Page 75 of Manhattan Heart

She turns and wraps both arms around my neck, thankfully not in a strangle hold. “You little shit,” she grins, “this is our quiet night?”

“I couldn’t help myself. My girl should always have fanfare on her birthday, especially this one.” Her hand immediately slaps over my mouth and I chuckle. “Don’t even say it, Grayson.”

Heat flares in her hazel eyes when I cup the side of her face gently, bringing her in to kiss lightly, even as people begin to descend on us.

Noah’s crew have really gone all out when I coordinated what I wanted.

They’d turned an upscale nightclub into a birthday paradise.

It’s all the colors and aesthetics India loves and the DJ will only be playing music of her choice. My poor ears can cope for a few hours. She has shockingly bad taste. I’m talking 90’s pop bad taste.

“How badly are you going to kill me?”

She pretends to ponder, with her lips pursed. Lips I lean down and kiss. “I guess I won’t. This thing better have cake though.”

I whisper the magic words in her ear. “Three donut cakes, with your favorite cereal on top.”

A surprise party with one hundred people who love and adore her almost as much as I do doesn’t elicit an excited squeal out of her, but the mention of cereal donuts do.

I throw my head back and laugh as she’s spirited away from me into hugs and far too much affection she will undoubtedly punish me for.

I can only stand back, with my hands in my pockets, with a smile on my face, and watch her while her mom and best friend take turns squeezing her.

Next is my family.

She is loved, she is wanted. This girl of mine with her wild spirit and giving heart is mine forever and always.

My heart beats for India.

It skips beats for her too when she’s got desire in her eyes.

India might always insist that I’ve taken care of her since we met, but it’s her who’s given me the most. It was an odd feeling to recognize how empty I’d been until she was in my vision.

My life was good before her, or so I thought.

It was full and varied and busy.

But my heart sped up the very day I laid eyes on her and hasn’t regulated to its normal beat since.

She’s freely gifted me so much, more than a birthday party can ever repay her for.

Making India the center of my universe might not seem sane to some people… Cal especially, my commitment-phobic friend still doesn’t get it, what it means to meet the one person who you’re wholly comfortable with, surprised by, enamored over and devastatingly addicted to.

Looking at her, I feel a twisting in my gut and a warmth spreading through my chest.

I don’t have a heart without her.

And that’s the truth.

C H A P T E R 21

India

“Am I forgiven yet?”

I’m all the way tipsy, no mistaking that, but I still hear Gray’s question pressed against my cheek.

I’m on his lap.

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