Page 81 of On One Condition

“Don’t you worry about my ego. It’s doing just fine.” I flop back onto the ground, look up at the stars like she is, and huff. “You’re no fun.”

Crickets chirp all around us and beetles make their distinct clicking sound, but the only thing I really hear is Asher’s even breathing beside me.

Feeling slightly and ridiculously dejected because she won’t tell me, I fall quiet.

“I wished that I’d get a chance to make my mark somehow.” I’m just about to ask what she means when she continues, her voice barely audible. “That people will look at me and admire me, what I’ve done, what I’ve made of myself instead of looking at me and feeling sorry for me because I’m Lydia Wells’s, the town floozy’s, daughter.”

Her voice breaks, and it fucking kills me. I’ll never understand how she feels because we’re polar opposites. Whereas she has pressure weighing on her because people expect nothing from her, I have it because they expect too damn much from me.

We’re from completely different worlds, and yet somehow . . . we work.

“Ash.” I lean back up on my elbow and run a hand up and down her arm. I don’t even know what to say. How to respond.

She shakes her head and musters a smile I don’t believe. “It was stupid. Forget I said anything.”

“No. It’s important,” I murmur and press a kiss to her lips. “And I want you to know I already do look at you like that.” Another kiss. “You are Asher Wells, my lavender girl, and maker of her own destiny.”

Then another one.

And later when we see another shooting star, I make my own wish: for Asher’s wish to come true.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Asher

“Did you see it?” Ledger asks, his free hand pointing to the sky as a star streaks across it before burning itself out.

We’re lying on the blanket. His arm is wrapped around me with my head resting on his arm. Two bottles of wine have been consumed, a charcuterie has been devoured, and we’re both just soaking in the tranquility of the evening. Of the perfection he created in bringing me here tonight.

“I did,” I murmur.

“Are you going to make a wish? I seem to remember you were quite big on that back in the day.”

My smile is bittersweet. What’s is like to be young and naïve and think the world will treat you like you deserve?

“I think I’m too old to make wishes, Ledge.”

“What? No. You’re never too old for wishes”—he squeezes his arm around me—“or dreams. You need to make one.”

I feel silly but close my eyes and scrunch up my nose anyway.

But I remember that last wish I made. And how not long after Ledger up and left Cedar Falls abruptly—once I’d given myself to him—and the gossip that burned through town in the days and weeks to come. That Ledger had gotten what he’d wanted from this small-town girl before going back to his hot, socialite girlfriend. That I’d ruined the summer for every other girl there who’d had their sights set on Callahan and Ford because they’d left too. That I was trash just like my mom, trying to screw my way up because I’d never amount to anything otherwise, so I deserved the cruel words and harsh judgment. I’d earned it like a badge. And I’d proved them right—I’d never amount to anything.

And yet, with my eyes clenched shut, I wish.

I wish that this were real. I wish this never had to end. I wish the same wish as I did before, fifteen years ago.

When I open my eyes, he’s still there, still looking at me like he did back then. But this time, there’s something more in his eyes. Adoration. Lust. Respect. Desire. Hope.

Important things for any woman to see. To know that someone feels that way when they look at her.

I reach out and cup the side of his face, needing to touch him. Needing to know he really is real.

He turns his face into my hand and presses a kiss on my palm. Be still my heart.

I rise onto my knees, his eyes narrowing and full of curiosity as he watches me lean forward and press a kiss to his lips.

He tastes of the wine we just drank and the certainty that I need as I slowly move to straddle him while I deepen the kiss.