Page 211 of Forever Relentless

I climbed the steps and sat beside her. For a minute, neither of us spoke. The quiet felt earned.

“You did well in practice,” she said finally.

“Yeah?”

Briar’s shoulder brushed lightly against mine.

“What are you thinking?” I asked her quietly, reaching over and taking her hand.

“You know we didn’t fix anything,” she said.

I glanced at her.

“Sutherland’s still here.”

“Yeah.”

“My brother’s life still went off the rails.”

“Yeah.”

“And you still made a deal with the devil.”

“The actual devil, not the ones that call themselves the Devils.” I huffed a quiet laugh. “That last one’s going to haunt me for a while yet.”

She leaned back against the metal bench, staring up at the sky for a moment. “Nobody’s perfect,” she said softly.

I looked down at our hands. “You sure? I think you are.”

Briar gave a small smile. “You still want this?”

I laced my fingers through hers. “Not even the smallest doubt.”

She squeezed once. “Good. I do too.” She squeezed my hand again. “For the record, I think you’re pretty damned perfect,” she murmured. Another quiet moment passed. Then Briar nudged my shoulder with hers. “Perfect but still a morally questionable pain in the ass.”

I grinned. “And you’re still trespassing on school property, so still a wannabe felon.”

She laughed lightly. “Guess we’re a good match.”

“The perfect match,” I corrected her, dropping a kiss on her lips.

We sat there a while longer, watching the empty field.

She was staying here for me, and I loved that. She’d already put out feelers for jobs in Halston. I didn’t know how it would go — I’d never done this before. But I was going to find out.

I was coming back to Wrighton next semester for my team. My friends, who had become as close as family, and like every family, we argued, but we stuck together because we wanted to.

The machine would start again tomorrow.

But for now, the stadium was quiet, and she was beside me.

And that was enough.

Epilogue

Mason

The bar hadn’t changed.