Epilogue

Ten Months Later

Suzie

I fell back on the hotel room bed and stared at the ceiling with wide eyes. “I can’t believe it.” I shook my head as Luke’s weight made the bed shift beneath me. “I just can’t believe it.”

“Believe it, Suzie Q.” He rolled onto his stomach so he could grin down at me. “You did it.”

I laughed. “We did it.”

He toyed with my curls. “We did, didn’t we?”

We shared a silly grin as we reveled in our win. Nationals, people. We made it all the way to nationals and we won.

“I don’t know what’s better,” I said. “That we shook hands with the geniuses behind MageLand, or the money that will help us pay for college, or—”

“Or the fact that we’re going to get to see our new setting in the actual game?” Luke finished.

We’d developed a habit of finishing each other’s sentences lately and all of our friends seemed to be in agreement that it was annoying. We were working on nipping that in the bud when we were in a group setting. But when it was just the two of us, alone together…

“When are your parents coming back to the hotel?” Luke asked. Either he was once again reading my mind or he’d caught the way my eyes had drifted down to his lips.

I let out sigh. “They’ll be back any minute.”

He groaned and gave me a too-quick kiss. “Bummer.”

“What about your parents? When do they expect you back at your hotel room?”

He made a face. “Any minute now.”

“Bummer,” I repeated with a sigh.

“I think my parents want us to have dinner with your family. You know, to celebrate,” he said.

I grinned. “Yeah, that sounds good. Your dad was beaming out in the audience, did you see that?”

Luke flushed with pleasure. He’d been talking all year about he didn’t care what his dad thought, but I knew without a doubt that seeing his father’s pride in him had made him feel pretty great. Not to mention, discovering that he was something of a whiz when it came to coding and developing games, I think that was exactly what Luke needed to realize that he did have a future, after all.

He wasn’t totally sure what he wanted to do with these new skills, but winning this competition had definitely opened doors for him. But first…college. For both of us. I was going to Boston college in a matter of weeks while Luke was going to a community college nearby while he figured out his next steps.

The funny thing was, we might not know exactly what we wanted to major in or what we would do with those degrees when we got them, but neither of us was worried about it. Not anymore.

“If today’s win taught us anything,” Luke said as he twirled a curl. “It’s that you and I have everything going for us.”

“With your looks and my brains…” I teased.

He laughed. “What about your looks and my brains.”

“Fine,” I said. “With our looks and our brains…”

“Better.”

“We can do just about anything,” I finished.

“Well said, babe.” He leaned down and trailed kisses along my neck.

“My parents will be back soon,” I reminded him.

He pulled back with a sigh. “I guess soon enough we’ll be on our own.”

“In a new city.”

“At new schools,” he added.

“We have all the time in the world for this,” I said, wrapping my arms around his neck. As much as I knew I should be pushing him away, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. It was always like this between us. When we were together we were in our own little orbit, complete with a gravitational pull that made it impossible to keep our distance.

“I love you, Suzie Q,” he said softly. “And I’m so glad that we’re leaving for college together because I can’t imagine a future without you in it.”

His talk of the future made me think back to what we’d just heard over and over again from the bigwigs at the gaming convention where the finals were held. “You heard what the owner of Arcadia Games said. The future is ours.” I dropped my voice to mimic the owner’s and it made Luke laugh.

He lowered one arm so he could hold my hand, his fingers twining with mine. His dark gaze left me breathless and he gave me that slow, sweet lopsided smile that I was no longer embarrassed to admit made me swoon. “And here I thought the future was us,” he said.

My heart melted but I shook my head with a breathless laugh. “You are so cheesy.”

He grinned. “And you love it.”

I nodded. “I do love it.” I lifted my head to press my lips to his. “And I love you.”