PROLOGUE
BRENNA
Eight years ago
Nathan Sharpe backed meagainst the dugout wall, the cold sting of concrete searing my skin.
He’d insisted we end our last night of summer as we had so many others—side by side, backs on the infield grass, staring at the stars.
Except this time, we didn’t make it there.
“What are you doing?” I whispered over the sounds of cicadas and crickets, the familiar soundtrack of summer.
He placed his hands flat on the wall to either side of my head. We’d been apart for only two months—the entirety of the summer before junior year of high school—but I could have sworn he’d grown a couple of inches.
“I want to kiss you.”
My heart stopped beating. I blinked. “What?”
“Shit,” Nathan hissed, his brow furrowing as he studied my face. His turquoise eyes were shining, even in the dark surrounding us. “Did I get it wrong?”
He traced his tongue along his lower lip, his eyes still trained on my mouth.
What the hell is this?
Not once had we ventured even close to exiting the friend zone… regardless of my inconvenient feelings. Feelings I’d long buried. Or so I thought. Apparently, all it took was Nathan crowding my space and spending a summer apart to make me forget I couldn’t wanthim—my best friend—like this.
And yet, I slowly shook my head and smiled coyly, admitting what I’d painstakingly hidden from him since the beginning of high school. Nathan’s face broke into a grin, and my knees nearly buckled. He leaned in, one hand moving to cup my jaw while the other twirled a strand of my caramel blond hair in his fingers.
“I missed you,” Nathan murmured. His lips were so close, his exhale hit my face.
I sucked in my own breath, trying to calm my jackhammering heart.
My first kiss would be with Nathan—withmyNathan. The boy who, time and time again, I dreamed would look at me as someone other than his tomboy best friend.
Teen dramas had lied. Seeing me with makeup or in a tight-fitting dress hadn’t altered his feelings. But tonight, while I was wearing my Brenna-est outfit of jean shorts and a Palmer CityOwls T-shirt, something shifted so quickly I didn’t have time to process it.
Nathan placed his lips on mine, sure and steady and much softer than I’d imagined. He tasted faintly of watered-down beer and the strawberry bubble gum he liked to chew. I mirrored his movements, trying to conceal my inexperience… inexperience he clearly didn’t share. My instinct was to hide that I had no idea what I was doing, but Nathan knew my entire history, knew this was my first kiss. Unless he assumed something had changed during his time at baseball camp in Florida.
He pulled back to stare into my eyes. “Are you okay?” He tucked my hair behind my left ear.
Those eyes. I’d lost myself in them before, but not like this. I’d never before let myself embrace the full weight of my attraction to him.
I swallowed involuntarily. “Yes.”
“Yes?” His eyes searched mine, He needed reassurance to continue. I loved him for it.
I nodded and smiled as I moved closer. He met me halfway, recapturing my lips.
He would come to his senses in the morning when the buzz of alcohol wore off.
We would deal with it then.
1
BRENNA
Now
