Ace looked upward for a moment with the expression of someone addressing the air directly.
“Thanks, bud,” he said. “You were the best man I ever knew.”
Willa laughed. She reached up and kissed him, and he pulled her close to kiss her back with the music as a backdrop. The world shrank to just them, and for the first time in years, Willa felt at peace.
They slowly pulled apart and stared at each other for a few moments, basking in their new relationship dynamic.
“I’d better get you back,” Ace told her. “Before your group sends a search party to look for you.”
“I’d much rather stay right here.” Willa sighed.
“I know,” Ace replied, pressing a quick kiss to her lips. “But we have time now. We have all the time we need.” He tucked her hand into the crook of his arm. “Let’s go find your group.”
The rest of the concert went by in a blur as Willa stood closely beside Ace. Their hands met in secret, and their eyes collided as they danced to the beats. Harvey’s phone rang during the final song of the evening.
Willa watched him look at the screen, frown, as if the name on it was unexpected, and step away from the group to take the call. She got a slight chill of déjà vu, which was confirmed when Harvey came back and looked at Ace, then the rest of the group.
“That was Sienna,” Harvey told them, his mouth pulling into a reluctant smile. “Apparently, she and her friends need a lift back to Sandpiper Shores. Something about a cab situation.” His eyes moved to Ace. “She seemed to think I might help.”
“I gave her money for a cab,” Ace replied, entirely without remorse as four pairs of eyes pinned him accusingly.
“If you want to take them home, I can drive Willa, Margo, and Rad,” Ace offered Harvey. “That way nobody’s stranded.”
Harvey looked at Margo.
Margo looked back at him with the patient expression of someone about to say something they’d been waiting to say for some time.
“You can give them a lift on one condition,” Margo told Harvey, like she was his big sister giving him advice. “You stop being Sienna’s convenient option for things like this and you promise me that this is the last time you’ll jump to her rescue.”
Harvey opened his mouth.
“Penny,” Margo added simply, “will not be happy to know about this. And you don’t want to mess up a good thing with her. She’s a wonderful person who is madly in love with you and treats you like the nice guy you are.”
Harvey closed his mouth. He pulled a face that communicated several things simultaneously, most of them involving the understanding that Margo was entirely right and that he’d probably known that for a while.
“I promised Penny I’d stop enabling Sienna anyway,” Harvey admitted, smiling, then leaning over to give Margo a hug and kiss on the cheek. “I’ll even call Penny now and let her know I’m driving Sienna back.” He looked at Ace.
“Why don’t the three of you grab your things from my car while I phone Penny, and then I’ll come find you before I go.” Harvey fished his car keys from his jacket pocket and handed them to Margo.
They made their way out of the venue and across the parking lot. The night air was considerably cooler now, carrying the smell of rain that had finally decided to follow through on its earlier promise. Harvey’s car was near the far end of the lot. Margo unlocked it and pulled the back door open.
Willa reached for her jacket from the back seat while Rad leaned across from the other side to retrieve his.
His jacket caught on the seat edge as he pulled it free. Something fluttered out of the pocket and landed on the blacktop of the parking lot, partly unfolding as it fell.
Willa bent to pick it up before Rad had registered that it was gone.
She straightened with the folded paper in her hand and glanced at it with the automatic, incurious attention of someone picking up something that didn’t belong to them with the intention to hand it straight back.
Then the dates caught her eye.
Willa looked at them.
Her brow pulled together.
She recognized two of the dates immediately, the way you recognize dates that were written into you rather than ones you remember. Dates that your body knew before your mind had finished reading them.
Willa turned the paper slightly in the parking lot light and read what Rad had written beside them.
