His lips brush softly over mine—tentative, questioning—and the whole world goes still. The ocean waves fade tonothing. The cries of the gulls disappear. The breeze stops moving. Everything narrows down to this single point of contact, this moment I’ve been dreaming of for years.
Then he deepens the kiss, and I’m lost.
His lips move with mine in a slow dance that takes my breath away, stealing it right from my lungs and replacing it with something sweeter—hope, love, promise. One hand cradles the back of my head while the other slides to my waist, pulling me closer until there’s no space between us. I grab fistfuls of his shirt as the world spins around us.
This kiss is nothing like the demonstration. This is everything. This is confession and commitment and coming home all wrapped into one perfect moment. His lips are soft but insistent, his touch both gentle and possessive, and I melt into him completely.
When he pulls back slightly, just enough to look at me, we’re both breathing hard. His eyes are dark, his lips slightly swollen, and he’s smiling at me like I’m the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. Like Mr. Darcy would look at Elizabeth.
“I’ve been such an idiot,” he whispers against my lips.
“Yes,” I agree, smiling so wide my face hurts. “But you’re my idiot now.”
He laughs and kisses me again, shorter this time but no less intense. When we finally break apart, the sun has set completely, leaving us in the soft purple twilight. Stars are beginning to appear overhead, pinpricks of light in the darkening sky.
This is what I’ve always wanted. What I’ve needed from the time I realized Micah was my one true love. And now my dreams are finally coming true.
Micah pulls me against his side, both of us looking out at the dark ocean, then he turns toward me. “Stay with me,” he murmurs into my hair. “Stay on the island. Be my managerand my girlfriend and eventually, if you’ll have me, so much more.”
My heart swells impossibly larger. “I’m not going anywhere,” I promise. “I’m right here.”
“Right here,” he echoes, saying the title of the song he wrote, and I can hear the smile in his voice. “Where you’ve always been.”
He kisses my forehead. We sit there on the beach as night falls around us, wrapped in each other and his leather jacket. The ocean continues its eternal rhythm, the waves rolling in and out like a heartbeat.
And for the first time in years, I’m not wishing for something different. I’m not hoping for a future that seems impossible. I’m just here, in this perfect moment, with the boy I’ve loved forever finally loving me back.
My own happily ever after.
EPILOGUE
RiverStone
Saturday, May 29—Five Months Later
I pullinto the Barrett driveway and cut the engine, the sudden silence broken only by the tick of cooling metal and distant laughter from the backyard. Through the windshield, I can see string lights already glowing softly against the late-afternoon sky.
I grab the graduation present from the passenger seat. It’s wrapped in silver paper with a crease down one side from where I kept repositioning it during the drive. My palms are sweating. Ridiculous. It’s just a graduation party. Just Kiera.
Except it’s not “just” anything when it comes to her.
The spring air hits me when I step out—warm and salt-tinged, carrying the sweet scent of the lilac bushes planted along the fence. I take a deep breath, trying to settle the nervous energy thrumming through my chest. I’ve had this crushing, persistent, completely inconvenient thing for Kiera ever since our Las Vegas trip five months ago. And I’m prettysure Kiki knows, given how often she’s engineered reasons for us to be in the same room together.
Not that Kiera has noticed. Or if she has, she’s pretending she hasn’t.
I ring the doorbell, and Skyler yanks it open before the chime even finishes. “Hi, River! Come in.”
“Hey, squirt.” I ruffle her hair as I pass through, and she giggles before darting away.
The backyard is transformed with tables draped in purple and white, Kiera’s school colors. There are string lights crisscrossing between trees and clusters of balloons bobbing near the deck. Music plays underneath the chatter of guests.
“River!” Kiki waves me over to the dessert table, where she’s arranging plates beside a stunning three-tiered cake.
“That’s incredible,” I say. “Levi outdid himself.”
“Gluten-free red velvet.” Levi appears beside me, grinning. “Took me three tries to get the texture right, but Claire can actually eat this one.”
I scan the yard and find Kiera standing near the grill with Tobias and Noah, her pink-streaked hair catching the sunlight. She’s wearing a simple sundress, but something about the way she stands makes my heart do that stupid flutter thing.
