“We’re not out of thewoods yet,
but let’s kiss in the leaves
while we’re here.”
—Oliver Masters
ollie.
“AND THEN THERE WERE three,” Jake exhaled as the three of us walked down the hill and toward the woods. I grabbed Mia’s hand and kissed her knuckles. “To be honest,” Jake continued, “I never thought it would be Crap-bag standing next to me at the end of the road.”
“Crap Bag?” I echoed, and Jake interrupted me with a shriek.
“Although we’ve come to the end of the road,”he sang.
“Still I can’t let go,”Mia added, causing my head to snap in her direction.“It’s unnatural.”
“You belong to me,”Jake sang.
“I belong to you!”They both belted in unison.
I’d stopped walking, and the two continued singing and spinning each other around in the grass for two more rounds of whatever this song was that they shared. I couldn’t wipe the stupid smile from my face. Mia’s brown hair whipped through the spring breeze, and Jake leaned her back into a proper dip. She couldn’t wipe the heart-stopping smile from hers, either.
They laughed uncontrollably and turned to face me.
“Don’t tell me you don’t know that song,” Jake asked with a hand digging into his hip, catching his breath. I threw up a hand in the air.“I’ll make love to you?”he asked, growing frustrated.
“No, thank you,” I answered and walked toward the two.
“How are you with this bloke?” Jake asked Mia incredulously.
Mia recovered and jumped on my back. I grabbed her thighs, and she laughed into my neck as she tousled my hair. “I’ll introduce him toBoyz II Men,” she wrapped her arms around my neck, “when he’s ready.”
We reached our spot in the woods, and I leaned back to guide Mia to her feet. Tyler and Jude sat over the broken tree limb, and Liam sent a nod over to Jake from the ground.
“Hellos” exchanged, and I took a spot over the ground and pulled my knees up, more relaxed since the first day I’d come back.
“There’s this game Mia and me started on the last day last year,” Jake said, taking a seat next to Liam. A pit formed in my stomach, thinking Mia had spent her last day last year without me. She had a memory I wasn’t a part of. She had seven months I hadn’t been a part of. “We go around and say one thing we’d been dying to say all year but was too ashamed to say. Kind of clear the air.”
“What do you call this game?” I asked and grabbed Mia’s waist, who began to sit beside me but I positioned her between my legs. She should know better.
“Just truth. No strip. No dare. Just the bloody truth.”
“I like it,” I said, and kissed the side of her head. “What was yours last year?” I asked into her hair, immediately regretting it.Did I want to know?
Mia shifted uncomfortably, and my heart sank. It had been about me.
“Mia saidLiamwas a lousy fuck,” Liam blurted with an eye roll.
“Why?” Mia threw her arms up and fell back into my chest.
I chuckled and grazed my thumbs over the bare skin above her waistline.
“For that, I’ll go first,” Liam offered. “It was sex with you that made me realize I loved dick.”
The circle burst into a laugh, and Mia shook her head. “Bet you’ve been holding onto that for a whole year.”
“As a matter of fact, yes. This whole gathering was my idea.”
