She catches them with a smile. “We’ll get it home by morning.”
“Thank you. You’re the best.”
“Only most of the time.”
I rise and pull Oliver to his feet too. “Wanna go hide from the world for a few days in a place with running water and every streaming subscription known to man?”
He shakes his head. “No. But I do want to go hide from the world for a few days with you, whether there’s running water and streaming subscriptions or not. And then plan another road trip. And some camping. New adventures and fun every day.”
And there go my eyeballs getting leaky again. “I love you,” I whisper.
His face erupts in the biggest smile I’ve ever seen as he grabs me and swings me in a circle in the back of my best friend’s burger bus, ending with a kiss so thorough that I drop the burger bag.
“Good,” he says. “Because I love you too.”
37
AND JUST LIKE THAT, OUR LIFE FINALLY FITS
Oliver
Daphne holds my hand,our fingers interlaced, on our way to the SUV that I’ve now registered properly in my own name here in New York, and then she challenges me to a game of rock-paper-scissors for the right to drive.
Watching her expression dance as the redness and puffiness clear away, both from her eyes and from her cheeks, the way she’s bouncing on her toes like we’re about to go on another epic road trip—this.
This is what I want.
I’ve lived in financial luxury my entire life. Slept on the world’s most expensive sheets. Eaten the world’s most expensive food. Traveled by private jet and visited resorts that most people don’t even know exist.
None of it compares to being someone’s favorite person.
To beingDaphne’s favorite person.
“Tell me what you’re playing so I can lose,” I tell her.
She laughs. “Nuh-uh. You have to lose all on your own. Ready? One, two, three,go!”
She plays rock.
I switch my paper to scissors, and get the joy of hearing her laugh bounce across the parking lot.
“Cheater,” she says as I gesture her into the driver’s seat.
I kiss her because I can. “Damn. You’ve figured out my secrets.”
She drives me all over Athena’s Rest, pointing out her favorite diner—Hudson’s home crush apparently works there on the weekends—and the restaurant that Bea’s ex stole from her—with a mostly-empty parking lot and a few protesters outside, which makes Daphne cackle in glee—and the entrance to a walking-only street called the Secret Alley—we’re going back later for the cheese shop—and the place in town where she led the protest against the university’s emotional support animal policy.
We eat in the car as she drives.
She gets fries as I hand them to her.
I eat both burgers, because she’s right.
Even smashed after the way she dropped them, theseareeven better than the burgers we had at the saloon.
And I would’ve said that even if we hadn’t been arrested at the saloon.
Finally, she pulls into the parking lot of a four-story apartment building. “Tomorrow, I would love for you to meet my boss, and also, I’ll show you where Simon and Ryker live, butthis,” she announces, “is home.”
