“Reese, I need you to really look at me,” she said, and Reese’s eyes lifted back upward to meet her own.
Suddenly, now that it was Reese in the hot seat, the penetrating stare from moments ago had been replaced with Reese’s desire to look anywhere else.
“You would never be some consolation prize. You are exciting and terrifying and tingle-inducing in all the best ways.” Sydney placed her finger under Reese’s chin and lifted it gently upward, her voice soft. “But I am going to tell Sara yes because you’re right, though not for the reason you think. I have been afraid of what comes after tennis, but me wanting you has nothing to do with running away from that. So I’ll do both.”
“Both?” Reese asked, looking dazed from the last minute of conversation.
“I’ll do the commentator tryout–”
“Which you’ll be amazing at,” Reese said, blinking the haze away, finding her footing in the conversation again as she nodded along with her own words.
Sydney flashed her a self-deprecating grin. “Sure.”
“You will be. The way you were holding court today with the party guests was… it was something else,” Reese said, awe soaked into her voice in a way that lit Sydney up from the inside out.
She wanted Reese to feel that way about her. Always.
“So you’ll try this? With me?” Sydney asked, anticipation bubbling up inside.
“Yes, Sydney. I want to do this,” Reese said with impossible softness in her voice as she dissolved the space between them and kissed Sydney.
It was slow and sweet, but it ignited the desire from earlier, magnified now that there was no confusion standing between them.
The kiss wound through her body, settling deeply inside of her, beginning to fill in the cracks that the last year had left.
“We should really get you out of that. Make sure it didn’tstain, and all that,” Reese said. When she finally pulled away, Sydney was so wound up she felt like she may burst into flames.
Sydney nodded. “Yes. Good idea.”
They were out of the car within seconds, Reese finding Sydney’s hand as she led her toward the inn.
If Hallie was at the front desk, she’d give a half-hearted wave and blow past her best friend, her singular focus now on getting her and Reese behind closed doors as soon as humanly possible.
And just like she’d expected when they entered the doors, Hallie was standing at the counter. She moved to wave but Hallie’s hands were already up in the air, frantically trying to get her attention. Her mouth was moving, but no words were coming out, and her eyes looked slightly wild.
“What?” she said, going back on her own promise as she, with her hand still in Reese’s, walked closer to where Hallie stood behind the counter.
This was weird, even for Hallie.
“Why didn’t you answer my texts?” Hallie was already saying when they reached her.
Sydney pulled her phone out of her pocket and held it up, confused. If something was wrong at the inn, Reese would have been Hallie’s first call.
“My phone died. I forgot to charge it last night. But Hal, I’ve got to, um… Reese and I need to discuss something right now. We were just heading to my room.” Sydney looked at Reese then, and Reese’s lips tipped into an amused smile that made Sydney’s stomach flutter.
“Her room,” Sydney corrected quickly, realizing her mistake. This was never about her outfit. And they’d have much more privacy there.
It was all that Sydney could think about right now.
Hallie looked past Sydney’s shoulder to the sitting room, just off the inn’s lobby. “Your parents are here.”
Sydney’s head whipped around so fast she was afraid she wasgoing to have whiplash, and Reese’s hand in hers suddenly grew clammy. “What? I just saw them yesterday.”
“And what a nice trip it was,” her mom said from behind her.
“I swear that woman has a stealth mode,” Hallie said underneath her breath at the same time Sydney shot her a side-eye.
“So much so,” her mom continued, “that we decided to make a trip up to Stoneport.”
