He laughed, and it only made him more handsome. His dark brown hair was tamed for the moment with product, his green eyes shined, and instead of the traditional black tuxedo, Tag had opted for a white dinner jacket. I swooned like a Bond girl. “Trust me, I’m no 007,” he said. “Since I believe it’syouwho has supplied our sweet ride.” He took my hand and escorted me to the golf cart. “Where are we going?”
Thanks to a test drive earlier, I knew the woodland trails were wide enough to accommodate our golf cart. It was a tight fit in some spots, pine branches brushing up against us and wheels bumping over the uneven terrain, but I squeezed the steering wheel in excitement. Tag didn’t know our destination; in fact, I’d blindfolded him with a scarf before we had left his dorm. “This smells like you,” he’d said, “so I’m notactuallycomplaining, but how long must I be shrouded in mystery?”
“Okay!” I now announced, slowing the golf cart to a stop and shifting it into park. “We’re here!” I stepped down to the ground and hurried around the hood so I could help Tag out of his seat. “Are you ready?”
He nodded eagerly, but after I untied the scarf and he blinked, his face dropped. “I knew we were in the woods,” he murmured, “but I thought you were taking the shortcut to the ropes course.” His throat bobbed. “Not bringing us to the sculpture sanctuary.” He gestured to the plank walkway, which I’dlined with paper luminaries. The sun hadn’t set yet, but it was dark enough under the trees. “I never thought you’d want to come back here.”
“Well, you thought wrong,” I told him. “I don’t care about Blair, Tag. I care aboutyou. I know you love this place; you’ve always loved it.” My cheeks warmed. “You even made a wish here sophomore year. We blew off watching the pre-prom and came here, and you tossed a penny in the fountain and wished to take me to prom. And while we’re not on a bus to Boston, I pulled a lot of strings to make it come true.” I gestured to the lighted path. “So if you don’t mind?”
“I don’t.” Tag shook his head. “Not one bit.”
I exhaled but then swiftly inhaled when he playfully threw me over his shoulder. He didn’t put me down until we’d reached the sanctuary itself. Buildings and Grounds had agreed to turn on the little landscape lights, which were apparently installed underneath the deck’s benches, as well as spotlights for all the artwork. I’d strung twinkly lights around the bubbling fountain and set a dinner table for two. Mrs. DeLuca had lent me the linens and created a flower arrangement for a centerpiece. And after a few swipes and taps on my phone, Spotify started drifting through my Bluetooth speaker. Music to add to the mood.
“This is happiness,” Tag said reverently. “Happiness, all because of you.”
My heart twinged. There was serious Tag and goofy Tag and thoughtful Tag and dorky Tag. However, there was alsosweet Tag. I’d missed him. “Are you hungry?” I asked. There hadn’t been time to cook a full-course meal, so Chinese takeout it was. We shared the various cartons that had been kept warm in Josh’s YETI, but I’d ordered an extra fried rice so Tag could have his own. “Tell me when it’s over,” I said, covering my eyes while he squirted ketchup all over the poor rice. “It’s disgusting.”
“It’s a religion,” he countered.
After dinner, Tag used his pump to bolus, and we speculated if Alex would pull a muscle on the dance floor before popping a bottle of bubbly. Nonalcoholic, of course.
Tag started humming once we’d at least had two flutes each, even tapping the table in tune. “Why not,junge Dame?” he asked when I shook my head. “We have the music.” He pointed at my speaker, then circled his finger around the hexagonal deck. “And this is a pretty good makeshift gazebo. It’s got benches and everything.”
I rolled my eyes. “Herr Swell, I am not reprising that role. It was two years ago. We weresixteen.”
He shrugged.
“Fine!” I exclaimed. “Fine, you queue it up while I take off these torturous shoes…”
Two minutes later, Tag and I had been transported back toThe Sound of Music. We both remembered the lyrics to “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” but we decided to skip the instrumental version so we could simply sing along and dance. Our choreography was a travesty. Rolf chased Liesl around the deck’sbenches before zapping her waist and running the other way while Liesl decided to launch herself on his back and rake her hands through his hair.
And the song was halfway through its second run by the time their kiss ended.
Tag was flushed when we broke apart, and my heart wanted to twirl out of my chest. He turned back to our table and picked up the fake champagne. “Do you want another glass?”
“Yes,” I breathed. “I do, but can we pour it somewhere else?”
We brought the bottle but not the glasses. Tag kept his hand on my knee as I drove us through the faculty neighborhood and haphazardly parked the golf cart in my driveway before we raced each other to the beach. I unbuckled my mom’s heels while Tag suspended the insulin delivery on his pump before wrapping the cannula cord around the device and stowing it in his shoe for safekeeping. “Ready?”
The pearlescent moon gleamed with glittering constellations circling the sky. “Thank you,” I said when Tag offered me the champagne. It might be nonalcoholic, but the drink still sent a special warmth through me. I could feel the fizz in my veins. Tag took a sip as we navigated our way through the sand toward tonight’s tide. The sea swirled, and we laughed while kicking up wet sand and running away before the cold watercould catch us. “Shitballs!” I exclaimed when I dropped the bottle, so I also dropped down before it could tip over and spill what liquid was left. I wanted us to drink it all and then put it next to our Chicago Marathon bottle on my bookcase.
Tag’s shoulder brushed mine when he collapsed next to me, and he had to shout over the incoming roar of the Atlantic. “What a stupid place to sit!”
I grinned. “Oh, but what a pretty place to fall!”
And then I fell backward and let the seawater wash over me. The ocean was so icy that my lungs shrieked with pain, but as quickly as the water came in, it left. I glanced at Tag; our eyes met in the moonlight, and we held each other’s gaze. Another wave had yet to crash, but I suddenly felt like I was going to sink and drown and die. “What a pretty place to fall,” he echoed after a moment, and that was it—I rolled on top of him, took his gorgeous face in my dripping hands, and kissed his salty lips before the ocean overtook us again. This time, I didn’t feel the cold cut through me, just Tag hooking his arm around me so we didn’t get separated.
If we were going to wind up shipwrecked somewhere, it needed to be the same island.
We didn’t last more than five minutes before our teeth started chattering.
With my mom and Josh at the prom, there was only one faint glimmer in my house—the fairy lights in my bedroom. Tag and I were caked in sand, but we didn’t stop to hose off atthe back spigot. We were too drunk on each other. “Towels,” Tag mumbled as we stumbled up the stairs in the dark, my legs locked around his waist and his strong hands splayed across my shoulder blades. “We should at least get towels.”
I kissed along his jawline. “They’re in the bathroom.”
“Really?” he asked, mouth on my collarbone. “The bathroom?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “The bathroom.”
