Chapter Thirty-Two

Dean

I followed Amber off stage, taking care not to bump into the board members who walked toward Tanner. She stopped once she was out of the room and in the quiet of the hallway.

“Dean,” she said, spinning to face me. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t,” I said. “Just listen. Please.” I was fully prepared to beg.

She popped her lips closed.

“I’m so fucking sorry,” I blurted, tucking my laptop into my bag and slinging it over my shoulder. “I didn’t mean a word I said. I swear. It wasn’t about you. It was about Tessa.”

She flinched. “You knew?”

“She’d just told me. That day. And I lost it. Temporary insanity. And I know that’s not good enough. I know I don’t deserve a second chance, but I swear to you I didn’t sell you out to Tanner.” I glared at the wall, hoping like hell Tanner felt the effects of the evidence I’d gathered. “He walked in at the wrong fucking time.” I sighed, refocusing on her. “I don’t care what he threatened,” I continued. “I would’ve never given you up.”

She was quiet, too quiet.

“Please, Pixie,” I said. “You have to believe me.”

Her eyes glittered, but she didn’t let a tear fall. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

The air flew out of me, my shoulders dropping. I lowered my gaze to the floor, unable to take her rejection. “I know,” I said. I’d been expecting her to push me away, rightly so, after everything. “You don’t want me here. Don’t want anything to do with me. I get it. I do. But I needed you to know that I was sorry. That I wish like hell I could take back everything I said that day.”

“No,” she said, gripping my chin and forcing me to look at her. “I mean, you aren’t supposed to be here. Today. The TOC.”

Realization clicked, and hope swarmed my chest. “I meant it when I said I loved you,” I said, reaching for her hand. She let me take it and the contact was so damn sweet. “You mean more to me than any tournament.”

“But you’ve been working for that all year—”

“Doesn’t matter. Nothing does, if you’re not mine.”

She sighed. “I made a real mess of things.”

“We both did.” I dared to pull her closer, my free hand falling on the small of her back. “And I should’ve been there for you.”

“You were when it counted.” She glanced toward the room behind us, the vibrations of too many voices talking at once coming through the walls.

I drew our interlocked hands up to my mouth, brushing my lips over the back of her fingers. “Can you forgive me?”

“Can you forgive me?” she asked.

“That had nothing to do with you,” I said. “I shouldn’t have put blame where it wasn’t due.” Tessa had been the one to knock the sense into me. “So,” I said, inching closer to her face. “Can you forgive me?” I asked again, needing her answer more than anything else in the world in that moment.

“After what you did for me today?” She threw her arms around my neck, her lips crushing mine.

I captured her with my arms around her waist, lifting her to my level, holding her against my chest as I tasted her lips.

“I’ll kill him.” I heard Amber’s dad’s voice behind us, and I immediately dropped Amber on her feet.

“Oh, stop,” her mom said, as we turned to face them.

They’d just come out of the seminar room, a mass of people filing out behind her.

“You missed all the chaos!” Hannah said, bounding up to Amber. She glanced at me and before I could blink she’d punched me square in the chest.

“What the hell was that for?”

“You know why!”

“Right.” I nodded. “Yeah.”

Jake glared at me before looking to Amber, who waved him off. His features softened as he moved to Hannah’s left.

“The board took Tanner into the office,” Hannah continued. “And Ms. Howard. I bet he’s getting fired.”

Amber looked up to me, then back to Hannah. “I guess we’ll know more tomorrow?”

Amber’s mom patted her shoulder. “We’ll see you at home?” she asked, her eyes darting to me. “But don’t hang around here too long, okay? I don’t want you here when they’re done with him.”

“Right,” Amber said, and her parents headed down the hallway toward the exit.

“You want to ride with us?” Jake asked, never taking his eyes off me.

“No thanks,” she said. “I’ll be all right.”

“You sure?” Hannah asked.

“Absolutely.”

The certainty in her tone gave me all the hope I needed.

Hannah and Jake relented, falling into the flow of foot-traffic that passed us in waves.

Amber turned toward me, a shy, sweet smile shaping her irresistible lips. “Where were we?”

I took her face in my hands, staring down at her as I breathed her in. “Missing you. Making it up to you. Whatever you need me to do,” I said. “That’s what we were up to.”

She folded her hands over mine. “DC.”

“DC.” I pressed my forehead against hers, savoring the moment as the world faded away.

“DC sucks!” someone snapped right next us. “Marvel is way better!”

We glanced in the guy’s direction, finding Brandon smacking his friend’s chest, shaking his head and glancing at us while he mouthed sorry. They kept walking, Brandon’s friend glaring at him in confusion.

We laughed until my sides hurt, the motions breaking through the sticky tension that coated everything. After we caught our breath, I tucked Amber under my arm, and walked her out of the building.

When she was safely in my car, I grinned at her. “I missed you, Pixie.”

“Missed you, too, NightLocker.”