“A good way to spend the evening together. Me with you and you learning something for astronomy.”
Shrugging a shoulder, I walk up the path that leads to the white, stucco building. Troy doesn’t let me get far, grabbing the sides of his hockey zip-up that I’m wearing.
“Ugh, can’t a guy get a break?” he moans.
“Ouch. And here I thought this was a good idea.”
I stalk up the path, ignoring the groups of people leaving the observatory. It shouldn’t sting as much as itdoes that he wants a break from me. All I wanted was to spend time with Troy.
Was that really too much to ask?
“Easy there, tiger.” Troy grabs my hand and pulls me off the sidewalk and onto a bench. “I didn’t mean a break from you.”
Warm lips press a kiss onto my neck. Heat courses through me from the smallest contact. “You didn’t?”
“Never.” His breath ghosts over my neck. “Why would I ever want a break from you, Angie?”
Troy’s hand rubs a comforting path along my thigh. “God, I sound so insecure.”
“I only meant a break from studying.” His eyes are dark pools of sincerity. “My brain is tired from memorizing all the equations.”
Cupping his face in my hands, I rub my thumbs over the apples of his cheeks, tracing the faint scar he got playing hockey in middle school. “I promise, there will be no equations today.”
“You promise?” He gives me the smile I love so much.
I nod. “I promise, Troy. Just you and me enjoying the stars.”
“Then how about we get going then?”
I steal a quick kiss from him before running up the sidewalk. His laugh hits my ears as he jogs up behind me.
“Now you’re trying to get away from me?” I’m pulled back against him.
“Never.” I hand over our tickets and wait for them to be scanned before heading inside.
“You know,”—Troy looks around the lobby of the observatory—“in all the years I’ve lived in SoCal, I’ve never been here.”
“Really?” I link our hands together and walk toward the first exhibit.
“Hockey was always my biggest priority.” He shakes his head. “Maybe if I spent more time studying, I wouldn’t be as worried about my grades.”
“But then we wouldn’t have met,” I tell him.
“Do you really think so?”
“I don’t know. You wouldn’t have come to the tutoring center that day, and I wouldn’t have told you no. And then why would you have any reason to help me at your party?”
“I still would have helped you, Angie.”
“It’s because you’re a good person.”
That’s definitely something I’ve learned about him. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here with him right now.
Troy pulls me in close, my back to his front as we take in the exhibit around us. Maps of constellations line the walls. A telescope takes up the entire room, pointing toward space. Families are packed around us.
“This is what I thought astronomy would be like.”
“Looking at the stars?”
