“You deserve true happiness. Not the shallow kind you have to fake so everyone around you is comfortable.” I was holding her hand, so I felt a tremor go through her.

“I felt safe with you yesterday morning,” she said. “You were the first person I’d ever told. I know everything kind of…imploded after that, but there’s a reason why I chose you, Dean. You always made me feel like I could be myself around you. You still do.”

My nerves were being chased away by a tenuous hope. I lifted her hand and pressed my lips to the inside of her wrist. My eyes rose to meet hers. There was no mistaking the emotion glittering there.

“Tabitha,” I said roughly, “I was dishonest with you from the beginning. I never…it was impossible for me to consider spending time with you in a way that was casual. You know how I felt about you when we were in school. How much I admired you. The second I saw you at Benny’s I started falling in love with you.”

She was trembling now, tears on her cheeks. But her smile was dazzling.

“I let you believe I was fine with our arrangement. I wasn’t,” I said firmly. “I wasn’t ever fine with it. Even if you getting me to have fun again was exactly what I needed. It’s not a secret that I’ve been wandering around lost and frustrated since retiring. Wound tight and letting the opinions of an entire industry make me feel guilty for a decision I’m proud of. But I was still worried that I’d never be good at anything else but fighting. You made me remember that I was a human being again. Not a machine. You made me remember that my life was mine, my body was mine, my choices were mine. I didn’t think I’d ever experience the way I felt as a kid ever again. Carefree. Enjoying things without rules behind them. Leaping without looking.”

Tabitha was still quiet, sensing that I needed to reach the end of the speech I’d practiced. Her body language was anything but—I thought she might levitate straight off the couch. Every time I saw her smile, I was helpless not to return it. Reaching into my pocket, I slid the second item across the table. Her eyes went wide when she realized what it was.

“Dean,” she started.

“I officially turned down the commentator job in Vegas,” I said.

Her mouth dropped open. “You did?”