“I want to go to school with you in the fall,” Reed blurts.
I twist in his arms to see his face. “What?”
“I applied earlier this summer to Idaho State and got in.”
He can’t be serious.
“But your dream! I thought you wanted to fight fires in the mountains and jump out of planes, not sit at a desk in a bunch of college classes that you could care less about?”
“I want to be near you more,” he says, furling me in tighter to his body, but I push from his hold.
“Reed, no. I can’t let you make a decision like that. This is your future.”
“I know, and it’s a future I want you in.” he confesses.
I suck in a breath. I was not expecting him to say that. We just started this thing between us. I haven’t thought that far ahead, and I don’t want to hurt him, but I think he’s making a big mistake.
“Wejuststarted dating. We haven’t even kissed! How do you possibly…”
The touch of his hands grazing past my knees stops the rest of that sentence from floating out of my mouth. His hands ghost up my thighs as he leans in closer, his mouth inches from mine. Then he lifts his right hand and brushes his thumb over my bottom lip, studying it as if he needs to make sure this moment is real, that I’m real, before he comes any closer. The pressure of his thumb makes my lips part, and my eyes fall shut with it. ThenI feel his hand sweep behind my neck and his mouth close over mine.
A crack strikes in the distance as his gentle lips stroke over mine. The juxtaposition makes me dizzy.
Rain floods from the sky, drenching the front of his shirt. I grip it with my fist and pull him closer, but the sound of gravel grinding under a shoe stops me. I gasp as we pull apart.
My eyes blink through the droplets of water spilling off my eyelashes before looking behind me. Miles stands there stunned, getting soaked by the rain. A pair of devastated eyes tear my heart in half before he takes off in a sprint.
I can’t keep doing this—holding on to one and chasing the other. I need to choose.
Calculating his speed versus my stumpy legs, I know I have no prayer of catching him. But my heart begs me to try.
I choose to run.
Rain pelts from the sky all around us, and the farther into the storm he gets, the more my lungs fight to catch up.
“Miles, wait!” I scream, but the thunder is so loud it washes away the sound before it has a chance to travel through the air.
When he gets to the truck and rips at the handle, I become manic in my attempts to stop him. “Miles, the storm. It’s too much. Please don’t drive in it!”
His hands shake, but he hops in the driver’s seat anyway and fumbles with the key until he gets it in the slot. I make it to the passenger side of the car with enough time to reach for the handle and jump inside before he has the chance to lock me out.
“What are you doing!” he shouts over the marble-sized raindrops beating like a fist into the windshield.
“You can’t drive in this! Please, let’s go talk.”
Miles shakes his head. “Get out of the car, Teddy.”
“NO! I’m not letting you go out there alone,” I scream.
“Teddy, I’m begging you. Get. Out. Of. The. Car.”
“Miles, it was just a kiss—” I start to explain, but he slams on the gas pedal and peels out of the gravel driveway, leaving deep grooved tracks behind in the mud.
The speedometer climbs until he’s going ten over the speed limit.
Then fifteen.
Then twenty.
