Page 138 of I Wish You All the Best

“Yee haw.” He can’t stop laughing while he tips the invisible hat, and then his face settles. The way he’s looking at me warms me from the inside out, and part of me wants to cry and the other part wants to laugh and all of me wants him to look at me this way forever. Then he opens his mouth again. “What about my person?”

“Your person.” I like the way the words sound. On his lips and to my ears.

“My Ben.” Nathan leans in, kissing the top of my hand, and all at once my heart feels so full. Maybe we’ll only have three months of this, but it’s going to be a damn good three months. “Things might be hard, when I go to UCLA. Do you still want to do this?”

“Yes,” I say, and I’ve never been more sure of anything else.

I take a deep breath and relax into his touch. God, I can’t even have a night with this boy without worrying about the future, can I? “Is that what you want this to be? Us together? For however long it lasts?”

“I’m not going to be perfect. With the pronouns. I’ll go ahead and admit that, but I’m going to try my hardest to remember.”

“Thank you.” He’s been nothing but perfect so far though.

“I don’t want you to be afraid to correct me, okay? Please. I don’t want to hurt you. Never again. Not if I can help it.”

“I will.” I don’t make myself any promises, but for him I think I’d do almost anything. “And we’ll figure it out. When you leave in August. Maybe I can visit you.” If this project with Mariam pans out, I can probably afford to go every few months.

“Guess that’s why you’re my person, huh?” He wraps his arms around me and pulls me in as close as he can. “We’ll figure it out,” he repeats.

“We’ll have to figure a lot of things out, won’t we?”

“Yeah.” His grip on me tightens. “But at least we can do it together, right?” He leans in and kisses me again, and I never want him to stop.

“Come on, lovebirds!” Meleika screams from across the parking lot. We should hurry. It’s the last day of summer break and everyone knows it, because the parking lot is flooded with cars. I can’t even imagine how the beach looks right now.

But I don’t want to move, because I don’t want this to end.

“What’s wrong?” Nathan asks me, his hands moving to the back of my head, playing with the tie that’s keeping my hair up.

I swallow. “I’m going to miss you.”

“Please.” He rolls his eyes and leans in close to me. “You’re Ben-ing again.”

“I’m ‘Ben-ing’?” Since when am I a verb?

“Hey, you got that right.” He laughs, the corners of his mouth poking up, and my heart flutters. Every single damn time. “You’re worrying about nothing.”

I glance toward Sophie and Meleika. They’re waiting at the ramp that’ll take us down to the beach. The God-awful sand. But Nathan wanted to go. Just as one last hurrah, we’d driven down to Emerald Isle in the hopes that the crowds might’ve died down a little.

Different oceans, I guess. Technically. Definitely different sand.

“What are you smiling at?” he asks.

“Nothing.” I look over at him, at that grin I fell in love with, and those brown eyes. “I’m still going to miss you,” I say again.

He rolls his eyes, grinning like a fool. “Come on, it’s one day.”

“I know, but it’s one day I won’t see you. An entire day without Nathan Allan.”

“Ben-ing,” he repeats. “Though I suppose I’d be sad too if I had to go a day without this face.”

“Hate you.”

“Love you too.” He leans over and kisses me. “It’s your fault, anyway. It’s what you get for booking your flight late.”

“Shut up.” I kiss him again. “You’re the one who distracted me, so really it all goes back to you.”

Nathan sighs and rolls his eyes. “Just like everything else.”