Back to Me (Carolina Rebels 1)

Marc grins. “What’s wrong with that?”

“We’ll give you a ten-second head start,” I tell her.

She sighs and nods since I seem to be up for the game. I’m only agreeing to it because I plan for Marc to lose. We line up at center ice because Meredith doesn’t want to have to skate from one end to the other. “Any tips?” she asks me.

I lean down and whisper my plan in her ear, low enough that Marc can’t hear me. Mere grins and nods. As promised, we give her the ten-second head start before we take off. I’m faster than Marc, so when I’m about to pass Meredith, she holds out her hand. I take it and pull her along with me.

“No fair!” he shouts when we both make it to the boards two seconds before him.

I grin. “Did you set up rules that I wasn’t aware of?”

“I figured it was implied that you can’t help an opponent.”

“Sucks for you.” Meredith sticks her tongue out at him. “You’re taking us to a fancy restaurant.”

“Yeah, yeah. Didn’t you have somewhere else you wanted to go?”

“Yes, and you can’t come.”

My curiosity is starting to get the best of me. “Why don’t we leave Marco here by himself and you can show me whatever you want to show me.”

Mere smirks. She grazes her fingertips down my chest. “Who says I’m showing you something? We’re doing something.”

With her hand in mine, we start skating away from Marc. There’s only one thing I can even think of right now, and when Meredith laughs and says, “It’s not sex,” I don’t even care. Sex is coming afterward.

“Don’t even say bye!” Marc yells.

“Bye, Marco!” Meredith shouts back.

I move fast to take our skates off and hurry us back to my SUV.

“Let me drive,” Meredith says. I shrug and hand her the keys. “I’m kind of nervous,” she admits as she puts the address into the GPS on her phone.

“Why? What are we doing?” Her being nervous and the fact that she’s not telling me yet is starting to make me a little nervous.

“I don’t want to tell you yet.”

We don’t say anything else while she drives. Soon, we’re parked in front of a tatt

oo parlor. I look at Meredith with confusion. Are we in the wrong place?

She grabs my hand until it’s touching her ribcage just underneath her left breast. “You have my name.” She taps my hand. “I want yours.”

For a moment, all I can do is stare at her. She wants my name tattooed on her body? I lean over the console and kiss her hard, my hand moving up to the back of her neck to hold her in place until I’m finished. She nips my lip, causing a series of actions. I unhook her seatbelt, grab her hips, and she helps me out by climbing over. My mouth moves down her neck.

“Noah,” Mere whispers.

“Hmm?” I come back to her mouth and slide my tongue against hers. I think I’ll kiss her forever. Meredith wiggles in my lap. I groan.

She has to ruin all of my fun by grabbing my shoulders and pulling away from me. “First, we’re in your car and we’re out in public. Second, we should head inside.”

“Are you really doing this? You’re sure you want to? It’ll hurt. You don’t have—”

“I want to do this because I love you,” she interrupts me. “You did it for me when I thought you were crazy to do it and you didn’t hesitate one bit because you knew the love you had for me would last as long as the tattoo would. You don’t understand what it means to me that you still have it and never once thought about covering it up or removing it. I want to do this, Noah.” She seems so sure and certain. “I love you,” she adds.

What would I do without her? Now that she’s back, I can’t even picture the past eight years because it simply doesn’t seem possible that she wasn’t there. It makes me so excited about my future because she’s going to be in it. A future with her is the only future there is for me.

“Marry me,” I blurt out.