Hell, had there ever been anyone who had fought for someone more than this girl had fought for me?
“I’m the luckiest guy on the planet. Do you know that?” I said and kissed Savannah’s cold cheek. I closed my eyes, just feeling her against me. “I get to live my life with you, Peaches. I get to give you my heart—as patched up and as scarred as it is.” Her lip wobbled, and I ran my thumb over it, blue eyes shining. “You have it, and I get to have your beautiful heart and soul in return.” I pointed at myself. “Luckiest guy.”
“We both are,” she said and smoothed my hair back from my face. It was still damp from my post-game shower. Savannah smiled, and I knew I’d give her the entire world to make her stay that way. “We are alive, we are stronger, and we are together. That’s what makes us lucky. That …” She trailed off and looked up at the stars beginning to shine.
I followed her line of sight, then asked, “That what?”
Savannah turned back to me. Her dimples popped as she smiled, and I wanted to commit how she looked right now to memory. “That we have walked a rough path to get to this happiness. And because of that, we will never take our life together for granted.” My heart pounded. Because everything she said was true. Savannah kissed the back of my hand. Over my tattooed heart. She ran her hand over the black ink, then looked back at me and said, “We have lost. We know what it is to grieve and miss someone so badly we can’t breathe. But because of that loss, we will love deeper, support each other further, and show up for one another harder. Loss teaches us how to cherish love. That is our future, Cael. Loving one another in the best way we know how—completely.”
“I love you, Savannah. I’ll never stop telling you that.”
She smiled. “And I’ll never stop accepting it.” I laughed, and Savannah followed, the heaviness breaking apart into light pieces around us.
When our laughter fell away, she said, “I have something for you. But I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing. I don’t know if I’ve done the right thing.”
The trepidation in her voice was evident. “Nothing you could do would be bad, baby,” I said. Yet the worried expression on Savannah’s face remained. She searched my eyes, then put her hand into her pocket. When she raised her hand, in the center of her palm, was Cillian’s goodbye to me, his apology scribbled down on my treasured old Bruins ticket. The one that I had destroyed in Japan.
Only this ticket had been carefully reconstructed with golden lacquer. My breathing came heavy as I stared at this beautifully patched-up ticket lying in Savannah’s gentle hand.
“I found it when you left.” Her voice was quiet and filled with emotion. “When you’d gone … I went in your hotel room just because …” Savannah swallowed. “I saw your note to me, and then I saw this on the floor, ripped up. When I placed the pieces back together, I realized what they were. I immediately took it back to my room and fixed it back together with the kintsugi kit Aika had given us.” She blinked then, meeting my eyes. “I’m sorry if I overstepped. I just thought—“
I crushed my mouth to Savannah’s, cutting off whatever she was about to say. She had done this for me. She had taken my biggest regret and made it right. And she had made it more beautiful, because she had fixed it out of love for me. Out of love for my brother, who she had never met.
When I broke from her kiss, breathless and so fucking grateful for my girl, I whispered, “Thank you. Thank you so much, baby.”
I took the ticket, which was safe inside a clear plastic envelope, and placed it in my pocket. I had it back. I had a piece of my brother back with me again. The relief was overwhelming.
“This is it,” I said to Savannah.
“What?” she asked, leaning into my side, her head on my bicep. I couldn’t resist dropping a kiss to her head.
“The start of our forever,” I said and felt hope run through my veins. It felt so good that it was heady.
“Forever,” Savannah echoed.
“We’re here, at college together. I get to see you every day. I get to play hockey, get to be myself again. And you … you get to be a doctor, baby. I get to be your guy …”
“I get to be your girl,” she said, happiness in her tone.
“And we get to live life together.”
Life. The strangest ride of ups and downs and heartache and loss. But also, a life with the world, the stars and the sun, joy and love.
And of course, love. Love above most.
Honor Laps and Hopeful Stars
Savannah
Harvard College
Seven weeks later
THE STADIUM WAS PACKED. I
STARED, WIDE-EYED, AT THE CROWD, ALL dressed in red. Music was blaring, and the excited shouts of students were deafening. I clutched on to Cara like my life depended on it.
This was Cael’s world. The scrimmage was nothing compared to this. Being on the trip had made this part of who he was so distant, almost conceptual. But this was his arena. My nerves were high, and I had to take long breaths to settle them down. When we reached our seats, we had a perfect view of the rink. Lights danced on the ice to the rhythm of the song playing.
An announcer spoke stats as I waited with bated breath to see Cael take the ice. He was feeling anxious about this game. I’d had to meet him behind the stadium an hour ago …
“I’m nervous,” Cael said and ran his hand through his hair.
“You’re going to do great,” I said, trying my hardest to quell his nerves.
Cael closed his eyes and tipped his head back to the sky. He was focusing on the stars, and I knew he was fighting back tears. His eyes were shining when he met my gaze again. “I just always thought he’d be here, you know. In this moment.” Cael sighed. “I suppose it just hit me again that he’s not.”
I pointed at the stars. “He’s here,” I said, and his face softened.
Cael wrapped his arms around me. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, Peaches,” he said and kissed my lips. His team taking to the ice to warm up sounded behind him. “I have to go.”
“I’ll be in the stands,” I said, and Cael nodded his head. He gave me a small smile, and I prayed he would get through this first game …
I blinked back to the here and now, and a million thoughts ran through my head. All about Cael. Enough so that, in what felt like no time at all, the music lowered and the announcer began to speak.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.