Caspian (Carolina Reapers 8)

Fine, I led our team in penalties, but that wasn’t the point.

“You watch me.” I grinned, slipping one of my hands up her back. “Admit it, Ryleigh Dunham. You watch my games.”

“Only if they’re already on.” She rolled her eyes. “You’re a fantastic player. You don’t need me to say it.”

My heart pulled a grinch and grew two sizes. “It sounds really fucking good coming out of your mouth.”

She laughed, and the sound was brighter than all the twinkle lights that were draped from tree to tree. “Fine, if you need your ego fed, then you’re a fabulous player, Caspian Foster.” She ran her tongue over her lower lip. “You’re fabulous at a lot of things.”

I tugged her closer and brushed my lips over hers, uncaring that the entire population of Cherry Creek was watching the display. “You’re a fabulous artist.”

“Mmm.” She rose up on her toes and kissed me back, chaste, but firm.

Tomorrow I wouldn’t have that kiss, that smile, that honesty from her lips. Tomorrow I’d be on a flight back to Charleston. Back to what my life had become, and as great as it was, it somehow felt a little emptier now—hollow, even.

“What will you do once I’m gone?” I asked, trailing my fingers up her spine.

“I don’t know.” She forced a smile. “What I’ve always done, I guess. Run the store. Figure out my life now that—” She stopped herself and glanced away.

Now that what? I wanted to ask, but was too chicken shit to let the words out. Would she go back to Chuck? Convince him of what he should already have known—that she was irreplaceable? Would she settle for the kind of love that always made her feel like she was less than perfection?

“You deserve so much more than him,” I whispered.

Her eyes jolted back to mine. “I know.”

“Don’t settle, Ryleigh. Don’t hide your heart in a relationship you have to force. You deserve the kind of love that builds you up, that gives you a safe place to fall. The kind that burns bright enough to see your future in the span of a heartbeat. You deserve the best of everything.” I cupped the back of her neck, my other hand flexing at her waist like I could hold onto this moment, hold on to her.

“It’s not always that simple, Caz. It’s human nature to want the things we can’t have, right?” She traced my lower lip with her thumb.

Was she talking about Chuck? Or…me? My heartbeat stuttered at the thought. Maybe I was affecting her the same way she was me. Maybe I wasn’t the only one caught up in whatever this was becoming.

“You could stay,” she whispered.

I stopped swaying.

She flashed me a practiced smile. “I mean really, what compares to Cherry Creek’s Fourth of July festival? It’s not like you have some multi-million-dollar career waiting for you or anything.” She tried to laugh it off.

I started dancing again. The song had changed at some point, but I hadn’t even noticed. Staying was…impossible. And she was right. That multi-million-dollar career was waiting with a giant fucking contract that I couldn’t exactly get out of—not that I wanted to.

“I was just joking, Caz.” She grimaced.

“You could come,” I offered.

Her lips parted and her hands fell to my chest as I swayed us with the rhythm of the music. “Caspian.”

“You could.” I nodded. “I know it sounds…a little insane, but you could come with me.” Charleston didn’t have the design program she wanted. I knew that was only in Minneapolis, but we could try, right? The idea took off in my brain at a hundred miles an hour. We could figure out if this was just a whirlwind of lust and timing, or if it was the real thing. I could take her to the museums, and games, and give her the kind of freedom she deserved to figure out what she really wanted out of life. Even if she realized Cherry Creek was her dream, she’d have experienced something else to compare it to.

“I can’t go with you, silly.” She laughed, stroking her hands up my shirt to wind them around my neck. “I have responsibilities here. I have Mom and the store. I can’t just pick up and take a trip to Charleston. It sounds pretty wonderful though.”

“Right. Of course.” Her loyalty to her family was one of the things I liked most about Ryleigh, so why was my chest burning?

“And you have responsibilities there,” she reminded me with a soft sigh.

“I have two houseplants. I’m not sure that counts as responsibility.” I threaded my fingers through her hair as another idea took hold. “All the other stuff doesn’t start for another few weeks.”

She sucked in a breath. “Does that mean you might just stick around? For the Fourth of July festival, of course. I know you love my mom’s apple pie.”