“Nope.”
“I’m sorry.”
I lift my head. Aisha smiles at me as she and Troy continue dancing, Todd and Simon are fighting over the last Cheeto, my parents are laughing at some private joke, and Katie is here, and it feels like things between us are back on level ground. This would be the perfect birthday, except for one glaring absence.
“Okay,” I say, rising to my knees. “Better warm up those vocal cords.”
Todd loses the Cheeto battle and looks over.
“What’s that?”
“Time to go,” Katie says, slapping his shoulder.
“Sick,” he says. “Time to show off my amazing voice.”
Simon cracks up. “Time for us to invest in earplugs.”
Todd shoves him in response and the two of them topple over, wrestling on the rug.
“Are we heading off?” Aisha asks.
I glance across the grass one more time, then with a breath I say, “Yep, let’s go.”
As I say those words, however, a warm familiar presence emerges from the deepening shadows, and I spin hopefully, not quite believing my eyes as they find Jasper, wandering across the grass, waving, looking fresh as hell in black jeans and a white tee. He smiles and waves, and the grin stretching across my face is so wide it might break my face.
Instantly I’m on my feet running toward him.
“Oomf!” He grunts as I crash into him, but his strong arms hold me as we kiss hello.
“Where have you been?”
He grins mischievously. “I wanted to surprise you.” He lifts his eyebrows. “Surprise.”
I press my lips together trying to act unimpressed but too happy to stop the grin.
“You bonehead,” I say.
He licks his lips and says, “Happy birthday,” then plants a serious kiss on mine.
When he’s done wishing me happy birthday in a physical sense, I take his hand and make to head over to the group. “Come on, we were just about to pack up and head downtown.”
“Wait up.” He pulls me back to him with one hand while the other retrieves an envelope from his back pocket. “This is for you.”
He hands me the blank envelope. I glance up at him questioningly, then pull out two airline tickets.
“What is this?” I ask, studying the destination. Jasper has given me two tickets for a flight departing from JFK and landing at LAX. “California?”
“My family has a house out in Joshua Tree. The nearest neighbor is miles away. I thought we could take a couple of weeks to hang out there, just us—away from everything else, like you said. We could go camping, hike, sleep out under the stars.”
“That sounds…” I’m too bewildered to finish my sentence.
“What?” he asks, looking suddenly worried. “Is it okay? If you don’t like it we can go somewhere else. This is just the most peaceful place I know.”
“No,” I say. “I—I love it. This is perfect.”
“It is?” When did he get so adorably unsure?
“It is,” I say. “Let’s run away.”
