Spiral (Off the Ice, #2) (103)
Note to self: When one door closes, smash the window.
FORTY-FIVE
ELIAS
“WHY DO I have to wear a blindfold? Is this a new kink?” Sage asks.
She’s limping but never once says anything about how sore she must be. I’ll let her pretend for now, but I’m dying to get her into one of our self-care baths.
Our. I’ve been waiting so long to be able to say that and not have any flicker of doubt that it’s true. Right now, I know there will never be another flicker of doubt.
It took hours to get out of the theater after her performance, but I’d stay all night if it meant I’d get to see Sage smile like that. I was going to record her, but I was so entranced by her that I couldn’t pry my eyes away.
Everyone insisted on flying in for the show, especially my parents. Our friends and family alone took up an entire row, and seeing Sage’s reaction made the chaos before the performance all worth it. When she met us in the foyer, she was overjoyed to see our friends.
Now, the smell of smoke and a mixture of an earthy scent surround us. The light from the moon and its reflection off the water light the path to her surprise.
“You’ll see. Just a minute,” I say as we walk through the secluded parking lot.
“Is this punishment for making you sit with my uncle for three hours?”
I chuckle. “We had Sean as a buffer. It was fine.”
The talk I had with Marcus weeks ago comes back to me. Despite everything, I know from that alone that he recognizes how much I care for Sage and has to like me at least a little bit because of that.
When Sage’s feet touch the sand—because she refused to wear shoes—she gasps and squeezes my hand even tighter. I’m sure she hears the crashing sounds of the waves and the rustling of the trees surrounding us. There’s a crackling from the glowing fire, and the group of our friends trying to stand quietly as I stop in front of them. “Okay, ready?”
Sage nods, and I pull the blindfold from her eyes.
“Surprise!” everyone shouts.
Seven chairs. A campfire. A table full of takeout. And all the people we love.
She gapes at them. Then turns to look up at me, her eyes twinkling from the reflection of the fire and the tears overflowing her pretty hazel eyes. It’s the look that makes me want to wrap her in my arms and never let go.
“This is for me?”
“It’s always for you.”
The last time we were here, I was certain that whoever ended up with Sage Beaumont would never be bored. The girl is a star, and as much as I denied it then, I wanted to be the one she shone down on—the one she broke out of the sky for, and the one that caught her.
Sage’s eyes fill, and when she blinks, a single tear rolls down her cheek. She’s still in shock when I dust a kiss over her knuckles.
Summer comes up to us with Aiden right behind her. “We’re so proud of you, Sage. You were ethereal!” She pulls her into a hug and guides her over to where Dylan, Kian, and Sean are waiting for us.
Sean is next to hug her. He’s getting taller now, and makes Sage look small in comparison.
“Would you say it’s worth it?” Aiden asks.
My best friend stares at me with a smug look. Like he knows if I had chickened out, I would spend the rest of my life regretting every moment I wasn’t holding on to Sage’s hand.
“Worth every fucking second.”
No matter how many times Sage and I might have to sleep away from each other, I know that when she’s finally next to me, none of it will change how we unravel one another.
As we eat and talk with our friends, Sage’s smile is infectious. At one point Kian suggests karaoke and makes Sean hold his phone to show the lyrics for some love song. I’m watching Sage laugh with our friends from my seat across the fire. It might be a little creepy, but she’s impossible to look away from.
When she glances at me, I don’t bother looking away. A smirk plays on her lips, and she narrows her eyes before walking around the fire to my chair and dropping right into my lap. Her hair flutters in the wind, sending the vanilla scent to drown my senses.
“Summer is really invested in how many piercings everyone has,” Sage says.
I groan. “Give it up, Preston!”
After Aiden let it slip that he got a tattoo because of the hat of consequences, he mentioned that one of us has a piercing. Ever since then Summer’s been trying to find out who has it. Thank God she doesn’t know Aiden and I aren’t the only ones who had to pick a dare from that hat.
Summer sticks her tongue out at me.
I roll my eyes and adjust Sage so she’s sitting comfortably across my lap. She pokes my chest. “I have a complaint against you, Westbrook.”
“Yeah?”
She digs her phone out of her pocket and shows me the screen. “You broke every rule.”
It’s the list of all the rules we made that day in her apartment, and she’s right, I broke every single one, including the last one she put there as a joke. No falling in love.
“Me? I think I recall you in a similar position, breaking those rules one thigh at a time.” I bark out a laugh, but her glare quickly sobers me. Sage tries to move off my lap, but I tighten my hold. “You’re right, it was all me. Guess that means we have to make some new ones. But this time there’s no expiration date.”