot he wasn’t as well versed in the publishing world. “Advanced Reader Copy. We send them out pre-publishing to get the word out, get reviews out prior to publication.”
“I thought the changes you made were good. I think it will be good. I wish you would stop doubting yourself.”
“Wait, what? Did you read the revised copy?”
He gave me a quizzical look. “Of course I did!”
I brought my hands to my chest and felt my heartbeat fluttering beneath them. My eyes got all misty, and I held everything in to keep from crying. “Aaron, that means the world to me, that you actually cared enough to read the second version. My parents don’t give a shit about my writing career, but the fact that you do, it’s…” I paused to wipe the tear that was now leaking out of my eye and hoped I didn’t mess up my make-up. “It means a lot to me.”
“I know, sweetheart. You’ve always been supportive of my hockey, even back when we were just friends. You work so hard at this, all hours of the night, and your brain’s always racing. I want you to get the recognition you deserve.”
“Goddamnit, did I build you in a factory?”
He laughed really hard at that. “What?”
“You’re like the perfect man. You’re so getting laid tonight.”
“I thought we established this already?” he asked, and he was sporting that crooked, mischievous grin that I loved so much.
I nodded. “Uh huh, but like for sure. Why do you think I wore this dress?”
He eyed me from his position across the table, and I knew from his angle, he got a great view of my cleavage. “It’s a nice dress. It’s definitely working for me.”
I smirked at him and quickly shoveled my last piece of sushi in my mouth. Riley stared back at me with
