Fourteen
January
Porter
I paced just outside security, anxiously waiting for her to walk down the hall. I checked my phone again. Her plane was supposed to land ten minutes ago.
I moved my pace to the arrivals and departures board, checking her flight number for likely the hundredth time since I got here.
Arrived.
Thank God.
My phone pinged with an incoming text.
Just landed.
I typed out three different messages before I finally just hit send on the last one. Cool. See you in a few.
I nodded to myself. That wasn’t so bad.
But maybe it wouldn’t come off with how excited I was to see her.
Shit.
I opened the message thread up again. Can’t wait to see you.
That was better.
I slipped my phone into the back pocket of my jeans after shooting a text to my parents to let them know Ash landed safely, and crossed my arms over my chest. I was wearing a light hooded Henley and a beanie on my head. I noticed a few cell phones lifting and taking pictures, but I didn’t give a fuck if my mug appeared on some social media site in the next ten minutes.
I cared about the girl who would be walking down this very hall in a few minutes.
After McKenna’s wedding, we saw each other at Christmas in San Diego. God, every time I saw her, she seemed more comfortable and sometimes even more in awe.
It was a tradition my brothers started, but for Christmas, I got everyone my replica jersey—Asher included. I don’t think she’d ever experienced a Christmas like this last one. Later, she told me she felt bad that she didn’t get gifts for the adults.
I maybe took her aside then, and kissed some sense into her.
The smile on my face now, at the memory, was automatic. I couldn’t wait to kiss her again.
Kissing was as far as we’d gone over the short Christmas break—after all, I’d been due back to South Carolina on the twenty-sixth—but I was pretty excited to see if things would progress this weekend.
Or if they’d dwindle. That was always a possibility.
But then I thought about the few text messages sent over the last three and a half weeks and shook my head to myself.
Nope. They weren’t dwindling.
I moved to stand where she’d be able to see me, not really caring if I was blocking the view for some other person waiting. I widened my stance and with my arms crossed over my chest, I kept my eyes trained as far back as I could see. My gaze shifted over the different travelers coming in; the only person I wanted to see was a brunette with crazy colored eyes.
And then I saw her.
The feeling that overtook me was like a drowning man getting his first breath of air. A starving man getting a fucking full-course meal.
She didn’t see me yet, but she would in time. There were maybe eighty people between us and she was nearing.
Her hair was braided over her shoulder, wisps of hair falling out and framing her face. She was wearing leggings and those damned boots of hers, but I was surprised to see her shirt was the girly type, long with cuts up the sides, nearly to her waist, and lacy sleeves that played peek-a-boo with the colors adorning her arm. She didn’t carry a bag, just her phone in one hand.
I licked my bottom lip before biting it gently, trying to stop the smile from spreading on my face. Didn’t want to look like a complete moron.
Forty feet.
Her gaze was down at the floor, no doubt watching where she was walking. It didn’t surprise me she was careful like that.
Thirty feet.
Look up, Asher…Look up.
Twenty feet.
Her face lifted and, like a magnet, her eyes locked on mine instantly.
And the smile on her face?
God damn.
There was no sense stopping my full-ass smile now, not with the one she just shot my way.
If you would have told me, four months ago, I would be the most celibate man in the history of earth, all for the glimpses of smiles from that girl there with more secrets behind her eyes than I could ever hope to uncover, I probably would have laughed in your face.
Four months ago, I was gearing up for my rookie season in South Carolina.
Four months ago, I was a kid with a big name, going to a team that had nothing to do with said big name.
Four months ago, it was rumored I would be the new hot shot in town. Nico certainly didn’t fail to show me the gossip sites, seemingly run by a bunch of puck bunnies.
But four months ago, I walked into Starbucks for a goodbye coffee with my sister, and met the girl with secrets.
And four months ago, I became addicted without so much as a taste.
Now that I’ve had that taste? Shit, I couldn’t wait for more.
Asher’s steps quickened as the crowd dissipated; only ten people separated her from me.
I uncrossed my arms and moved to help close the distance.
Then my heart fucking faltered in my chest as she closed the last of the distance and threw her arms around my neck.
What the hell was this change?
Not that I really cared. Nope. My dick certainly didn’t either.
I wrapped my arms around her waist, my arms long enough to wrap all the way around her. My fingers pressed into her stomach through the slits in her shirt. She was so damned small in my arms, but I didn’t give two shits. If anything, it just made me feel like Superman.
I pulled my back up, lifting her from the ground.
I turned my head toward hers, my nose buried in the wisps of hair in front of her ear. “God, I missed you,” I admitted to her.
It wasn’t a line. It was the absolute truth. Who knew you could miss someone you barely knew?
She pulled her head back, smiling down at me. I lowered her to ground, wanting more than anything to someday do that greeting again, but with her legs wrapped around me.
Complete trust that I wouldn’t let her down, wouldn’t let her fall.
These thoughts where she was concerned were so fucking foreign to me, but hell if I cared.
Still smiling, Asher’s brows drew down in thought as she said, “I missed you, too.”
Needing some sort of even ground again, I gave her the cocky, sarcastic Porter I could sometimes be. I winked at her, adding, “Of course you did.”
But still, reluctantly I let her go. “Baggage claim?”
She nodded and I stuffed my hands in my pockets, leading the way. “I wasn’t going to check it, but decided I didn’t want to lug around a winter jacket, so I stuffed it in my bag and checked it at the gate,” she spoke from beside me.
“That’s the way to do it.”
She murmured her yes and we walked, side by side like we didn’t just hug the hell out of one another, toward baggage claim.
Fucking A, it was like we continuously took steps backwards. Sure, the hug was a surprising leap forward, but now we were like strangers.
Well, fuck that.
I took a hand from my pocket and reached for hers. I felt like a freaking twelve-year-old with his first girl.
Ooh, holding hands.
But seriously? What was this walking next to each other and not touching shit? I wanted to touch her.
And then she stepped closer and fit her fingers between mine, and all was right in the world again.
“Do you have Nico’s car?” she asked, looking over at me.
I chuckled. “No, I thought the bike would suffice.”
The disbelieving look she shot me had me grinning and shaking my head. “I have a vehicle with doors to transport you to my place.”
I heard her, “Smartass,” comment under her breath, but didn’t call her out on it. I was too busy comparing this Asher to the one I saw at Christmas, all the way back to the one I met in September.
It did something to me, knowing she was opening up and being who I thought was likely the real Asher. Maybe I’d get to see even more this week.