I bit my lip. Part of me was tempted to ask if Connor watchedThe Bachelor, since this did kind of follow the famous one-on-one date formula, but most of me was too busy feeling like the luckiest girl in the world.
It was like a windowpane shattered in my head. Would any other guy planthisromantic an evening? If I’d let them?
Thinking so much about Annie tonight, I was starting to understand why I didn’t.
“Connor, it’s not like I’m leaving tomorrow…” I tried to joke before being hit by a sharp realization. “Oh my god, wait, my dad—”
“Don’t worry, he knows you’re here,” Connor said quickly. “I spoke with him.”
“You spoke with him?”
“Yeah, we had a talk yesterday.”
A talk.
Connor coughed. “It went well,” he assured me. “I said they were my specialty, remember?”
“Vividly, but I didn’t totally believe you…”
He put a hand to his wounded heart.
“Until now.”
Because any conversation must have gone well if I was allowed to be here overnight. I mean, Connor and I were camping together. Alone.
My dad wasn’t a romance reader, but had he really never heard of thetent trope?
Blushing hard and fast, I moved to unzip the tent flap. Pillows and sleeping bags were inside, as well as a smaller cooler with water bottles and a retro plaid thermos. “Did you make this too?” I asked Connor. My mouth watered when I unscrewed the lid to smell hot chocolate.
He nodded. “Lee’s recipe.”
“Lee?”
“One of Mads’s dads.”
“Ah.” Not wanting to think about Mads, or our tête-à-tête earlier, I suggested we sip while staring at the stars. Connor grabbed one of the tent’s thick wool blankets and spread it out on the grass before we snuggled together. “Hold on,” I said after a few minutes, wriggling away from him. “I need to get my phone. I want to take a video of this.”
The sky was so hypnotic tonight.
“So you can show Annie?” Connor guessed, his voice laced with an unfamiliar something. It sounded like sarcasm, but it couldn’t have been, right?
Just in case, I tossed my phone across the blanket once I’d captured the brilliant night sky on video. “This really is an incredible night,” I murmured, a montage playing in my mind. Our delicious dinner, the tractor ride, discovering Annie’s ties to Christian, and here and now with Connor.
“It is,” he whispered back. “I’ve never been so grateful to Erica.”
“Erica?” My eyelids fluttered when his hand slipped up the back of my sweatshirt, fingers dancing across my bare skin.
“Yeah,” he breathed. “She told me you love to camp.”
“Um…” I didn’t know what to say, because back in ninth grade, Erica had jokingly bought me an all-weather air mattress and a legitimate hot-water bottle for my mandatory freshmen camping trip.
My family knew I didn’t like to rough it.
Usually.
“Relax,” Connor said when I tensed. “I know she was bullshitting me.” He knocked his foot against mine. “I’ve met you, Olivia.”
My laughter was loud in the gentle night. “But you’re okay with that?” I asked as he resumed drawing circles on my skin. I melted into him again. “Her bullshitting you?”
