An ache formed in the pit of his stomach, an even bigger one swelling his heart. “Thank you. That means a lot to me.”
“You were there for me when I needed you. And even if I’m not physically here, I’ll always be your biggest cheerleader.”
He brushed his lips across hers. “I love you, Carolina.”
“I love you, too. Now when do you get back to the city?”
“Bus leaves in about thirty.”
“Good. So when you get back, unless you’re planning to go out and celebrate with the team, I know this great cheeseburger place.”
He cocked a brow. “You hate cheeseburgers. And eggs, as I recall.”
“I do. They also have chicken. But you like burgers, and that’s the sacrifice a girlfriend makes when her guy has just had a great game.”
“Sounds good to me.”
A couple hours later they were seated together in a cozy, understated burger joint. Drew was wolfing down a cheeseburger while Carolina had a chicken sandwich.
“So this is what it’s going to be like, huh?” he asked.
“What what’s going to be like?”
“A relationship. You making sacrifices.”
She laughed. “Hey, I didn’t say I was going to eat a cheeseburger or anything. But yes. We’ll both make sacrifices.”
He reached out and grasped her hand. “And we’ll both probably make mistakes.”
“Likely.”
“But I’ll never hurt you. And you know, you can say whatever’s on your mind, even if you think it’s uncomfortable.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Last night. When I made a comment about being there every day to wash your hair. You looked uncomfortable.”
“Oh. That. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable, or jump the gun on what was a very new thing for both of us. We’d just said we loved each other. I didn’t want to invite you to move in or anything.”
He wiped the corner of his mouth with a napkin. “I get that. You want us to get to know each other better.”
She laughed. “Okay, this does seem stupid, doesn’t it? We’ve known each other for what seems like forever. It’s not like we need to . . . date or anything.”
“But maybe you want to take things slow.”
She paused, like she was thinking, then looked up at him. “I miss you when you’re not with me. I think about you all the time. I want to sleep with you next to me at night, wake up with you snuggled up against me in the morning.”
“That sounds good to me, too.”
“We both have such busy careers and it’ll be hard enough to see each other as it is. If you moved in with me . . . not that you have to or anything. I mean, if you want your own space, I’d totally understand.”
He pushed back his chair and stood, then came over and hauled her up and kissed her until she was out of breath.
“I want you in my life. When I told you I loved you, I didn’t mean, ‘Hey, baby, let’s go out a few times a month.’ It meant commitment to me.”
Carolina blinked as Drew wrapped his arms around her. “That’s what it means to me, too.”
“Then I’ll move in with you. And we’ll cohabitate. My toothbrush next to yours. And you’ll learn to take some downtime, so when I’m in the off-season, I can take you to my place in Oklahoma.”
“What is this downtime thing you speak of?”
He laughed. “It’s that thing where you aren’t working seven days a week.”
“Oh, that.” She leaned into him. “Yes. It’ll be hard for me because I’m such a workaholic. But I do love you, and lately, being with you is the most important thing to me.”
“I like hearing that. I don’t want you to feel any pressure, Lina. We’ll figure it all out together and we’ll make it work. Because we love each other.”
Drew had always turned her world upside down. From the time she was a teenager and hopelessly infatuated with him, to the one night of passion that had made her a woman, to him walking back into her life several months ago, he was her one and only constant passion. He had melted the ice around her cold, cold heart, and she wanted to share the warmth with him forever.
“Yes, we do love each other. So let’s make a home together, and figure out this living together thing.”
He gave her that lopsided grin that never failed to make her heart turn over. “I like the way you think, Miss Preston.”