When Stars Collide (Light in the Dark #2)

by Micalea Smeltzer

  I look to where she’s indicated and find a white-fluffy-haired lady of about eighty staring at me with an unhealthy grip on her Persian cat.

  I chuckle as my gaze swings back to Thea. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. But I’m coming back.”

  “And I’m coming with you,” she warns, like she’s afraid I might tell her to stay.

  I smile and grip her hand in mine. I cherish these moments, where even for a second, it feels like we’re a real couple. I crave the freedom to touch her without the fear of being judged for it.

  Without a word, we head out to my truck and home.

  Cade and Rae are in the family room when we come inside.

  “Heard you ran over a dog.” Cade chuckles, eyes glued to the TV.

  “I didn’t run over it,” I snap with a bite to my voice.

  He looks up and his brows scrunch together. “Where’s your shirt?”

  “With the dog.” I sigh, heading for the stairs. “Thea and I are changing and then we’re going back to the vet.”

  “Why?” Rae asks, peering over the couch at us. Thea’s already started up the steps and I stand on the bottom one. Rae’s eyes narrow on us, and I know she’s thinking, piecing together what might be happening under their noses. Granted, I don’t think she’d ever guess we’re married, but she’s no dummy. She’ll figure something out eventually or get Thea to spill with as close as those two are.

  “Because I adopted her.”

  “You got a dog?” Cade laughs.

  “Yeah.” I shrug. “I hope you guys don’t mind.” I smile sheepishly.

  Rae smiles back. “I don’t care.”

  “Me either.” Cade turns back to the TV. “But if it shits in the house and I have to pick it up, I’m putting it in your bed.”

  I laugh. “Fair enough.”

  With Cade and Rae occupied by the show they’re watching, Thea and I head upstairs to change.

  I don’t know how long we’ll be at the vet so I dress comfortably in a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt. I meet Thea in her room just as she’s pulling a loose sweater on. I hiss between my teeth as she tugs it down and her black bra disappears. She tilts her head, looking at me over her shoulder, and smiles shyly.

  “Do you have any idea how much I want to kiss you right now?”

  She turns fully and pulls on a pair of cotton shorts. “Why would you want to kiss me? You could kiss anyone you wanted—so why me?”

  I swallow thickly. “Because you’re the only girl I ever see.”

  Her eyes flick from mine to my lips and back again.

  Just like that day in the kitchen, it’s like a switch is flipped. I cross the room to her, take her face in my hands, and kiss her. I kiss her like she’s the sun, and moon, and stars all wrapped in one. She’s everything in this world that dreams are built upon. A quiet moan builds in her throat and it spurs me on. My hands leave her face, ghosting down her sides, where I grasp her legs and lift her up, sitting her on top of the dresser. Her fingers wind into my hair, tugging on the strands near my neck. I know we’re playing with fire, but I don’t give a fuck if we get burned.

  Her hands move down to my neck and over my shoulders and then she starts pulling and tugging on my sweatshirt, trying to get it off. I break the kiss long enough to pull it over my head and then I’m back, taking her lips in mine. She tastes sweet, like coconut and I wonder if maybe she’d just put Chapstick on. Her hands roam down my chest settle on my waist.

  I yearn for more, so much more, but I know now isn’t the time. We’re still on rocky ground and I don’t want to push her too far, too fast, to the point that I lose her before I have her.

  She gasps for air when we part, and I hover there, my nose brushing hers. I’m scared if I move that Thea will go back into her freak-out-zone and I don’t want the shutters to come back down on everything we feel. I want, just once, to not feel guilty for what I feel—for what we feel.

  She raises her eyes to mine. “You’re going to be the end of me.”

  I chuckle and wrap a piece of her damp hair around my finger. “Funny, I was going to say the same about you. I guess we’ll just do each other in.”

  She smiles widely and her eyes squint at me. That’s something I’ve always loved about Thea; when she’s truly happy and gives you a genuine smile her eyes all but disappear. “I guess we’ll go together then.” One arm wraps around my neck and her other hand lies palm flat against my chest over my heart.

  My hands settle on her hips and I lift her off the dresser, setting her on the floor. She blinks up at me with wide eyes and says, “You make me happy. You should already know that, but in case you don’t, I’m telling you.”

  I do know I make her happy, it’s evident from all the time we spend together talking and laughing, but regardless, it feels good to hear her say it.

  I don’t know how to respond so I simply nod and smile and bend down to pick my sweatshirt off the floor. I slip it on over my head and tug it down.

  “Maybe we should bring your laptop,” I suggest. “If we’re there for a while we can watch more Charmed.”

  She laughs and goes to grab her laptop off her nightstand, putting it in her backpack. “You really like that show, don’t you? And you were so reluctant to watch it,” she tsks.

  “Yeah, yeah.” I shrug like it’s no big deal. “You were right, and I was wrong. It’s a good fucking show and I’m addicted, okay? I need to know what happens next.”

  I follow her to her door and when she swings it open, Rae is standing on the other side. Thea jolts back and into my chest. I grab her elbow to steady her and she quickly jerks away. I know I shouldn’t be offended, but I am. I don’t let it show, though.

  “Interesting,” is all Rae says before heading down the hall to the room she shares with Cade.

  Thea looks up at me with worried eyes and I shrug.

  There’s nothing we can do about it now.

  We fall asleep in the waiting room of the vet’s office watching Charmed, and when I wake up, my body is stiff and hurting. It doesn’t help that I had one hell of a practice yesterday, but I blame most of the pain on sleeping on the wooden bench sitting up. Thea’s stretched out with her head on my lap, sleeping peacefully. I run my fingers through her hair, rubbing the soft strands against my thumb and forefinger.

  “Sir?” A hushed whisper sounds somewhere behind me and I turn my head. “Oh, good, you’re awake.” A different woman from yesterday comes over and sits down in the chair in front of me. Instantly, my heart seizes with worry that she’s going to tell me the dog didn’t make it. “I wanted to let you know that the surgery was successful and your dog will be fine. She’s going to need to rest for a while, and be watched carefully, but she’s doing well.”

  I breathe out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

  Thea stirs in my lap and sits up, rubbing at her eyes. “What’s going on?”

  “She came to tell me the dog’s going to be okay.”

  “Oh.” Thea brightens. “That’s great.”

  The woman nods. “Does she have a name yet? I’m aware you only put in the adoption papers last night.” She laughs lightly. “So if you haven’t picked one yet, that’s fine, but we’d prefer to call her by her name if you’ve decided.”

  I look at Thea and she looks at me. “Prue?”

  I grin. “Prue,” I repeat. “It’s perfect.”

  The woman smiles and stands. “Prue it is. She won’t be able to go home with you for at least a day—we typically monitor them for twenty-four hours following surgery. So I suggest you guys get on out of here and prepare for your new addition to come home with you.”

  “Thank you,” I tell the woman. “And can you tell the vet and nurses thank you too?”

  She nods with a warm smile. “Absolutely.” She rounds the receptionist table. “We can finish your payment and then when you pick her up you won’t have to do anything but get her.”

  “Perfect,” I say, pulling my wallet out of the pocket of my sweatpa
nts. I hand Thea the keys. “You wanna go on out to the car?”

  She nods and takes them from my hands, heading for the automatic glass doors. I can’t help but stare at her slender legs and the way her shorts hug her curves just right.

  I step up the desk and make the payment, sign the receipt, and hand it back.

  “You look familiar,” the woman says, staring up at me.

  I shrug. “Must have one of those faces.”

  She shakes her head. “Do you play football?”

  My shoulders tighten. “Yes,” I admit reluctantly.

  She smiles widely. “I knew it. You’re new to the Broncos this year.”

  I nod once and grit my teeth. I don’t want to say anything but I have to. I look out the doors and then to her. “If you don’t mind, could you keep that information to yourself. Thea—my wife … She doesn’t know yet.”

  “Doesn’t know?” She looks perplexed as another receipt prints out and she hands this one over for me to keep.

  “It’s complicated,” I grind out.

  “Yes, well, I won’t say anything,” she promises.

  “Thanks.” I nod. “You guys have my phone number and you’ll call if anything happens to Prue, right?”

  “Of course.” I start to walk toward the doors when she calls me back. “Sir?”

  “Yes?” I stop and turn around, crumbling the receipt in my fist.

  “I know it’s none of my business, but you should tell her. That’s the kind of secret that you don’t keep from your spouse.”

  I flinch. She’s right. “Thanks,” I mumble, and then I’m gone.

  I slide into the driver’s seat of my truck and glance at Thea. She’s pulled her hair back in a sloppy ponytail and her face is free of makeup, but like always, she’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.

  “You hungry?” I ask.

  She nods. “Starving.”

  I don’t even ask her where she wants to go: I already know. That’s the beauty of knowing someone better than you know yourself.

  We arrive at the local restaurant a few minutes later. It’s a favorite of all of ours and under normal circumstances, I would’ve called the whole gang to join us, Jace and Nova included, but I selfishly want Thea all to myself.

  I park and we head inside, and when she smiles over her shoulder at me as we’re guided to our table I feel like the luckiest guy in the world. I have my dream job and my dream girl, life can’t get any better. Except for the fact that I’m keeping said dream job from my dream girl. I don’t know how she’ll react when I tell her, but I know now that it’s not something I can keep a secret from her for much longer. She deserves to know more than anyone else. Not because she’s my wife, but because she’s always been there cheering me on, my biggest support system. I don’t think she ever missed a game that we played. She was always there in the stands, rain or shine, screaming her lungs out.

  We take our seats and both immediately slide our menus to the edge of the table.

  Thea reaches up and pulls her hair from the ponytail, shaking out the longer strands.

  “I need a nap,” she declares, rolling her neck.

  “Me too,” I agree.

  “But first we should pick up some things for Prue.”

  I nod in agreement. “Yeah, we’re going to need a lot of stuff.”

  She props her elbows on the table and her head in her hands. Her eyes are tired but they shine with something I’d like to think is happiness—because selfishly I want to think that she’s happy because she’s with me, that I make her happy.

  “What all do you think we’ll need?” she asks, wrinkling her nose. “I know nothing about having a dog.”

  I laugh and tap my finger against the table. “Well, for starters, we’ll need a collar and name tag. A leash. Toys. Food. Bowls.”

  She holds up a hand. “I get the idea.”

  I grin as the waitress comes by to take our order. Once she leaves, I clasp my hands together and look across the table at Thea. “You’re beautiful.” I don’t know what makes me say it—in fact, the words seem to fall out of my mouth without me even thinking about them, but they’re still true.

  Thea looks at me in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? With my dirty hair and clothes I slept in I’m sure I’m the furthest thing from beautiful at the moment.”

  I shake my head. “That’s where you’re wrong. Beauty is in the chaos—in those little imperfect moments where we just are.”

  She purses her lips, fighting laughter, but after a moment, she can’t hold it back anymore. “You sound like an infomercial or maybe like a poet. You really break the stereotype for jocks, and I kind of dig it.” She winks at me.

  I chuckle. “You dig it, huh?” I smile in thanks at the waitress when she sets our glasses in front of us. I’m more than grateful to have something to drink.

  “Yeah, I do. Even if you are a pretty big dork at the end of the day.” She shrugs, taking a sip of her water.

  “A dork? What makes you say that?”

  She gives me a look that says I’ve clearly lost my mind. “You read The Great Gatsby for fun the other day and before that you were reading Hamlet. You’re a dork.”

  “Well, you’ve got me there,” I agree.

  She smiles and her laughter fills the air. Making her smile and laugh is one of my favorite things, and I’ll never grow tired of it.

  Our food is brought out and we grow quiet, too hungry to talk. I stuff my face with eggs and bacon, barely pausing to breathe. Apparently, sleeping in the vet’s office makes you ravenous.

  We finish eating, pay for our meal, and head down the road to the nearest pet store to get everything we need.

  I push the cart and Thea strolls along beside me. “What about this?” She picks up some sort of purple rope toy.

  “Put it in the cart.”

  She looks at me, fighting laughter, and twists the rope around her fingers. “You’ve said that about the last five toys I’ve asked you about.”

  I shrug. “I don’t know what Prue will like so we have to get a bit of everything.”

  “All right.” She drops the rope in the cart. It joins the pile of balls, a squeaky bone, some sort of Frisbee thing, and a Chewbacca chew toy. She picks up a few more random toys and adds them in before we start down the aisle with leashes and collars.

  I pale. “Why are there so many choices?” I pick up the one nearest me, a plain black collar, and ask, “This works, right?”

  She snatches the collar from my hands and puts it back on the display. “That’s so boring, Xander. You can do better than that. She’s a girl. Pick something girly.”

  “You pick then.” I sweep my hand to encompass the aisle.

  She shakes her head. “She’s your dog. You should choose.”

  “She’s our dog,” I remind her.

  She laughs. “Then we’ll pick together.”

  She moves in front of me and scans the aisle before picking three collars. “I like these, which is your favorite?”

  I appraise them. One is pink with a flower thing on it, another is purple polka dots, and the last one has daisies on it. I point to the last. “That one seems more like Prue.”

  Thea nods. “That was my favorite too.” She puts the others back and grabs the matching leash, dropping both items in our quickly filling cart.

  We move to the dog food aisle, and end up asking for help since I have no fucking idea what kind of dog food to get, and then we head to the checkout where we also pay for a nametag.

  Once we have that, we load everything in the truck. I know we should head home, but instead, I swing back by the vet. I feel bad for poor Prue there all by herself. It would have to be scary.

  “They’re going to think you’re a psycho,” Thea tells me when I park in the lot.

  I shrug. “I don’t care. Prue’s more important than what people think of me. Besides, I want her to have one of her new toys.”

  I hop out of the truck and open the back door, rummaging thr
ough the bags to find what I want. I pull out the little brown bear toy and head inside with it.

  “Hi,” I say politely to the new lady manning the front desk. “I’m Prue’s new owner. I just wanted to drop this off since they said she’d have to stay the night.”

  She takes the bear. “I’ll make sure she gets this.”

  “Is she doing okay?” I ask.

  She nods. “She’s sleeping, but doing fine. You have nothing to worry about.”

  “Thanks.” I tap my finger against the counter before heading back to the car. I know it might seem silly, since twenty-four hours ago I didn’t even know this dog, but I already care about her.

  I slide into the car and Thea smiles at me. For a moment, my heart stops because this girl … this girl owns me. Heart, body, and soul, I’m hers and she doesn’t even know it.

  “Home?” she asks.

  “Home,” I echo.

  I know she’s talking about a place, but I’m talking about her.

  I collapse into bed, exhausted. I haven’t done much today so there’s no real explanation for my exhaustion. I’m still marveling at the fact that we have a dog now. I couldn’t even keep my hamster alive when I was ten—poor Brownie, may he rest in peace—so I doubt I can do much better with a dog. Hopefully, Xander will be better at it than me.

  I roll onto my side and smile at the moon shining through the window and the bright stars beyond.

  When I was little, I was obsessed with stars. I thought if I grew tall enough I could reach up and grab them, but it didn’t take long for me to learn that the stars would always be unattainable. Sometimes, the greatest things in life are only meant to be seen and not obtained because once you have something it’s no longer as powerful to you.

  The door to the adjoining bathroom cracks open and Xander steps into my room. My breath catches and I think maybe I was wrong, because right now I have Xander and he still holds just as much power over me as he did before.