“Shut it.” Rafe shoved my leg again playfully. He didn’t enjoy being reminded about how hislittlebrother had shot up above him in height. “Besides, it’s not the same at all. You feel like you have to protect Aimee, probably because she’s a pretty girl, and then she feels likeshehas to protectyoufrom spending too much time protectingher. Cute, like I said.”
Part of me wanted to take exception to this, because I wasn’t sure how he thought Aimee protectedme, but my mind was like an old-fashioned record player, stuck on Aimee being “a pretty girl.”
I knew Rafe didn’t mean anything by it.Obviously. I mean, she was seventeen, and Rafe and I were almost twenty. And I was 99 percent sure he saw her as a sister, the same way I thought of his brothers. But also…
“You think Aim’s pretty?” I asked super casually.
“Hmm? Oh, yeah. Very. She’s got those big, green Rollins eyes and that streaky blonde hair.” He reached up and yanked at a piece of my hair in demonstration, which made my stomach flip.
I felt my dick stir in my shorts and pulled away from his touch before I could get any more caught up in the moment than I already was.
“Any beer left?” Rafe asked, tipping his face to the sky sleepily.
I set my guitar carefully back in its case and checked the little cooler next to my towel. “Two.” I handed one over and kept the other for myself.
“Perfect.” Rafe clinked the neck of his bottle against mine and took a deep drink. I very much didnotnotice the way his throat worked as he swallowed.
“I’m gonna miss this in a few weeks,” he said wistfully. “When does your semester start again?”
He asked this in a hopeful little voice, like maybe the dates would have changed suddenly or like August might decide to stretch into September this year.
I understood this. I wished someone would miraculously insert a few more weeks into summer, too.
“Two weeks,” I told him. Two more weeks of him and me. Two more weeks to soak in his smiles, and his genuine affection, and the understanding I always found in his eyes. Two more weeks to sustain me until this time next year.
It wouldn’t be enough, though. It never was. The more time I spent with him, the more I wanted.
There’d been a moment last March when I’d thought about skipping my family vacation to the Key this year. Maybe getting one of those internships my dad kept hammering me about instead, since business skills might come in handy for me later, or even spending summer break playing in bars near campus. I’d wondered if I went a whole summer without seeing Rafe whether these feelings would die off and I’d be satisfied being friends.
But that thought had only lasted about four seconds before I’d dismissed it completely. It would be like trying to survive without oxygen all summer; I simply wasn’t capable of it.
I sucked down more beer, then cleared my throat.Get back on track, Rollins. “So, back to my wager… I’ll play you whatever song you want if you win. And if I win, I get my ten dollars from yesterday back.”
“Yeah, about that,” Rafe began sadly. “I may have paid Gage in advance to leave us alone for the next two weeks.”
I spluttered. “Ten bucks? That’s all it took?”
“He’s thirteen.” Rafe grinned again. “He doesn’t understand how capitalism works yet.”
“You know, it’s okay if he comes along sometimes,” I reminded him. “I like Gage.”
“I like him, too. But… I like it best when it’s just the two of us doing stuff.” Rafe shrugged.
I swallowed hard. When Rafe said things like that, even though I knew he didn’t mean it the way I wished he did, I melted like tar in the hot sun, all sticky-gross and useless.
“Speaking of us doing stuff,” Rafe continued, totally unaware that my brain had gone gooey, “Perseid meteor shower tonight.”
“Yeah, I know. You made me write it on my calendar. And I don’t even use a calendar.”
“’Course you do. It’s how you remember my birthday.”
I bit my tongue against the need to inform him that I knew his birthday by heart and probably always would. “So, I take it we’re coming back out here tonight?”
“’Course. It’s our place.” Rafe lay back in the sand and smiled, his expression bright and open. “And this is our thing. You and me, stargazing. Even if you can’t ever remember the names of any of them and you make me point them out over and over,” he teased.
I shrugged sheepishly. “What can I say, man? My memory is for shit.”
In truth, I remembered every constellation he’d ever shown me. But when Rafe pointed them out, he pressed his chest against my shoulder, and when he told me their names, his warm breath tickled my ear and his stubbled cheek almost touched mine. I felt like whoever came up with the saying about ignorance being bliss must’ve experienced something similar.
