Page 92 of One More Shot
‘Hey.’
She pulls away from the camera and gives me a look. ‘I’m working, Dane.’
‘And I,’ I say, pressing my hand against the small of her back so I can guide her to a secluded part of the terracewhere we won’t be overheard. ‘I’ve got explicit permission from the bride to borrow you for thirty minutes.’
Eliott shoots me a look of disbelief.
‘I do!’ I insist. ‘Bailey’s promised not to do anything worthy of a photograph for the next half an hour.’
‘And why would she do that?’ Eliott asks.
We turn a corner and find ourselves tucked away in a little alcove. I can hear the sounds of the wedding reception waging on behind us, but it’s muted enough that I can pretend we’re far away. It’s just me and Eliott now and I can finally say what I need to say.
‘Because Bailey, and everyone else apparently, can see what I’ve been too stubborn to see.’
‘Dane, what’re you—’
I take a step closer and bring my hands up to cup her face. ‘I’m not built for love.’
She swallows thickly. ‘Right. You’ve said that before.’
‘I have.’ I lean in slightly. ‘That’s what I’ve always thought. And, up until recently, I didn’t think that would ever change.’
Something sparks behind her eyes. ‘Until recently?’
I nod as I run my thumb along her lip, enjoying the way her lips part to let out a soft, keening sigh. ‘Until I met you. You make me want to be so much more than whatever I’ve been for the last decade.’
Her hands slide against the fabric of my shirt. ‘Dane. What’re you saying?’
‘I’m saying that when I wake up in the morning, you’re the first thing on my mind and when I go to sleep at night, you’re the last thing I see behind my eyes. Matter of fact, you don’t leave my mind at any point in the day.’ I tilt her face upwards and hold her stare. ‘You consume every last one of my thoughts and I wouldn’t have it any other way.’
She lets out another shuddery sigh.
‘All I can think about it how I want to be there for you. How I want to be the best version ofmyselfforyou. How I can be enough for you to want me the way I want you.’
Her hands fist my shirt and pull me in even closer. ‘I already told you, you’re enough for me. I don’t want anything else. I just want— I justneed— I just needyou.’
She stands on her tiptoes and tries to press her lips against mine, but there’s something else I need to say. Something else she needs to know.
‘Eliott.’ I hold her face between my hands and take a deep breath before I say the three words that are going to change everything between us. ‘I love you.’
And then I close the gap between us. Her lips slant against mine perfectly, just like they always do, and I find myself wondering how I ever lived in a world where the feel of Eliott’s tongue against mine wasn’t a sensation I was intimately familiar with.
‘Are you sure?’ she whispers as we pull away from each other.
‘I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.’
She brings her arms up to swing around my neck, and she’s wearing my favourite smile – the soft one, that’s just for me. ‘I love you too.’
Call me the Grinch, because my heart is growing about five sizes too big for my ribcage right now.
‘I love you so fucking much,’ she laughs and shakes her head. ‘I have for a while.’
‘I think I have too.’
She huffs out a happy sounding sigh. ‘We’ve probably wasted so much time, haven’t we?’
‘Probably,’ I say with a shrug. ‘But we’ve got all the time in the world to make up for it now.’
