“Up,” she said more insistently, turning her own gaze toward the sky above us.
I followed her lead and looked up. What I saw made me forget how to breathe.
“Wow.”
The night sky was absolutely insane. I’d never seen anything like it in my life. With no city light pollution to wash out the darkness, the sky was crystal clear and absolutely dancing with what had to be a billion stars. I could see the Milky Way stretched across the heavens like a glowing river of light. I could make out constellations that were nothing but vague suggestions in the New York sky. I had only ever seen stars like this in movies or there was a museum once.
What I was staring up at was absolutely stunning.
It was so beautiful, so overwhelming, that I was actually at a loss for words for the first time in my adult life.
“Pretty cool, right?” Sylvie said softly.
When I glanced over, I realized she’d rolled onto her side and was propping her head up on her hand, watching me stare up at the night sky.
“Cool is an understatement,” I managed to say. The view was incredible, but looking at Sylvie watching me with that gentle smile, I realized that she was just as beautiful as the night sky above us. Maybe more beautiful because she was real and warm and right here beside me.
Fuck. I was going soft for this girl in ways that should have terrified me.
“I thought you might like it,” she said. “I’m guessing you don’t get to see stuff like this living in the city.”
“You miss a lot of things that are right in front of you where I’m from,” I said, and I wasn’t just talking about stars anymore.
In New York, people moved through their lives at breakneck speed, always focused on some future goal instead of appreciating what they had in the present moment.
But here, lying in the back of a pickup truck with Sylvie in the middle of nowhere, watching the stars, I felt more present than I had in years. More connected to something real and meaningful.
“What was your childhood like?” she asked suddenly, catching me off guard with the change of subject. “Growing up with all that money?”
I settled back down, keeping one arm around her as she snuggled against my side. “It was good,” I said carefully. “I’m not complaining. But it was also pretty chaotic.”
“How so?”
“A lot of boys, no mom, and a father who was always working. It was like living in a fraternity house most of the time.” I chuckled, remembering some of the mayhem. “Hudson once convinced Isaac to help him launch a remote-control airplane from the third-floor window. It crashed straight through the neighbor’s house.”
Sylvie laughed. “What did your dad do?”
“Bought them a new window and grounded both boys for a month. But the next week, Austin and Isaac decided to build a slip-and-slide down the main staircase using garbage bags and dish soap.”
She burst into laughter. “Why do I have a feeling that ended badly?”
“My brother Dane was convinced he could do it standing up.”
“And?”
“And he broke his arm. We tried to hide it from my dad but Dane was in so much pain. When my dad realized the kid had a broken arm, he freaked a little. He hired three nannies after that. He said his life flashed in front of his eyes. I never really understood what that meant until I got older.”
She laughed again. “Did you grow up in a penthouse in New York?”
“No, actually, we’re from Vancouver.” I stared up at the sky, visions of my childhood running through my head. “We had a big estate. Big. Trust me when I say a group of boys ranging in age from two to fifteen can get up to no good.”
“Your mom died when you were young?” she asked softly.
“Yes. I was five. My older brothers, I think I’ve always been jealous of them because they got so much more time with her. Me and my younger brothers, we don’t remember her as well. Reese and Jett, they never wanted to talk about her because it made them sad.”
“Older brothers?”
“Yes,” I answered.
