It’s kind of fucking cute.
It feels weird to be smiling about anything right now. Still, I’m going to take every glimmer of happiness I can take.
A lump works its way into my throat when I see Bonnie coming outside. She has on high-waist, linen shorts and a loose, black, long-sleeve, button-down, with a single button clasped at her tits to keep it from flying open. Somehow, that simple outfit makes her look like she should be walking down a runway.
She spots her dad standing in the other room, and she flicks her hands in his direction, silently telling him not to spy on her. He smiles, holds his drink up to her, then pivots to return to his room.
“Has he been watching you this whole time?” Bonnie asks when she reaches the sand.
“Yeah,” I say, standing. “I feel like I’m a teenager being told not to close the bedroom door.”
Bonnie chuckles. “In his defense, this is his first time seeing me with someone who he didn’t think was ‘just a friend.’ Even with Kelsey, he had no idea. Mom knew. She could tell I was a lot more invested than just calling her my best friend.”
She steps onto the blanket and looks around us then, the cutest fucking smile on her lips.
“I love this,” she says, gesturing to our surroundings. “It’s really fucking cheesy. And if you were to ask me on any normal day my ideal date, I’d probably say a paint party and fuck in the bathroom while we were covered in different colors. But this… I like this a lot.”
“And now I know where to take you when you’re eventually mad about something,” I say.
She leans in, head tilting all the way back. “That’s how this is going to go? You’re going to use my favorite things against me when I’m mad?”
“Black cats and horror movies, right?” I ask. “That’ll get you into the white van.”
“Promise me handcuffs, and you have a deal.”
Her smiling lips pressing to mine have my heart aching. The kiss is brief, and yet in those few seconds, glints of a future press upon my mind that don’t look so devastating.
“Mm…” The noise escapes her when she pulls back. “When you imagined being able to kiss me any time you wanted, did you know it would feel like this?”
“Like what?” I ask, hand cupping her cheek.
“Easy… Free,” she answers. “Like nothing can hurt us.”
“Is that how you feel?”
“Yeah.”
The corners of my lips curve upward. I press my lips to her cheek, then take a step back and gesture to the picnic basket. “Are you hungry?”
“I’m actually fucking starving,” she says, snickering.
Time isn’t linear when it comes to her.
I entirely lose myself in our conversation, in each smile she peers at me with, every laugh that seems to linger in the breezy night air. I listen to every word in awe. I wasn’t sure how this would play out, and there’s still time for her to change her mind.
However, I’m desperate not to fuck it up, and yet, at the same time, I don’t want to miss out on anything by holding back.
We eat our dinner, and through the entire meal, I can’t stop beaming at her. She talks about her dad’s raw food lifestyle that he’s been on since her mom’s death—another topic she doesn’t avoid despite what pain it might bring up. I don’t think she notices, and I’m not about to question it, not with the wind blowing her wavy hair off her face or the steady smile on her lips.
“—show you some of the things she used to collect tomorrow,” she’s saying about her mom’s trinkets. “Oh, speaking of tomorrow, do we have plans or are we having a chill day?”
My brows narrow. “Since when do you ask about plans the day before?”
She smirks. “I got in a groove earlier with the song,” she says. “I was thinking about calling the guys in the morning and having a video jam session, but I didn’t know if we had… plans.”
“What kind of plans did you think we would have?” I warily ask.
“I don’t know. Revenge plans?”
