I sighed.
“Look, it doesn’t really matter. So what if he misses me? It’s his fault. I put myself out there, and since then, he’s removed himself from the picture. That text was the first I’d heard from him since homecoming.”
So I’d been right—somethingdidhappen.
But it wasn’t my place to ask.
“He reallydoesmiss you, though,” I murmured. Because I knew he did. Charlie was different now…uneasy, tired all the time, and thelight in his eyes dimmer than usual. I wondered if I was the only one who noticed it.
We walked in silence until reaching Brooks, where we would say goodbye for the night, since I was due to meet up with Nick on the golf course soon.
I gave Luke a hug. “Tonight was fun.”
“You fell asleep.”
I grinned. “Okay, so the movie wasn’t my favorite, but being with you is always fun.”
He grinned back. “You too, Sage. You make everything fun.”
It was like one of those staged, eye-roll-inducing scenes fromThe Bachelor: the girl squealing with excitement before flying into the guy’s welcoming arms and kissing him as passionately as possible. But I didn’t squeal, and any embarrassment vanished the second my legs locked around Nick’s waist and he stumbled before laughing into my hair. “Be gentle,” he said. “I’m barely hobbling around.” He kissed my neck. “Still sore from practices.”
“Oh, my poor captain,” I said back, and pulled back to cup his cold cheeks with my hands. We looked at each other, breath warm between us. And all of a sudden, I was blinking back tears. Maybe because the temperature had dropped, so tonight’s sixth-hole visit was probably our last, and definitely because I hadthiswhile Charlie… I remembered earlier, how pale his face had grown and how he couldn’t even look Luke in the eye. A lump formed in my throat. “I’m so happy to see you,” I whispered to Nick.
He grinned. “I’m so happy to see you too.”
Then we kissed.
We kissed slowly for a while until Nick laid me down on our blanket and I grabbed his Patagonia to pull him on top of me. “Lose it,” I breathed a few heartbeats later. “Lose the fleece.”
Soon my hands were running through Nick’s hair and his were under my shirt, fingers sparking on my skin. My heart—myheart.“You okay?” he murmured as we kissed, his lips leaving bursts of fire against mine. “You good?”
“Mmm-hmm,” I murmured back. “So, so good.”
Even though a part of me wasn’t.You shouldn’t be doing this,a voice said in the back of my mind.You really shouldn’t be doing this…
But I want to, I thought.I really, reallywant to.
Nick’s voice grew husky later, when jeans had been unbuttoned and unzipped and sweatpants slid off. “Have you ever done this before?” he asked as I pressed the sealed wrapper into his hand.
I shook my head. “No, never.”
“Me either,” he whispered, then coughed. “But I want to.”
Everything in me rippled. Because this was Nick—this wasNick Carmichael, the boy I grew up riding bikes with, the boy who gave me piggybacks, the boy I’d kissed by the bonfire.
The boy I suddenly imagined marrying someday.
“Me too.” I kissed him, as deeply as I could. “So let’s do it.”
The phone didn’t ring until afterward. Nick and I were fully entwined, with me wearing his Patagonia and him just in his oldsweats and long-sleeved T-shirt. Every few seconds he’d fake-shiver so I’d snuggle closer. “Nothing could be better,” he was saying softly. “This is the most epic night, with the most epic girl. I can’t wait for more nights like this…”
I smiled as my eyes drifted shut, but they snapped open at the sound. It was a recording of Charlie slur-singing “Dancing Queen” from last June. Reese had thrown a party at her family’s apartment in the city. “This one goes out to my favorite girl,” Charlie had said, so trashed but grinning so wide. “This one’s for you, Sagey Baby!”
I’d laughed then, but stayed quiet now. Nick held me close, and we let whoever it was go to voicemail.
But then Charlie began singing again, and a chill went through me. “I should get that,” I whispered. “Twice in a row…”
Nick groaned and released me after one more kiss. I crawled over to my discarded jacket and pulled my iPhone from its pocket.Charlie,the screen read.
