“Of course,” I agreed, incredibly touched that he’d shared all this with me. “And for the record, Luke Morrissey, I happen to thinkyou’rethe cat’s pajamas.”
He blushed.
“So tell me.” I grinned. “Do you like anyone?”
Luke adjusted his glasses. “Sorry, Sage, but you gotta give me a whole lot of maraschino cherries to get me to answer that one.”
Since Nick’s afternoon soccer game had been canceled along with all the others,Into The Woodshad become the main event.
“Okay, what’s this about?” my dad had asked once we’d snagged seats.
My mom was cradling a bouquet of roses for Charlie. “A crossover event with all the classic fairy-tale figures?”
Now after a spectacular musical, it was still downpouring, so everyone had retreated inside for the night. The girls and I were listening to Nina pluck out “Sparks Fly” on her guitar while rummaging through Reese’s nail polish basket.C’mon,Nick texted after I Snapchatted him some possible color choices.Come hang?
I sent him another color instead of a text. He wanted me to brave the rain to chill in Mortimer’s common room, but I couldn’t. No other girls would be there tonight. Even though I wanted to go, I knew it would just be me, and how obvious would that be?
Nick didn’t respond right away, so I locked my phone and applauded Nina before deciding on a blue Essie shade: “After School Boy Blazer.” I smiled—it was such a familiar color, so easy to picture Bexley boys in their coats and ties on special occasions. My phone didn’t buzz again until my second coat of polish was dry. Nick, again:Password?
With a winky-face emoji.
And there he was once I’d raced downstairs, standing outside the back door. Only Mortimer had a password, but our student IDs beeped us into just our own dorms.
“What’re you doing here?” I pushed open the door, shouting over the storm. Soaking wet, he was shivering on the stoop. “No umbrella?”
Nick didn’t say anything, pulling me in close. Raindrops dripped from his hair onto my cheeks. “I wanted to see you,” he said. “And you weren’t gonna come to me, so…”
I couldn’t help but grin. “You’re like the guy in that Taylor Swift song. The one who kisses her in the rain.”
Nick chuckled. “Which song?” He kissed my forehead. “She sings a lot about the rain.”
“Very true,” I agreed. Nick wasn’t shy about his devotion to Country Taylor. I took his arm to tug him upstairs. I’d text thegirls that Charlie had come over or something. They left us alone whenever he did.
But Nick hesitated. It was too late in the night to get parietal permission from my housemaster, so we’d get in trouble if he was caught in my room. Detention, for sure. Maybe even a Major (shorthand formajor school rule violation). “I don’t know, Morgan…”
“Oh, come on,” I said. “Charlie does it all the time, and nobody ever finds out.” I laughed. “Only one close call—Mrs. Butler knocked on my door, so he hid under my covers and I piled pillows on top of him.”
In the stairwell’s dim light, Nick’s jaw tightened.
I tugged him again. “We can watch a movie, and I havechocolate…”
“You do?” Nick had a huge sweet tooth.
“We made these ridiculously yummy pretzel-M&M things last night.”
“Mmm,” Nick said, groaning. “Those things are epic.”
“Yeah.” I kissed his neck. “Too bad they’re upstairs…”
We settled on my bed, backs against the wall with my laptop balanced on Nick’s knees and the Tupperware of goodies between us. His drenched Barbour was draped over my desk chair, and he’d shaken his hair like a golden retriever. I kept combing my fingers through his curls. Nick’s hair always got super curly when it rained.
“I can’t believe you’ve never seen this,” he said through a mouthful of pretzels and chocolate. “It’s a classic.”
Ever since Nick had revealed his love forSweet Home Alabama, we’d talked about our favorite rom-coms, and he’d been shocked to learn that I had no idea who Nancy Meyers was. “Are you serious?” he’d asked, eyes wide. “Nancy Meyers? She directedThe Parent Trap?”
“Well, yeah,” I said. “Of course I’ve seen that. The girls who feud at summer camp before discovering they’re twins, and then switch places to meet their other parent?” I smirked. “They also happen to be redheads…”
He chuckled. “Right, exactly.” He nodded, then cleared his throat. “Now how aboutThe Holiday?”
