“You never fail to light up the room. Everywhere you go you have this sparkle to you. It’s in your smile, in your eyes. It’s even buried in your laugh, Cadie. It’s why I call youSunshine.”
I watch him as he speaks to me, looking right into his eyes as my heart thuds with an insane amount of exaltation.
Zach leans up and pulls me in, turning us so that our faces are in line with one another. "But every time the sun sets and the moon comes out, I look up at the stars and I see somethingfamiliar in them too. I realize that you don’t just remind me of the sun, but you remind me of the stars also.”
“Why’s that?” I whisper.
Zach reaches a finger up to my face and I let my eyes flutter shut as he presses it gently against my skin. He starts to move around in a line across my cheeks to the bridge of my nose. I gasp lightly, loving the way his contact lights my skin ablaze.
“Because your freckles remind me of the constellations in the sky," he whispers and I open my eyes. Zach's finger drops.
Is this real? How is this moment so damn perfect?
We stare into each other’s eyes for a beat, the intensity between us bursts as he wraps his hand around my neck, gently cupping me and pulling me in.
I let myself lean into him and as we close our eyes, and for a moment too long, our lips brush together.
It’s fleeting, a whisper of a kiss but enough to send my heart shattering into oblivion. The blissful kind. It causes every nerve ending in my body to bloom, giving me butterflies and sending chills across my skin.
“I’ve missed you,” I whisper over his lips and I feel his smile widen as he holds on to the kiss.
“I missed you too, Sunshine.” I reach up and wrap my hand around his neck, pulling him in more and urging him to deepen the kiss. And he does. I open my mouth for him, allowing him to slip his tongue in to dance with my own.
We kiss with wild abandon, passion teetering the edge of our control as we tangle with each other. It’s heaven on earth, the way he holds me and treats me with care. The way he’s soft and gentle, but his imprint on my soul is intense and all-consuming.
We let go of the kiss, both of us gasping for air as he lowers his forehead to my own.
“Zach that was-”
He leans back and I stop myself, not sure what I was just about to divulge in the heat of the moment. There are a few things that come to mind, but I keep my mouth shut and watch him as he leans over for the telescope.
“Come over here.” He waves me closer to the edge of the car.
I crawl over to where he sits and I prop myself up on my knees, blanket still wrapped around my shoulders, and I wait for his further instruction.
“This is a unique telescope,” he starts as he hands it to me and I take it, still not fully having caught my breath.
“It looks kind of regular to me,” I quip and it causes Zach to chuckle, but I look at him with a puzzled expression.
“It’s regular-modified,” he clarifies with sarcasm as I examine it in my hands.
“It has three dials that show different settings of the constellations in the sky.”
“Zach,” I lower my tone to something playful as I grin at him. “Hate to break it to you, pal, but that sounds more regular than you think.”
He smirks at me as he grabs the telescope, placing his hands over where I hold it and he assists me in bringing it up to my eye. “I made it,” he reveals and I watch his smile fade from view before the skinnier end of the scope covers my eye.
“Squint your right eye,” he directs me and I do as I’m told. He helps me position my hand over the neck of the telescope and the other over the end of it where the dial is.
“Now, the setting you're on right now is the basic setting. If you look up in the sky, you can see the stars a little bit clearer than you would just looking at them in person."
I observe the view, and he's right. But I can't help myself. “Yeah, like a regular telescope,” I deadpan and he just scoffs.
"Stop being a brat," he tells me and I have to hold back my gasp. “Now, twist the dial over to the right one click.”
I feel the grooves at the end of the stick and I twist. I feel it click into place and immediately the stars appear closer and brighter.
“Pretty cool, huh?” Zach says next to me and I can’t deny that the view is spectacular. "This is the enhanced setting, and it allows you to see stars that are beyond what we see on the surface of the sky."
