“What?” she asked, turning to meet his gaze. “You’re staring.”
“You’re it for me, B.”
Her eyes glassed over, and his heart squeezed with a sweet ache that he could bring her to tears with one sentence.
“Jamie…”
“I don’t want to be apart from you for two days again.”
Her brows furrowed. “But you had two late nights at the bar, and I’m short on days off after the trip and—”
He covered her mouth with his hand, and she quieted.
“Even when I work until two a.m., I don’t want to come home to an empty bed. I want to come home to you. Every night.”
Brynn’s eyes widened, and he removed his hand. She’d need to be able to speak to answer his question.
“Move in with me, B.”
He pulled her to him and whispered the request to her again before his lips fell to hers.
Whoever was at bat must have done the unthinkable and hit a homer, because the fireworks usually reserved for the end of the game shot off with a bang.
Brynn jumped in her seat, then let out a wild laugh as she watched the display up above. Then she looked at Jamie, nodding as the first tear slipped over the ledge.
“Yes.” She threw her arms around his neck, kissing him between words. “Yes. I’ll move in with you.” She laughed through her tears, peppering Jamie with kisses—his cheeks, his mouth, his neck. And he laughed right along with her until there was a lull in the fireworks and the kissing and they had a chance to breathe—to take in the moment, the night, everything. And it was perfect.
Jamie couldn’t let the perfect evening end without dragging her back to the brewery for one final celebration. He pulled her behind the bar where Jeremy greeted them both with a friendly salute.
“How was the game, Kingston?”
Jamie laughed. “You knew, too? Guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” He pulled Brynn in front of him and wrapped his arms around her waist. “It was perfect,” he said, burying his face in her curls and kissing her neck.
Jeremy chuckled. “Dude, you do know the Sox lost, right?”
Jamie nodded, unable to contain his goofy smile. “But I won.”
His hands still resting on Brynn’s stomach, he felt her muscles contract as she took in a sharp breath. He would never get tired of all the different reactions he could pull from her.
“Look,” Jamie said, positioning her in front of the tap.
It took her a moment to say something, but when she did, his heart soared.
“Jamie.” It was only his name, but the way she said it spoke volumes.
His name was on the door, and hers was inside on the tap. He’d see it every day, even when she wasn’t around, though he hoped she and her friends would still hang out on weekends, even if it meant stealing her for a private meeting or two in his office every now and then. It wasn’t just her name on the tap. It was her whole essence tattooed on his heart. He didn’t know how to say these things to her, had spent so many years trying to get it right. The crack in her voice and the way her hands gripped his now told her he finally had.
Jeremy took some silent cue Jamie didn’t know he’d given him and poured the two of them a pint of Chandler’s.
“Thanks, man,” Jamie said, and Jeremy only nodded before leaving them alone behind the bar.
Jamie raised his beer in a motion to toast, and Brynn picked up her glass as well.
“Thank you, B, for bringing me to the game tonight. To the next ten years,” he said.
He watched the happy tears pool in her eyes as she smiled.
“And ten years after that,” she added.
They both sipped, and as they set their glasses down, Brynn licked the foam from her upper lip.
And then, like they weren’t in a crowded bar with a growing audience, Jamie took her face in his palms and kissed her before she could say anything else. At the taste of his tongue meeting hers, those fireworks erupted in his stomach as his heart slammed against his chest.
“Whoa,” Brynn whispered against him.
“I think I need to see you in my office,” he said with a chuckle. And he led her toward the door, finishing their toast silently in his head.
To all the years to come with the one by his side who almost got away.
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Acknowledgments