I stifleda grin when I saw Kraven looking at me over the rim of his bottle, his gaze filled with nothing but curiosity. We sat there, tossing back drink after drink.
My lips tingled.
My face was on fire.
My body was numb.
Neither one of us spoke, though it was starting to feel like we had expressed a lot.
It was the first time in forever that I felt so carefree, throwing my head back and laughing, enjoying the way the booze made me feel, and understanding why people got lost in it so often.
Peering up at the sky, I decided to fall back onto the bed of the truck to get a better view.
Kraven asked, “What are you doing?”
I pointed above at the same time a shooting star flew across it.
I gasped.
“You see that?”
I cheerfully nodded.
“I see them every night,” he admitted with a sense of ease.
I mouthed, “Youwish?”
He finished the sentence, saying, “Upon a shooting star.” He smiled, and I did as well.
“I wish every night. How about you?”
I shrugged, mouthing, “Your wish?”
“If I tell you,” he teased, understanding easily. “It won’t come true.”
He was right, and I couldn’t fault him for it.
“You can also wish on the Northern star.” He pointed at it. “Or you can with the Venus and Southern Cross.” He motioned to those, too. “Can you find the Big Dipper?”
I was caught off guard that he even knew these constellations. Once I found the Big Dipper, I gestured to it.
“Alright,” he declared. “How about Princess Andromeda and her husband, Perseus? Find those? Although they are the stars that you can’t tell where one begins and the other ends because they’re holding hands.”
I beamed, enjoying his knowledge.
“You know, Perseus rescued her from being sacrificed to the monster, right?”
I nodded. I was a fellow astrology lover. It was one of my favorite courses in school. Sometimes we’d run into each other on the back entrance of their house, and now it made sense what he was doing out there. I wondered how many times we’d wished on the same shooting star and didn’t even know it.
“And then,” he rasped, hovering above me. “He fucked her senseless, and they had nine kids.”
I sucked in a slight breath as he didn’t move his stance, with his hands holding him up on the sides of my head. He wasn’t close to my mouth, but he was still right on top of me. It was such an intimate proximity.
Did he notice too?
If he did, he didn’t show it. “When she died, Athena, Goddess of War and Wisdom, placed her in the sky as a constellation, near her beloved husband, Perseus. They were soulmates destined to be together forever, and Athena made them stars to make that happen.”
On cue, the song changed to a danceable tune, and I hopped offthe tailgate, stumbling a bit, quickly realizing the booze was getting to me. I needed some space, but Kraven caught me around the waist before I face-planted to the ground. I was trying to get away from whatever was happening between us, only to end up in his arms as I tried to regain my balance until I stood upright in his embrace.
