Page 60 of Calm Before the Score

“Sure.”

I tap out the order on my phone. It’s the first day of summer break, and I want to celebrate with greasy food. This year has been tough, but I made it out with a 4.0. Next year, I start my junior-level courses at Springs U, and I’ll be that much closer to graduating. I quickly decide not to invite Liza over. Whatever this weird tension between her and Hartley is doesn’t need to dampen my mood tonight. Since we’re not leaving tonight, I throw my hair into a messy bun, throw on my comfiest pair of plaid sleep shorts and black silk tank.

“Vi! Can you get that? I don’t have pants on!” Hartley screams.

“Since when do you care if you have pants on?” I chuckle as I throw that witty response to him. Someone is beating on the door. It can’t be the delivery driver already, and I’m not expecting anyone else tonight. When I fling the door open, I’m left breathless.

“Ryan!” I launch into my man’s arms and wrap my legs around his waist. His strength and muscles contract around me. He’s warm and smells like mahogany. It’s my favorite smell in the world.

“Hey, baby. I wanted to surprise you tonight,” he replies as he nuzzles his chin into my neck. His beard stubble scrapes me in the best way. I miss him so much when he’s gone.

“You scared me,” I lock eyes with him and laugh. “I’m so happy to see you!” I giggle as I hold onto his broad shoulders tightly.

“I’m all yours for the weekend,” he says but makes no move to let me go.

“Eeeek!”

These days, seeing each other has become harder. I finally chose a major and career path while Ryan hunkered down to fix his year of dropping out of Springs U entirely. Facetime has become our best friend. We also didn’t want to rush into a relationship again. We both needed time to find direction, heal our past wounds, and become our own people. I missed him like crazy, but I also needed to find myself away from our relationship. He needed to sort things out, and we’ve both come out the other end better versions of ourselves. He slams his lips on mine like it’s the last time he ever will. Ryan kisses me like that all the time now. We’ve lost each other once and cherish our time together now more than ever.

“Looks like I picked the perfect time to fix a drink,” Hartley saunters into the living room kitchenette area. You guessed it,he’s in his boxers with no shirt. Stress is written all over his face. His hair is messy, and he has dark circles under his eyes.

“Hart, long time no see.” Ryan walks over and gives him a bro handshake. These two have come a long way since last year. Hartley hated Ryan’s guts for what he did to me and the team. He doesn’t like to show it, but he’s very sensitive and a little broken—we all are, it seems.

“When you grace us with your presence, you can’t come up for air long enough for more than a few words.”

“Can’t say I’d ever want to.” Ryan fixates his eyes back on me and stares through my soul. Those caramel-brown pools hold so much pain, resilience, and determination.

“Whatever. Keep it down, you two. Some of us have things to do in the morning.” Hartley runs a glass of water from the sink and trots back to his bedroom. I make a mental note to figure out what’s got him in such a slump lately.

***

The next morning, I woke up in Ryan’s muscular arms. I spend the better part of the morning tracing lines across his chest tattoos. Each holds a special meaning to him, and I commit each one to memory. I freeze my tracing when my eyes catch a new tattoo. I’ve memorized all of the lines and details in each of his inked features. This one is definitely new. My cold fingers find a cracked heart with stitches binding each of the shattered pieces together. My eyes well with tears.

“Babe, wake up.” I gently pat my boyfriend’s shoulder. I can’t wait a minute longer to find out when he got this and what it means. His groggy eyes bat open as he wipes sleep from his eyes. He runs a hand through his disheveled hair. One thing thathasn’t changed, Ryan Shane is sexy from the minute he wakes up.

“Good Morning, sunshine,” he says as he grabs the base of my neck to pull me closer.

“How long have you been up?”

“About an hour. You looked so peaceful. I didn’t want to wake you,” I answer.

“I don’t want to waste a second with you ever again,” he whispers, as he peppers kisses against my warm neck.

“When did you get this one?” I point to the broken heart on his chest.

“Last week.”

“What does it mean?” I lean my head over to get a closer look at his new ink.

“Before I met you, my heart was scattered pieces. They didn’t have meaning, and I didn’t have a reason to put them back together again.” He leans up on one arm and rubs from my shoulder down to my waist. “I didn’t know if I’d ever have another chance with you, but I kept hoping that I would. I got it to show what you did to my heart without even realizing it." He places my hand over the mended heart. "I wanted to mark myself permanently to represent how much you changed me.”

I’m a sniffling mess with tears trickling down my bare morning face.

“Shhhh,” he says as the pads of his thumbs wipe away the happy tears. “Don’t cry, baby. I hate it when I make you cry.”

“These are good tears, Ry. Why didn’t you show me sooner?”

“I wanted you to find it organically,” he says with the sweetest rasp to his unsure voice. I didn't know how you would feel about me marking you on myself permanently.

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