“No?”
Should’ve not said that. She was riled. Not much. Riled enough to roll her eyes and look away without answering. A huff of her shoulder, arms crossed. Honestly, still adorable.
“Hey, how am I supposed to know what you do with Eddie? Maybe he takes you out to balls and fancy parties. The ballet at Royce Hall.”
She frowned at me. “How do you know about Royce Hall?”
My heart hammered. “Get to know me and find out.”
“I do know you,” she said.
“You know some of me.”
“You know some of me,” she argued.
“I think I’ve been paying more attention than you have.” I dared to reach for her hand, just to brush her knuckles with backs of my fingers. Barely, barely,barely.
She shivered lightly and sucked in a breath.
But she didn’t pull away.
So I stepped closer and inhaled near that little swoop of hair above her eye that looked like meringue. Sun peeped through the pine branches above, and it was so hot. I wanted to taste the salt on her brow.
If I just kept my eyes there, not on her face, maybe it would be okay.
I was losing it. Boundaries melting. I should care more.
Cool wind blew off the lake, rustling through the pines.
Her voice was almost a whisper. “I feel like you’ve been there the whole time, and I couldn’t see you. But I can now.” Her index finger hooked around my thumb. A thousand warm chills ran up my arm as her face turned upward.
It was a mistake to look at her eyes.
I dropped the limeade cup. Cold droplets splatted across my ankles when it hit the ground, but neither of us made a move to pick it up.
My head bent. Lower. Our faces were too close now for this to be chaste and decent. She could move away, though, right? I should tell her to go.
“Jane?” I managed, voice cracking like I was thirteen. I swallowed hard and repeated, “Jane.” Not a question this time, but a warning.
Her face was turned up to mine, and it was so small. I was aware of how her lips parted and the shallowness of her breath… how it matched mine, an expectant rhythm.
I felt it in my body like a call. Something sent from her that pulled inside my chest. A low noise dislodged from me. Shemurmured a question back, indecipherable. I just wanted… everything. I wanted all of her. Wanted her to want me. I was trembling with it and terrified that she was going to duck away. Come to her senses. Leave.
So I slipped my hands around her face and closed my eyes, savoring all of it—the intoxication of being this close, thealmostof it all.
But my mouth found hers. Barely, barely,barely. Touching, breathing. I gave her a soft and small kiss. A little awkward, like trying to get bearings in unfamiliar territory.
Then it was no longeralmost.
It was happening.
A real kiss—she kissed me back. One kiss, and then another.
Intoxicating kisses, deep and miraculous and so fast.
It felt like we were trying to outrun something, or maybe catch up with it. Not what I’d fantasized about all these years, but that was all gone now. There was only this, and it waseverything. My world shifted to accommodate the newness.
Her arms wrapped around me, pulling me closer. Like she held me when we lay together in the grass at the dam. I nearly died. Nearly wept. Nearly begged her to lie down with me again right here and now. I was on fire, and I wanted her.
