Aunt Tina throws her arms wide, her face glowing with firelight and triumph.
“And in FIRST PLACE… the undisputed rulers of the night!”
Her voice jumps an octave.
“With a record-shattering one-seventy-two beats per minute—a performance that blew three safety valves, made the cameramen blush, and forced the control room to censor the audio for excessive… intensity…”
She grins.
“OUR CAPTAINS—SLOANE AND COHEN!”
The roar is deafening.
Cohen turns to me with that crooked smile—the one that’s ruined me repeatedly tonight. His eyes blaze with triumph and something warmer… something that makes my knees go weak.
“Let’s go get our trophy, Angel,” he murmurs, his voice molten.
We walk toward Tina. I feel weightless. Powerful. Untouchable.
She hands us two giant marshmallows, noticeably bigger than the others, dusted with sparkling red sugar.
“I don’t know what you whispered or did in that chair, Sloane,” Tina says into the mic, winking like an accomplice, “but I think half the town would pay for the transcript. Becker, are you still alive?”
Cohen steps up with that devastating casual confidence of his.
“Barely, Tina. Barely. Let’s just say Sloane can be… very persuasive.”
We return to the fire to a storm of cheers and whistles.
The heat hits our faces—but it’s Cohen behind me who really warms me.
He steps in close, chest to my back, solid and sure. His arms slide around mine to “help” me hold the roasting stick.
He rests his chin on my shoulder, his cheek brushing mine.
“One hundred points,” he murmurs against my neck, his voice thrumming through me. “We’re in first.”
“It was satisfying,” I admit, watching my marshmallow turn golden at the edges.
“Only satisfying?” he teases, lips ghosting beneath my ear. “I thought my near heart attack deserved a better adjective.”
I laugh and lean back into him.
“It was… perfect, Becker.”
I glance toward the glowing scoreboard strung between the trees.
Our names—SLOANE & COHEN—shine at the top in neon red against the star-splattered black sky of Elm Hollow.
I smile at the fire.
??LOVE GOALS – OFFICIAL RANKING(Provisional) ??
Sloane & Cohen— 100 Heart Points ??
Lucy & Lars— 90 Heart Points
Joe & Sarah— 75 Heart Points
