“C’mon, princess,” I teased. “Let’s go home.”
21
Ryder
Ward holdingmy hand while he drove us both to wherever we were going was the most romantic thing that’d ever happened to me. I felt ridiculous, smiling to myself every time his hand shifted, smiling out the window, smiling down at my own knees, but I didn’t want it to stop, either.
Which was the problem.
We’d left the house first thing, grabbing breakfast in town and then hitting the road, Ward promising he was taking me somewhere nice.
We both knew what was really happening here. Neither of us wanted to talk about tomorrow.
As we rounded a bend and Ward slowed down, flicking his turn signal, I looked up and recognized exactly where we were.
The first spot Ward ever took me when he first got this truck, a little over ten years ago. He’d been so excited to bring me here, a spot he’d only ever seen from the window of his dad’s car when they went to visit his grandma.
“You know this is a makeout spot, right?” I asked as he pulled into the tiny observation point that was probably going to crumble into the Pacific one day.
“I know,” Ward said, raising my hand to kiss it before he let go to put the truck in park.
“Did you know that back then?”
Ward laughed. “No. I only knew it was somewhere beautiful, and quiet, where it could be just me and you for a little while.”
“But you definitely know it’s a makeout spot now, right?”
“I definitely know,” he said, eyes glittering as his smile widened. “But I didn’t bring you here for that.”
“No?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Well, notjustfor that.”
I chuckled as Ward raced around to my side of the truck to hold the door open for me, offering his hand as I hopped down.
“Your Majesty,” he teased.
“Damned right,” I said. “Don’t you forget it.”
“Or you’ll tell Maisie on me?” Ward asked, tugging me toward a little walking path off to the side of the lookout.
“I’ve discovered your weakness.” I shrugged. “You can’t expect me not to exploit it.”
Fallen leaves crunched under our feet as we ducked under a low-branched maple. I reached out to pluck a leaf out of Ward’s hair as he led us both down the slope, onto the beach below the cliffs, which we had all to ourselves.
“So this is the not-makeout part of why I brought you out here,” he said, letting go of my hand and shoving both of his own in his pockets.
Right.
The Talk.
My stomach curled up in a ball like it’d decided to become an armadillo.
“I might not get the part,” I said, mind racing ahead.
“You’re getting the part,” Ward said.
I don’t want it, I didn’t say.
